... or how not to. ;)
Paige loves French things. Her eyes light up every time she hears the words Eiffel Tower, and she loves poodles. I hadn't put two and two together until she picked out her cake the other day.
The girl doesn't like chocolate. At all. I wasn't about to try to bake a cake from scratch, so we visited a few go-to cake makers... Dunken Hines and Betty Crocker. Paige was about to settle for Confetti Cake when she stumbles across a (gasp) FRENCH VANILLA flavor. So I shimmied out to the store to buy her a box of French Vanilla cake mix.
Bake the cake per the instructions on the box, unless you're clever and have a better way. I used teensy circle pans and made two small cakes so I could layer them. Being careful not to break your cake, take it out of the pan and cut the curvy top off the cake. The top was moist (as per the box cover). The sides and bottom, however, were not. User error, I suspect.
Set your teensy cakes aside, and use the left over batter to make cupcakes, using your daughters favorite cupcake papers.
If you're super smart, you can come up with a use for your moist cake tops. I'm not super smart (in a domestic sense) so I will regrettably toss them out. Or sneak them to the dogs and hope they don't get sick.
Find your fancy icing tool thing. Use it to scoop the icing out of the icing containers, or save it for giving the birthday girl her nine spankings.
Grab two containers of Betty Crocker frosting...not because it tastes better, but because they have TWO box tops on each tub. It's all about the kids, after all.
Scoop the icing into your mixer.
Add nine drops of blue food coloring (because that's how old your kid is).
Then add a bunch more until you get the color you want.
Stack your dry icky cakes and put a nice sloppy coat of blue icing on them.
Make smaller than intended rosettes on your cake. Stop part way through to put the cake and icing in the fridge since your kitchen is hot and your rosettes get droopy.
Hide your disappointment in your domestic inadequacy.
Then sit back, paste a smile on your face, and hope your daughter appreciates the effort :)
Paige loves French things. Her eyes light up every time she hears the words Eiffel Tower, and she loves poodles. I hadn't put two and two together until she picked out her cake the other day.
The girl doesn't like chocolate. At all. I wasn't about to try to bake a cake from scratch, so we visited a few go-to cake makers... Dunken Hines and Betty Crocker. Paige was about to settle for Confetti Cake when she stumbles across a (gasp) FRENCH VANILLA flavor. So I shimmied out to the store to buy her a box of French Vanilla cake mix.
Bake the cake per the instructions on the box, unless you're clever and have a better way. I used teensy circle pans and made two small cakes so I could layer them. Being careful not to break your cake, take it out of the pan and cut the curvy top off the cake. The top was moist (as per the box cover). The sides and bottom, however, were not. User error, I suspect.
Set your teensy cakes aside, and use the left over batter to make cupcakes, using your daughters favorite cupcake papers.
If you're super smart, you can come up with a use for your moist cake tops. I'm not super smart (in a domestic sense) so I will regrettably toss them out. Or sneak them to the dogs and hope they don't get sick.
Find your fancy icing tool thing. Use it to scoop the icing out of the icing containers, or save it for giving the birthday girl her nine spankings.
Grab two containers of Betty Crocker frosting...not because it tastes better, but because they have TWO box tops on each tub. It's all about the kids, after all.
Scoop the icing into your mixer.
Add nine drops of blue food coloring (because that's how old your kid is).
Then add a bunch more until you get the color you want.
Stack your dry icky cakes and put a nice sloppy coat of blue icing on them.
Make smaller than intended rosettes on your cake. Stop part way through to put the cake and icing in the fridge since your kitchen is hot and your rosettes get droopy.
Hide your disappointment in your domestic inadequacy.
Then sit back, paste a smile on your face, and hope your daughter appreciates the effort :)
