Frugal Birthday Cakes!

Having five boys and my hubby makes six birthdays that I need to prepare for. My oldest doesn't like cake so I always make him a cookie cake. My other boys get to pick the kind of cake they want. Some of them have been easy and some complex. Some of what they have chosen have been soccer ball, football, pirate ship and a fish. Also if they want something they see in the store often times you can buy the kit at the store. I know walmart has them for sale for $6.50ea. And you may even be able to find simlar things that they use at a dollar store because often it's something plastic that they simply stick on the cake. And, let's face it, store bought cakes can be expensive running $15 or more! The cake I made was $18.  Up next is my 7yr olds birthday on Tuesday. He wanted a Steelers cake. I went to Walmart to get ideas and snapped a picture of the cake they had in their cake book and bought the kit. (I am no artist!)


So first N wanted chocolate cake so here is the recipe. I got this from Family Fun awhile back and have made some adjustments. Also if you are planning on decorating the whole thing and not just the top (like I did below) you can line your pan with foil and then spray and flour. It makes it so much easier to invert onto a tray.


Chocolate Cake

Ingredients :

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar

• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350º. Grease and flour 13x9inch pan and se aside. In a microwave-safe liquid measuring cup, measure 1 1/2 cups water. Add the unsweetened chocolate squares to the water. Microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring after 1 1/2 minutes or until the chocolate has melted. Stir in the cocoa and set the mixture aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter for 1 minute; add the granulated and brown sugars and cream for another 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs individually, beating well after each one. Beat in the vanilla extract.
3.  In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Beginning with about a third of the flour, add the flour mixture and chocolate mixture alternately to the butter and sugar, stirring well after each addition.
4. Pour the batter into the pan, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula. Place the pans on the middle oven rack and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
5. Let the cakes cool in the pan. Then place a cooling rack atop each pan and, holding the edges to the pan, flip the cake onto the rack. Cool completely before frosting.

 Next up is the decorating. You can make your own frosting, and sometimes I do but there was a good sale on frosting so I used some betty crocker today. First I used food coloring to tint it green since I was doing a football field. The crumb coating helps get the crumbs under control so when you put on the top layer you don't have bits of crumbs on your finished product. And I just use a butterknife sprayed with cooking spray. I've tried frosting things but I prefer a knife. Here's the crumb coat:

Next up I mixed up another batch of green frosting for the top layer. I proceeded to frost the cake again and I then piped around the edges. I don't have any fancy equipment for this. I simply use Betty Crocker cupcake frosting. You could by some tips, put frosting in a ziploc bag, and do it that way. Some day I want too but this is easy and with the right coupons and sales, super cheap! I also washed a ruler and used it to make straight lines for the yardline markers:


Next I piped on the yardline markers and added the cake kit I bought which finished off the cake. You could add happy birthday as well if you wanted to.

The orginal cake at walmart looked like this: (forgive the picture of a picture on my phone!)


You can see it's not exactly the same but it doesn't need to be. I think it turned out pretty good! I made this for $10 which saved me $8.