Cake Decorating Tips

Do many of you have the same problems with frosting cake as I do? I always try to frost it and end up churning the cake up right into my frosting. It's so frustrating. My sister-in-law, Kaleena, is an awesome cake decorator and shared these tips with me.

1. Be sure you have good cake pans. It's worth the extra money for the non-stick cake pans to make sure your cake doesn't stick. It's much easier to frost when it's smooth.
2. Freeze cake for an hour or two before frosting.
3. Use a cake decorating spatula. It just makes the job easier.
4. Use plenty of frosting, usually about two pillsbury containers per one box of cake mix. Just gob it on there and then you're essentially just pushing the frosting around to cover the cake.
5. After spreading frosting around, dip knife into cold water to smooth out frosting all over cake.

These tips helped me, so I thought they might help you too. Good Luck!

Pirate Ship Cake

I was so proud of myself for making this cake for Jakey's first birthday. I'm not a great "baker" and my cakes never turn out, so I pretty much gave up on them a long time ago. I've never made Hailee a birthday cake, I always buy them or have someone else make them for me. I decided I'm going to start trying to make my own kids birthday cakes. You know, just one of those things that makes me feel like a better mom, as irrational as that may be. Anyway, I loved how this one turned out!
It was actually pretty simple. I got the idea on the internet and then made some improvisations. Here are the steps:

1. Bake cake according to package directions in two round cake pans.
2. While cake is baking, frost the bottom of a cookie sheet with blue frosting for the water and position Swedish Fish and/or Gummy Sharks around.
3. When cake is cool, cut each circle in half.
4. Use frosting to "glue" each half circle together to make a boat shape. Cut a tiny bit off the bottom so it will stand upright.
5. Frost the top and sides and transfer to frosted cookie sheet.
6. Use "pirrohette" cookies around the edges of the top to form a "wooden railing". Pipe more frosting around the top of the cookies to add a second layer of cookies.
7. Insert Swiss Rolls or Ho Ho's with straws into the side of the ship to form "cannons".
8. Punch holes into white cardstock and slide a straw through to form the "sails".
9. Decorate the top of the cake with a pile of Nestle Treasures for "treasure chests", a pile of Whoppers for "cannon balls" and toy pirate figurines. I also put a pirate bracelet across the front for decoration.

Just have fun with it and good luck!

Gazpacho

I have always loved Gazpacho and there are tons of recipes out there for it, but this one is official. I got this recipe from my sister-in-law, Kaleena. Her family is from Spain and this is the recipe her Grandma makes. If you don't know what Gazpacho is, it's a cold soup that tastes similar to salsa. There aren't exact measurements, so you just have to do it to taste, but with the delicious ingredients in here it wouldn't matter what the ratio's were, it would still taste good.

2 Medium Tomatoes
1/4 Green Pepper
1/2 Cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 Clove Garlic
1 Serving of hard French Bread, soaked in water
2-3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2-3 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
Water to your thickness

Mix all ingredients in a blender and serve in a bowl or cup.