Crafty Stuff ~ Birthday cake

It was really important to me to make Ashlyn’s birthday cake. I love to bake, and I was thinking for months about what to make for her. She loves carrots, and I have an awesome carrot cake recipe, so that was a no-brainer. We did her room in a “sea” theme so I thought a turtle would be fun and not too difficult. I just wasn’t sure how it would translate from my head to reality.

I made the cake the way I usually do, then poured most of the batter into a greased glass bowl. I figured the shell would be a lot easier if it was already round instead of having to carve it down! The rest of the batter went into 3 smaller glass bowls, to be used for the head and flippers. I baked them forever! The big bowl took a lot longer than I thought and I was getting nervous that it was going to burn, but it worked out. After letting the cakes cool until the bowls weren’t hot any more, I pried them out of the bowls and left them on the rack to finish cooling. They went in the fridge overnight.

The next day was putting on the cream cheese icing. I did a crumb coat first, which is something I just learned about. Basically, it’s a thin layer of icing that you do first to catch all of the crumbs. Pop the cakes back in the fridge for about 15 minutes to chill the icing, then do the “good” coat. This went back in the fridge overnight.

I did the detail work the morning of the party. First I sprinkled a bit of cocoa powder on the shell to give it a bit of detail. I piped some darker cream cheese icing to create the “shell” pattern, and to give the turtle a smile. Add two chocolate chips for eyes and you’ve got a sweet cake for a sweet girl!

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