The birthday cake

This weekend for me was spend creating the best birthday cake a 4 year old farm kid can possibly imagine. I have a few tricks up my sleeve after 1 year of doing some cake decorating (though I did very few cakes during that time). Most of all, don't be afraid to try something. Oh and watch Ace of Cakes on a regular basis. They are super creative.

Anyway on with the story. I baked the cake last weekend actually. I allowed it to cool and got rid of some areas where there was some excess cake, such as between the wheels (which were all but connected). I then did a skim layer of frosting (mostly so I wouldn't get crumbs in the rest of the icing when I did the actual decoration). After this I promptly stuck the cake in the freezer until Saturday morning when the mess began. Ok, I lied, the mess actually began on Friday when I made the icing and blended the coloring into the icing.

Coloring icing is a challenge, especially if you want vivid colors. I used gel icing colors, but it still took a LOT, especially the green and black. Hint: go easy on the yellow though, it does not take NEARLY as much.

I stirred for a while and then decided to create the engine compartment. This was a real challenge. Although most people wouldn't care, my husband is a Technician at John Deere and felt that I had to do everything to a tee. I failed, but I really liked the engine (recreated from a blurry picture found on google). I also realized from that picture that the cab corners should have been black, but I wasn't about to scape the frosting at that time.

Well, after about 2 hours of frosting and starring and starring some more, this is what I came up with:

The "dirt" around the tractor is a mixture of oreos and graham crackers that I smashed in my food processor. I got the idea from watching Ace of Cakes about 1 week before when they were creating a sandcastle cake and using graham cracker for sand.

Lesson for the day: "Try it, it may work!"