Emily celebrated her third birthday this weekend and made a few special birthday requests. She wanted presents, a party hat, a purple cake, and purple balloons.
I headed over to Michael’s and got the supplies to make this cake. I baked a white cake (using the white cake mix from Aldi) and baked it in a 9×13″ pan. While the cake baked, I made two batches of frosting. I tinted one cup of frosting white, two cups yellow, and three cups purple.
I let the cake cool and then popped it in the freezer (I froze mine overnight). In the morning, I put on a layer of yellow frosting and then piped rosettes as a border on the cake. The top was then covered in purple rosettes and then sprinkled generously with rainbow sprinkles.
To make the rosettes, I used a 1M tip bought at Michael’s. If you desire a smaller size rosette, you can use a #18 tip, which would be great for cupcakes or adding a little addition to your border.
To make a rosette, fill your piping bag with icing. Hold your bag at a 90 degree angle, with the tip slightly above the surface. Squeeze out the icing to form a star and without releasing pressure, move the tip in a tight complete rotation, starting at 9:00, moving to 12:00, then to 3:00, then 6;00, and then end it back at 9:00. Stop the pressure and lift your tip away. To see how to make these in pictures, I found this great little tutorial. If you want to fancy up the rosettes, you can add a dot in the center in a contrasting color.
I am no pro at cake decorating, but I have found the cake decorating classes offered by craft stores to be an invaluable tool to help me feel more confident in making birthday cakes for my children. It has really helped when my kids have come up with more unusual cake requests (like a Lego cake, for example) and it has saved us a lot of money over the years.
Here is the recipe for the frosting that I used for this cake!
Buttercream Frosting Recipe
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar (approximately 1 pound)
2 tablespoons milk
Cream the butter and shortening with an electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all the sugar has been mixed in, the icing will appear dry. add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. (Yields 3 cups). Store icing in the refrigerator when not in use. Rewhip before using.
For Chocolate Buttercream Icing: Add 3 oz. melted unsweetened chocolate and 1 tablespoon more milk to the Buttercream Icing recipe.
For Stiffer Frosting (if needed when decorating): Substitute all vegetable shortening and 1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring.
Do you make birthday cakes or opt to buy them? What are some ways you save money on birthday celebrations?
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13 Responses to “Lovely Little Birthday Cake”
It’s so cute – happy birthday, Emily!
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I love coming up with creative ways to celebrate birthdays. I normally start months prior gathering items up on sale or at thrift stores. Last year I did a Curious George monkey theme. http://tinyurl.com/9at9bs I have to start for his 4th coming up. Love the piping job on the cake, me and piping frosting never seem to turn out, I know it is practice that makes perfect but I am more of a smear it all over kind of mom. Looks wonderful, I am sure she was delighted.
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I’m so glad you said the frosting was purple. On my computer it looks grey and I couldn’t understand that. LOL.
This is what we do: http://www.lifeasmom.com/2008/05/bake-your-cake-and-eat-it-too.html
The kids love it and so do I, actually. It’s a great creative outlet that saves us a ton of money.
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Ha! Well, the color didn’t translate through film, but I swear it was purple
We had an ice storm though so I wasn’t able to run to the store to get purple. We had to do some mixing so it wasn’t as purple as I would have liked, but we were thankful we had colors to mix together 
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I make my own birthday cakes…or cupcakes. For my son’s second birthday he wanted a Curious George cake. I went online and found a picture of George traced it on parchment paper, placed it on the cake and used a toothpick to poke holes for the outline. It turned out really cute. You can check it out here: http://vanmaanens.blogspot.com/2008/03/birthday-cake.html
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I’m a cake baker for birthdays – and any other reason =) I love baking, and I especially love decorating them.
I save money by shopping for my shaped pans at Goodwill. Unless there’s a reason for a particular shape (my son requested Lightning McQueen for his last birthday – and thankfully wants it again this year), I can build up my pan “library” for about $2-3 a pan rather than the $15-25 they sell for from Wilton.
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If possible, I like to opt for an alternative to cake when birthdays roll around…because we prefer pie, cheesecake, and ice cream sundaes in our house.
If I am going to make cake, I usually make cupcakes because they’re “pretty” and are exceptionally easy to serve.
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We usually make the cakes/cupcakes. For our oldest's 6th birthday, we had a party and I bought ice cream cakes from Meijer. Pillsbury has several kinds (Meijer had a 1/2 off sale) so I was able to get different kinds and cheaper than buying a single ice cream cake (or close anyway!). It was nice to not have to worry about cake AND ice cream for our park party.
We sometimes spell out Happy Birthday [name] with M&Ms.;
[Yes, the 6th birthday was the first and ONLY birthday party we have done. You do have a choice!
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I took a cake decorating class at Michael’s a few years back. It was a lot of fun! My coworkers and family also liked it since they got to enjoy my “homework”. I even decorated a cake for my friend’s son’s engagement party. What an honor! I haven’t practiced in a while, but with C’s 2nd bday in Feb, I might have to break out the tips. Your rosettes look great!
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Happy Birthday, Emily!!!
I love the cake too! Good tip on freezing it. I see the shows do that and always thought it was probably a smart idea.
And, I have always bought our cakes each year (surprise, surprise) but since I’m feeling ambitious I think I’ll make our next birthday cake – poor middle child always getting the short end of the stick, especially with this experiment
Do you have any faves on the piping thingies (they probably have a real name – see I need help
? I’m assuming Michael’s would have a few options for me.
Great post and recipe on the icing too!!
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Happy birthday to your sweet girl!
p.s. I’m sure you can’t GUESS whether or not I bake or do store bought…ahem.
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MamaOnABudget- That is a great tip! You know, sometimes cake decorating/bakery supplies places will also let you rent out character pans. There is a place here that I have heard that does that. I also try to find stuff at Goodwill. I found a bunny shaped pan at Goodwill and snatched it up. My daughter’s favorite thing in the world is her bunny so I will be using that next year and it will be a great Easter investment too. For only $2 to boot!
Andrea- I will round-up a list of ideas for piping and share those with you guys. I am not the best at decorating- I have many friends who are far better, but I can get by with my limited skill set. My cakes were HORRIBLE for my class. I was so embarrassed. The fact that I can frost now and not have chunks of cake in the frosting is a gosh darn miracle
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Purple and yellow is a cute palette. Have you seen the 3d bear pans at Michaels? I just made one a few weeks ago and it was really cut–time consuming–but cute! For my daughter’s 4th birthday in June she’s decided on a Halloween theme and we’re using a bundt cake pan, putting a barbie type doll in the middle and decorate the doll and the cake to be a witch. Should be fun!
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