Tara's Cake...

Two years ago during my first semester as a real college student at YSU I had a class. I remember writing a paper for this class saying that I wanted to be an entrepreneur simply because I did not know what to categorize myself as. If I recall correctly I got a decent grade on the paper. Even back then I was obsessed with Martha Stewart, you can tell because I used her book The Martha Rules as one of my references.
Stewart, M. (2005). The Martha rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start,
build, or manage a business. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Books.

It turns out that my instructor back then currently takes classes with my partner Brian and he is always telling her about my baked goods. Her son's birthday party is today and she asked if I would be interested in making him a dinosaur birthday cake. I had previously never created any type of themed cake or anything other than a round or square one so I was up for the challenge.

Well I finished the cake this morning. Have a look....

I used two cakes one 9x13 rectangle cake and an 8 inch round cake, both of them were Martha Stewart's one-bowl chocolate cake recipe.


I made Billy's chocolate buttercream (which is delicious and easy). In between the layers of the cake I put chocolate buttercream and homemade caramel sauce! YUM!


The quick ice tip is one icing tip that I can not live without. It makes frosting a cake much easier and ensures an even application of frosting.


I know it looked a mess in the picture above, here is the cake after I smoothed the frosting out.


I used a round cake to create a waterfall on top of the rectangle cake. When people see cakes like these they think that there is just a big mound of frosting inside, but it is actually cake!


I carved out the waterfall before I put the waterfall on top.


I frosted the round cake and then made white buttercream for the water. I wanted to have a dinosaur inside of the pond on the bottom so I had to carve out a hole for that (which Nicole eagerly ate).


I then used a leaf tip and a regular round tip to create foliage, snakes, vines and a border around the cake. One thing that Connie (my internship supervisor taught me was to use scraps. I crumbled cake around the top of the cake to make a rough terrain and then mounded some into boulders at the bottom of the waterfall.












I hope they like the cake and I am excited for their reaction. I am not excited about cleaning up the kitchen....