naked funfetti layer cake

My good friend Helen asked me to make two cakes for her daughter's birthday this year - one was a Qiaohu tiger cake for her preschool class, and then second was for her birthday party! For the second cake, she had a specific look in mind. She wanted a naked layer cake, and she wanted it to look like Momofuku Milk Bar's birthday cake, except with my own vanilla cake recipe, filled with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, and minus the birthday cake crumbles. So cute!

For the funfetti cake I used the vanilla cake recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book, and folded in 2/3 cup of rainbow sprinkles at the end. (I also sprinkled on a few on top before baking, for good measure). I made two batches of cake batter to give me four 8-inch cake layers, although I only ended up using three of the layers.

I normally split my cake layers horizontally into two, but this time I wanted thicker layers - since it was going to be a naked cake and was not going to have frosting on the outside, I wanted the cake layers to really stand out. So I just cut the tops off of each layer, and then cut off the sides of the cake to expose the funfetti sprinkles inside. (Otherwise, you would just see brown cake layers with drippy funfetti - see this post to get an idea of what it looks like without the sides cut off).

I filled each funfetti cake layer with a good dose of freshly whipped cream and sliced fresh strawberries, and then used an offset spatula to go around the cake and smooth out the filling layers.

After I stacked and filled all three layers, I covered the top with cream cheese frosting, and used an offset spatula to create a rustic swirly design on the top of the cake.

Since Helen was going to have 60 people at the party, I also baked up a second cake, this time covered in frosting and with the number "2" outlined in sprinkles.

At the party, we added two long pink candles for the birthday girl to blow out.

Here's a shot of the inside of the cake, and also the Pink Panther cookies and rainbow cookies that I made for the party as well! (Posts to come for those cookies!)

Hope you enjoyed your cake and cookies, sweet Marni! You are TOO CUTE!

tokidoki unicorn funfetti cake

My daughter's 5th birthday was back in mid-December, and since she is currently obsessed with unicorns, I decided to make her a unicorn cake! I had recently become enamored tokidoki while giving a cookie workshop at Hello Kitty Con in October, so I decided to make a tokidoki unicorn cake!

For the cake itself, I decided I had to make it a funfetti cake of course, since my girl loves sprinkles and anything with rainbow colors.

I baked up two 8-inch cakes, and sliced them in half horizontally to give me 4 cake layers.

Then I filled them with freshly whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

To cover the cake, I whipped up a big batch of cream cheese buttercream, tinted the majority of it pink and covered the top and sides of the cake with it. For the sides, I used a star tip to pipe on a swirly ruffle design (similar to this cake and this one, done in Nikole Herriott's signature piping style).

Next I made a paper template of the tokidoki unicorn, placed it on top of the cake, and used a toothpick to draw the outline. Then I used the toothpick to draw on the details freehand, and piped the outlines and details with black frosting and a small round tip.

Finally I filled in the details of the unicorn with a small star tip, and filled in the eyes, hooves, and stars with a small round tip.

And then it was done!

It turned out so cute! I couldn't wait for my little girl to see it!

Here she is at her party, with her best friends from school.

And here's a shot of the inside of the cake!

Happy Birthday, my Melodie! I love you!

funfetti birthday cupcakes with whipped cream frosting

In addition to the funfetti birthday cake and funfetti ice cream that I made for Micah's first birthday celebration, I also made these funfetti cupcakes for him to celebrate at school (well, daycare!). I used the same recipe as I did for the cake, and instead baked them in cupcake tins at 350F for 20 minutes.

For the frosting, I made the same blue-tinted whipped cream frosting as I did for the cake, and used a Wilton 1M open-star tip to pipe rosettes on top of each cupcake.

Then, to match the cake, I sprinkled the same multicolored round confetti sprinkles all over the top!

I've said it before and I'll say it again - this boy loves cake! He wolfed his cupcake down in a matter of minutes, as he did his slice of birthday cake the day before!

I also had enough batter leftover to make a few mini cupcakes as well! They were small enough to eat in just one bite - Yum!

funfetti cookies-n-cream ice cream

To go along with the blue funfetti cake that I made for my youngest son Micah's first birthday, I decided to make cookies-n-cream ice cream. But this wasn't just any cookies-n-cream ice cream ... I wanted to add lots of sprinkles to it, for a festive birthday feel that matched the confetti cake. And, when I went to the store to pick up Oreos, I found these - birthday cake Oreos! With funfetti in the Oreo filling! How perfect!

So I made my custard base as usual - I mixed egg yolks with sugar, tempered them with a hot cream and milk mixture, and then cooked it all over the stove until the mixture thickens. Then I strained it, added vanilla extract, and let it cool before churning (I typically let it cool overnight in the fridge). 

During the last 5 minutes of churning, I added a cup of chopped birthday cake Oreos, and finally a few handfuls of rainbow sprinkles. Once everything was all mixed in, I poured it into a container to let it set in the freezer overnight.

While I didn't totally love the birthday cake Oreos by itself (I prefer the original Oreos better), I absolutely LOVED it when paired with the ice cream. It added the perfect amount of "birthday cake" taste to the ice cream. And it was the perfect compliment to the funfetti birthday cake! I'll definitely be making this again!

blue funfetti birthday cake with piped shell sides

My friend Helen's baby had her first birthday exactly one month before my youngest baby Micah. She had asked me to make a funfetti birthday cake, but at the time I was so busy that I wasn't able to (so sorry, Helen!). But when it was time for me to make Micah's birthday cake a month later, I just couldn't get funfetti out of my head! So I made him a vanilla cake using my favorite vanilla cake recipe, and threw in a half cup of rainbow sprinkles to make it funfetti.

Then I baked the cake layers in two 8-inch pans. They came out so fun and colorful compare to the first funfetti cake that I made (I didn't add enough sprinkles to that one!)

Then I sliced each cake layer into half horizontally, and filled them with freshly whipped cream.

With the rest of the whipped cream, I tinted it a pretty aqua color (using Americolor Sky Blue), and used it to frost the outside of the cake.

Then for the sides of the cake, I drew inspiration from this adorable rainbow cake at My Cake School! I had seen it randomly the week before while browsing Pinterest, and loved the look of the piped shells covering the sides of the cake.

I loved the look of the cake, and almost just left it like this, but thought it needed a "birthday" touch added to it ...

So I sprinkled some multicolored round confetti sprinkles around the sides on the top of the cake to give it more of a "birthday" feel!

Micah certainly liked it - boy, does this kid love cake! He couldn't get enough of it!

I can't believe my youngest baby is already one!

Happy Birthday to my little Micah! We love you!!!