I’m no specialist when it comes to cake makin. However, I’ve been making the kid’s birthday cakes since they were born, so I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks over the years. I started with ZERO knowledge and good gosh, was Pinterest even a thing in 2006? I don’t think so. I knew nothing and just learned by doing over the years. I shared these recipes this weekend on my stories and got a lot of requests for the recipes to go on the blog. So, here we are.
I take zero credit for these, but I will still claim them as secret weapons. Once you find the perfect recipes, you hold onto them for LIFE. I’ll pass these down to Lila or the boys if they enjoy baking one day(which, at their current rate of ZERO, is highly unlikely, but you never know) or their wives, because they are the pinnacle of cake dreaminess and they are FOOL proof.
First, it all starts with THIS…
This is hands down THE BEST chocolate cake recipe that ever existed. Like. EVER.
It does have coffee in it so beware. I ate a piece at 10pm Friday night after Jake’s party, thinking I’d be eating my cake in peace after having a house full of TWELVE 12 year old boys. Wrong. My stomach was like no girl, that was SO STUPID because you’ve been eating lots of vegetable things and a cake full of sugar and caffeine literally 2 seconds before you slump down into your pillows IS NOT SMART. YOU ARE NOT 22 ANYMORE. It was not my finest moment. All that to say, probably not the best idea to consume it late at night if you actually want to you know, sleep. Click on Beatty’s Chocolate cake above for the recipe.
I mean right? Is your mouth watering yet? Do you know how hard it is to sit here with that like 2 feet away on my kitchen counter and not EAT IT ALL? Send help.
When I bake this for birthday’s I usually need more than two layers so I double the recipe. It’s easy to double and always turns out perfect, and yes, it fits in a kitchenmaid mixer. I always ALWAYS check the cake at least 5-10 minutes earlier than the recipe calls for. I like it super moist so I pull it out when moist crumbs come out on a knife. I let the cakes sit to cool before turning them out onto cooling racks. I make my cake’s the day before so they can freeze over night, which makes the decorating so much easier. I wrap them in saran wrap and place them in the freezer.
Before I pull the cakes out I make this KILLER BUTTERCREAM. It’s seriously the best I’ve ever tried, and I’ve tried a lot. I’ve used this recipe since 2008. No lie. It’s that good.
You can find the recipe here.
This icing is great for decorating. It’s the perfect consistency for piping and it handles food coloring really well. Plus it tastes amazing. You’re welcome. Sometimes I use half and half instead of milk, but that’s up to you. It just makes it a little richer.
Before I ice or decorate, I do a dirty ice, or crumb coating. Just do a thin layer of icing all the way around the cake with some thick layers in the middle to fill it, then let it sit in the fridge for 10-15 minutes or so. This makes it easier to decorate without black crumbs getting in your white icing.
Now it’s ready to roll!!!
I’ve done everything from Jake’s simple baseball cake this weekend(ahem, he’s 12, and way too cool for anything fancy pants) to Moana to Star Wars battleships with this recipe duo. And every single time it’s a huge hit. Here are some of my favorite decorating tools. I use Wilton for the most part and find all my stuff at Michael’s.
I use a spatula like this one every time. 
It’s such a life saver!
I also love the mold’s as they help with any sports related cakes…
I’ve also used some of the animal molds for a monkey when Josh was little. Slow down time. Seriously. How cute and squishy was he?!
I’ve done A LOT of sports cakes, mostly baseball, but here is Josh’s football cake from last year.
This was Lila’s Barney cake when she turned 3.
A couple other tools I use are the turn table….
And icing tips….I have a whole collection of these…
I will sometimes use a decorating comb for the sides of the cake..
I love doing this ya’ll. There are SO MANY things I don’t do as a mom. I don’t do party favors. I don’t do valentines pancakes. I don’t do easter baskets(I know, gasp). I put a firm no on Elf on the Shelf until Lila wore me down this past year.
My point is, this may not be your thing. AND THAT’S OK. There are so many crafty pinteresty things that are not my thing. Most of them in fact. But this is just one of those things I started when Jake turned 1 that turned into a tradition, and I plan to do it as long as they’ll let me. So, I hope this is helpful and good grief, if for no other reason than to stash these amazing recipes in your go to pile of goodness when you or your fam or the next party you go to need a pick me up from chocolate and caffeine. Who doesn’t want that?
Enjoy!!
xoxo
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