The Detective Party, Part Two: Cake

On lazy rainy days my children and I (my husband thinks we're crazy) like to pass the time by watching cake decorating on YouTube.  We've been inspired by cakes ranging from complicated guitars to relatively easy animal cupcakes.  After you've watched some 30 + videos, you start to believe anything is possible. They make it look so easy!


So armed with a myriad of tips -let the cake cool at least an hour before removing it from the pan, make paper patterns of desired shape, use a serrated knife to cut around patterns, do a crumb coat (1st layer of frosting), then put it in the freezer for several hours and finally put on a second layer of frosting- I felt brave enough to give it a go.

My son's party "The Case of the Stolen Magical Trophy" took them on a two hour scavenger hunt in which they found clues and solved riddles in an effort to find the trophy.  The birthday cake was the trophy so it really had to be a finale.  I was a little worried that there might be mutiny if it were not.


I made a pattern and bought some extra bits of this and that, like edible glitter and diamonds.  It had to sparkle!


With the outside of the cake taken care of, I wanted there to be a surprise when the cake was cut.  About a year ago, we stumbled across a video in which a girl shows how to make rainbow  cupcakes.  They looked amazing!  You can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKvSvvOwbTQ

I decided to try it out in a cake pan.  The effect was more tie dyed than rainbow but I was satisfied nonetheless. 

The kids' oohs and aahs when they saw their long awaited reward was worth the extra effort!  Plus, I was pretty happy that my head was still intact.