jack jacks birthday cake...

so... jack recently turned 4 on july 9th (HURRAY!!), and for months he had been going back and forth about what kind of cake he wanted... from dump truck, to pirate ship, to castle... the list goes on and on... finally he settled on a sand castle cake... now... here's the thing... i've never done anything of this capacity before... i was debating wether or not to use fondant, or go the more traditional route... i'm not a huge fan of fondant, but i found a recipe for marshmellow fondant, so i figured if i was going to use fondant that would be the way to go... anyways... i opted to go traditional... 2 reasons... # 1: i need to practice with fondant, and #2: i just didnt have the time...

anyways... i had all these ideas swimming around in my brain... and i just couldn't decide on the overall look... i knew right away what flavors and textures i would be using... but as for shape and design i was at a loss... then i happened across a picture from last summer... jack and a sand castle he had made down here at the beach in cape may... and it dawned on me... i'm making a cake, a childs' cake and i want it to look like something you would see at the beach... very simple design, like straight out of a regular old beach pail... so that's what i did... do i wish i could have dome more... of course... to me this cake screamed ameteur and was in need of a makeover... but you know what... my comfort zone is cupcakes, and if i'm going to make in this buisness i have to start branching out... get more creative and start to test puch myself...

so heres what i decided on for flavors... i went with a simple yet overly yummy vanilla cake... the filling was a smooth and creamy chocolate truffle mousse, and was covered with a french vanillabean buttercream... the sand texture was a combination of crushed animal crackers, golden vanilla oreos and graham crackers... i chose to use three different kinds because it really gave a contrast of sandy colors, like actual sand... plus... i just couldn't decide which would be tastier :-)

i decided to top the castle with cupcakes baked into icecream cones, which by the way, i noticed became quite popular again recently... so anyways, each cupcake was topped with a heaping swirl of colored vanilla buttercream, giving the top of the castle cute and colorful spires...

here's the work in progress...

the dirty icing layer....

sanding the castle...

and as jack would say... "TA- DAHHH!"

sweet wishes there birthday boy...