Barnyard Cake

I can’t believe that my tiny little boy is already 2! I still remember how little my baby was. He was just as big as 1 ltr pepsi bottle. Most of you already know that my lill boy was born 5 weeks earlier than the due date. Today my super active toddler is all grown up & running all around. He has already mastered all skills that are needed for him to outshine. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family & the last 2 years as a full time mommy has been super fun. 

My first fondant decorated cake was Zion's 1^st Bday cake. The theme was Jungle safari & I was really happy with the outcome. (Click here) However there was a lot of scope for improvement & over this last 1 year I have learnt a lot on my own in cake decoration.  Baked & decorated so many cakes for my friend’s parties. I never knew that this field would make me so popular.

Coming back to today's post, I had decided that for Zion’s 2^nd Bday I have to make a very special cake. The ideas kept changing in my mind. My son’s fav Cartoons are Team Umi zoomi & Tayo the little Bus. I initially thought that I will make Team Umizoomi cake, but later changed my mind & decided to go ahead with Barn yard cake. Why Barn yard? Coz farm animals are the topic of discussion in Zion’s school for this semester. I thought it would be great idea to make this cake for his school celebration as all the kids would love to see these animal figurines.

I dint want to bake a lot of cake & waste. Hence I decided to make the Barn house with rice cereals & for the bottom I made a 9 inch round vanilla cake.  The cake was more than enough for 25 people. Every child including teachers loved the cake. It was such a joy watching all the kids enjoying eating it. The teachers were all praises & couldn’t believe that it was home made. Both my hubby & I had gone to the school for the cake cutting. Z was acting like a leader in class & I could see that he was trying to show off that it’s his cakeJ. He was after the tractor & had already eaten one tractor at home & now was game for another one too:)

 

I Baked a Vanilla Butter cake very similar to my Pound cake, with some extra butter in it. The cake had a 3 layer filling of Chocolate Butter cream icing. I definitely don't have any step by step tutorials for this. Please feel  free to ask me if you have any questions.

 

For Pound cake recipe click here.  I baked 2 batches of cake to make it this tall.

Chocolate Butter cream recipe:

300 gms Butter (I used Amul Butter)

7 - 8 Cups sifted Icing sugar

1/4 cup heavy Whipping cream

1 Tspn Vanilla Essence

1/4 cup +2 Tbsp Coco powder

Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Make sure butter is at room temperature & not very soft.
2. In the bowl cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes with an electric beater on medium speed.
3. Add 7 cups icing sugar one cup at a time. Once the icing sugar is well mixed add whipping cream, coco powder and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. (for 3 to 4 mins) If you feel the frosting consistency is not right, then add in some more icing sugar.
4. With a spatula fill each layer with 1/2 inch frosting & crumb coat the entire cake with this icing.
5. Let the cake rest in the freezer for 10 mins until the crumb coat sets.
6. Now remove cake out & do the final frosting around 1/2 inch thick on the outside.

 

Note:

1. Most of the figurines were made out of home made Marshmallow fondant. For recipe click here
2. The figurines were made 4 days in advance & I put them in a air tight container.
3. Rest of the fondant that I used for decoration was home made Fondant. I just followed Veena's recipe for this. Check her site here for the recipe. This fondant turned out so good & tasty. I could eat the fondant just like that. This is the best fondant I have ever tasted. Thanks Veena again for sharing your recipe.
4. The Barn house is made of Rice cereal. I just used 5 cups of rice cereals & 2 cups of marshmallow to make this. Pop the marshmallow in the microwave for 1 minute until its melted. Now mix in the rice cereal & make it a soft dough. Now you can shape it to any shape you want
5. To make the farm animals, I watched some tutorials on youtube. Pig Tutorial

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barn Animal Cup cakes

My lill Zion's Bday is coming up & I have been so busy since morning yesterday preparing for his cake. As part of invitation , I also made cupcakes to give it to his friends today. His Bday theme is "Team Umizoomi Barn Party" Team Umi Zoomi is his fav cartoon show & in his school they are teaching them about farm animals this semester. So thought it will be a great idea to also combine farm animals. I feel this is a great way to familiarise him with all farm animals.

Last evening Zion went along with the maid & invited all his friends in the condo. His friends were very excited to see the farm animal cup cakes. Zion loves fondant & he was very excited to see the animal fondant toppers. I gave him a little bird & he directly puts it in his mouth & started munching. LOL I couldn't stop laughing looking at the way he was hogging it. He kept coming back to me asking for more & he ended up having a cow fondant topper too:) Well these are home made Marshmallow fondant & its completely safe for kids to eat. I am not sure why most people think that fondant is not good for kids. Its nothing but sugar paste. Well if you are talking about colour then "yes" we all know that colour is not good. But think again there are so many stuff in the market that has colour in them & we blindly eat them. So everything in moderation will not harm. what say? This is how I made it.

The cups cakes were my Vanilla cup cakes with Strawberry Butter cream Icing. For the recipe Click here

Fondant Recipe

• 1 Packet Marshmallows (250 gms)
• 2 Tbsp water
• 500 gms Icing sugar

Directions:

1. Place the marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl add in 2 Tbspn of water & heat it for 2 minutes. Stop after 1 minute saute with a spoon & again heat it for another minute.
2. Now add in icing sugar & colour if required & knead to make it a soft dough.
3. Cover this & set aside for about 2 hours. Now it is ready to use.
4. Make sure you place the fondant topper on top of the Butter cream.
5. I used a basic round tip to pipe the sheep hair & also round swirl on top of the cup cake.

I could take step by pictures only for Pig & for the rest I couldnt as my maid was busy with some other work. I will defenitely try & do a video recipe soon on how to make these toppers.