something new....

This past July we celebrated my oldest son's 3rd birthday!  My Hubby found instructions on how to make a dinosaur cake on instructables.com ......naturally I said, "oh, that's sounds fun"!  So I decided to make the cake for the birthday party.  After fervently searching online for a cake and icing recipe that would be perfect for the situation, a trip to the grocery store, and actually starting to work on the cake....I turned to my Hubby and said, "do you have any idea how long this is going to take me?"  Slightly frustrated by this time, I decided to continue with the process.  I told myself, "focus Laurie, I can do this!"  The Hubby was super encouraging along the way....thanks babe!  Here's a few pictures from the beginning of the process:

Starting to cut the cake!  I was super nervous and sweating.  Praying to God that this would work right because if it didn't I would have to start all over.  And I didn't have time for that!  I didn't want to have to figure something else out at the last minute.

It worked!  So I started assembling the pieces.  Whew!  I was starting to feel somewhat relieved at this point, thinking maybe I wasn't so crazy after all for undergoing this process!

Cutting the cake and assembling it was easy!!!  It's starting to look like a dinosaur, right?  Blythe was getting very curious at this point as to what I was doing!

Icing the crumb coat!

Now comes the hard part!  AND I MEAN HARD!!!  The cake had really been easy up to this point despite my thinking it was going to be a flop!  This was the first time I have ever attempted a cake of this nature.  About the time this picture was taken I was seriously thinking I was going to have to go buy a cake for the party or take an unfinished dinosaur cake to the party!  It took way longer than anticipated to do the green icing!  And I really didn't think I was going to finish in time!

Doing the final touches.  This sure was cutting it close!  This was less than two hours before the party, we weren't completely ready to leave the house yet, and will still had an almost hour drive to get to the party location.  Talk about intense!!!  To add to that, the almost hour drive was in the heat of the day (and it was HOT that day), the cake riding in my lap and in the direct sunlight......not exactly good things!  Can you tell yet that Blythe's birthday crept up on me this year?  I might would have forgot until the very last minute if it wasn't for my Hubby!

Thank the Lord the cake made it to the party....but only 10 minutes before the party was supposed to start!  Whew!  The chaos was behind me and we were all able to enjoy the cake and the party!  By the way, I was pretty proud of myself when it was all said and done, especially with it being my first cake like this!

I think it's a winner!!!  YAY!  And might I add, when Blythe found out I was making him a dinosaur cake for his birthday he was just beside himself with excitement!  It was great!


So the overall verdict:  It was easy except the green icing, it was a ton of fun to make despite some of my intensity's, but it took forever to make!  Would I do it again......maybe!


Oh, and also the cake and icing were delish, seriously!  It was the first time I had ever used the recipes but it was perfect!  So here they are in case you want to try...you don't have to make the dinosaur cake!  Just a side note.....I think the cake recipe would also be great just made as a layer cake with a ganache  poured over the top!  ....just sayin


Anyway, here it is:

The cake:

Ingredients

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two nine inch round pans.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Stir in the boiling water last. Batter will be thin. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

And the icing:  ......this is a buttercream frosting

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
• 8 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Let me just say folks...OH, SO, VERY, GOOD!  This chocolate cake recipe will be the basic for me from now on.  It was quick, easy, moist, and yummy!

The recipes came from allrecipes.com