**UPDATE: You can find my new
Kitty Cat Party Pack
on my Etsy shop here!**
I know, I usually share my artsy stuff here, but really it’s my creative space. Where I can collect all the creative things I do into one place, for reference and for sharing. And I find that I can work in all sorts of mediums. Confections are a super fun one if you ask me. Bake the cake (or the cookies) and then use frosting to make them pretty! 🙂
This weekend we celebrated our youngest girl’s 7th birthday and she is loving cats these days. For months now we’ve known we’d be having a cat themed birthday. On Saturday we did the big part of her celebration, complete with Kitty Cat Cake. 🙂 I found my Pinspiration from Perfect Parties, but I didn’t think to read their instructions. They “torted” their layers (I learned what that means in their post) and included a strawberry filling. Check them out for some great ideas on a slightly more sophisticated cake.
Otherwise, read on to see how I did it super simple with a box mix and 2 nine inch cake pans. (Everyone said it was really good!)
I started with a yellow cake mix, but pink or white or marble or rainbow or whatever would be fine. You could even use brownies if you wanted to. We tried to make pink box mix cake, but it went flat, so I made a second with another box I had on hand. Follow box directions for prep, baking, cooling etc.
When they were cool, I used a bowl (Corelle cereal bowl for size reference) place on one of the cakes (at the edge, not in the middle) and cut around it with a steak knife. Then I cut two small triangles from the left overs for ears and used the rest of the edge for the tail. I did cut some off until it was the size I liked.
I didn’t cut the domes off to make the cats flat. I liked the rounded face and body, plus it was less “waste” (not that scraps of cake are ever wasted around here with myself and 6 children in the house.) But you could.
For frosting, I mixed up a recipe of American Buttercream (but your frosting of choice would work just as well I’m sure) and dollopped a bunch on each part and started spreading. It wasn’t a supper neat job, but I cleaned it up after. It was probably the trickiest part, but just keep at it, gently applying and spreading it over all the surfaces until it’s all covered (More is better for avoiding crumbs if you aren’t doing a crumb coat. It can always be scrapped off if it’s too thick.)
I added red food coloring to the rest of the frosting to make the pink and added the rest of the details. (I had green frosting in the freezer for the leaves, but you could separate your left overs to make some pink and some green.) You could do almost anything here, or leave it plain. I was supposed to make it a pink kitty, but forgot to color the frosting before I spread it on, so the details I added in pink were a sort of redemption attempt. She loved it and said it was fine. The pink balls are oversized sugar pearls.
***A word about making cakes (or about anything else) for your children: it doesn’t have to be perfect. Mine rarely are. Birthday cakes (and birthdays in general) are about making your kid feel special, not about making them look perfect. I’ve made some flops in my day (this year even), but kids have great imaginations (sometimes I tell them what it’s supposed to be and they get just as excited). Give it a try… you’ll get better every time. Anything extra you do is huge for them. And my kids are always more excited about something “mama made”. :)***
Gathering here.
