CakeMom’s first wedding cake was beautiful.

I think we all have boxed cakes in our past.  I have had a lot of fun with them for my two boys’ birthdays.  Here are some pictures of past birthday cakes.  Just for fun.  Heresy, I know.  But looking at them now, I think “Hmmm.  Wouldn’t fondant have made that look really neat?”  Especially the lego blocks and car.

Maybe a lego redux is in order.

From Outside of the Box,

JennyBee

I love the lego cake, and my favorite is the star wars which is a very creative way of using 2 squares plus a round for the death star or was this a custom shape wilton pan?

The Lego blocks are my favourite. You did a great job carving the car.

I love the Lego blocks, too!  They’re such an iconic kids’ toy, everyone has them at some point.  I now wish my daughter was younger just so I could make a Lego cake, too!

Best,
Julie

The lego cake is my fav too.  How did you make the hump thingies… oreos?

I am so glad you like them.

Hector;  No, that is not a Wilton pan.  It is two 8” squares and a 6” round.  I intersected the squares and the round.  It made a really neat shape, but just try to fit it on anything.  I happened to have that square of plexiglass leftover from a household project.  It makes a great display plate for large cakes.  It just blends into the table.

Julie;  How old is your daughter.  The lego cake was for my son’s eighth birthday.  All of his friends are lego freaks, and probably will be for some time.

Patrincia;  The lego bumps are rounds cut from a thin cake.  Mini muffins would have been tapered, and I wanted straight sides.  I didn’t even have a biscuit cutter the right size, so I made a cutter out of a plastic play-dough can.  Icing them was the real challenge.  I ended up melting the canned frosting and kind of enrobing them.  What a mess.

Thank you, again.

JennyBee

What great cakes!  (and thanks for the kind plug on my wedding cake, too)  I like the legos a lot!  I thought about doing that once, but got overwhelmed thinking I would do a bunch of small Twinkie-sized cakes and build this big masterpiece, but thought better of it later.

The Star Wars cake is really creative.  I am sure he loved it.  I know how difficult it is to get that “Showroom shine” on a car cake with icing and not fondant, too.  You did a really great job.

My 8-year old boy loves Star Wars, so I did a full-sized Storm Trooper head for his last birthday.  I don’t think he’ll be out of Star Wars any time soon.  My 3-year old boy loves trains and I’ve done a few carved trains for him and others.  Sometimes it’s easier just starting out with stacked sheet cake than using a shaped pan.  Do you find that to be true?

Not that I don’t love shaped pans, I usually find them at the Thrift Store with big grandiose ideas, but end up hanging them up on the wall as decorations.  My 1-year old girl has several pans to choose from but will probably end up looking at the pans and getting a carved cake instead. 

Thanks for sharing your cakes and your old mix habits too!

The only shaped pan that wasn’t just a basic shape (heart, etc.) I’ve really put effort into was the 3D snowman pan that Williams Sonoma sells.  I made it once, from a box, and did the star tip icing and everything.  (It was hard to get it to stick together while standing up).  But for the most part, everything just comes from sheet cakes.

The police car is cut and stacked.  The wheel ended up coming from cupcakes that I had just made to use up the extra batter.  I was glad to have them.

When I conceived the lego, I was thrilled to discover that an 8x8x2 inch cake divided into the correct proportions of lego.  I just cut the cakes appropriately and then iced them in the different colors.  Stacking as I went.  The dots were the biggest challenge.  That and that I didn’t account for the thickness of the icing.  The blocks don’t line up exactly.  But the kids didn’t care.  (I did.  I’m a perfectionist-procrastinator.  Isn’t that a great combination?)

The dinosaur was just cut out of a big cake using a paper pattern.  I had to piece the tail, and it’s really big.

I have many shaped pans.  Mini Bundts, shells, dinosaurs (small ones), hearts, eggs.  I just picked up a daisy shaped one on sale. But, for the most part, they are the dickins to clean. (even the good nonstick NordicWare ones).

If you have an idea, just go for it.  Why wait to find out if someone else has thought of it first, and mass-produced a special pan?  Run with the vision!  Be surprised and delighted with things that just come to you while you are making it.  Improvise, be creative. 

Keep on Bakin’,

JennyBee

(I guess I’ll go finish up that birthday cake for tomorrow’s party.)