minecraft diamond pickaxe birthday cake

Oh man. I'm so behind. I made this cake a year ago, for my oldest son Matthew's 11th birthday. And here we are, one year later, and he just turned 12!

He had requested another minecraft cake. But this time he wanted a giant Minecraft diamond pickaxe topper. I guess they use them to mine diamonds in the game? Anyway he showed me a picture of what he wanted, so I made it for him, out of various colored fondant squares that I had cut out one by one with a mini square cookie cutter.



And then when I assembled the topper, I realized that I had made it waaaaaay too big. Ooops!



For the cake, he had requested vanilla cake filled with whipped cream and STRAWBERRY JELLO. Hmm. Interesting combination, no?

To get started, I whipped up two batches of my favorite vanilla cake (you can find the recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!) and baked them in two 8-inch round cake pans. Once cooled, I sliced them in half horizontally to give me four cake layers. And then I filled them with freshly whipped cream.

And the Jello. I had made the Jello layer in advance, by chilling the prepared Jello in two 8-inch cake pans that I had sprayed with nonstick cooking spray so that I would come out easily. I did have a few cracks in the Jello while I attempted to place the layer on the whipped cream, but it was mostly in one piece.

After assembling the cake (four cake layers, three layers of whipped cream, and two layers of Jello), I covered the tops and sides with swiss meringue frosting (recipe also in my book!). I usually do a quick crumb coat, let it set in the fridge, and then do a final coat, which I then smooth out with an offset spatula. Then I put everything in the fridge to set overnight.

The next morning, I was ready to decorate! First I piped his name in the middle of the cake, and then I added a few of the fondant squares that I had made previously. Just to give the cake a bit of a pixelated look.

Next came the number candles (which I had bought from Party City, I believe).

And then came the topper! I really did make this way to big. And truth be told, it kept falling off the cake, it was just too big and heavy! 

In the end, I got mixed reviews on the jello / whipped cream / cake combination, but the birthday boy loved it so that's all that matters!

Happy Birthday, Matthew! We love you!

minecraft cookies

To go along with the Minecraft cake that I made for Matthew's 10th birthday, I also made these Minecraft cookies to include with the party favors, as well as to pass out to his class the day of his birthday at school.

For the cookies, I made my favorite sugar cookie recipe (from my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), chilled it, and rolled it out to 1/8 inch thick. Then I used a set of nested square cookie cutters to cut out shapes (I originally got mine at Williams Sonoma, but they don't carry them anymore so these cutters are pretty close), Then I baked them at 350F for 10-12 minutes until the edges were golden brown.

For the icing, I made a batch of royal icing (recipe also in my book!), and tinted the majority of it green (I used a combination of leaf green and forest green to achieve the perfect Minecraft green color!). Using stiff green icing and a small round tip fitted into a disposable pastry bag, I outlined each cookie, and then filled it in with runny green icing.

After letting the icing dry for several hours, I used stiff black icing (colored using Super Black) to pipe the creeper face on to each cookie, and then filled it in with runny black icing.

Then I let the cookies dry complete, and they were done!

I wrapped each cookie in individual cellophane favor bags and tied them with raffia, and Matthew passed them out to his classmates at school.



I also included the cookies in each favor bag at his video game birthday party at home.

Hope you had a happy birthday, my Matthew!

minecraft cake

Man, where does the time go? My son Matthew turned 10 a few months ago. TEN. YEARS. OLD. I still can't believe he's hit double digits!

Well I make his birthday cake every year, and this year he wanted a Minecraft cake. He's obsessed with Minecraft! So we decided to have a Minecraft party. He invited a few of his best friends over and played Minecraft all day (among other video games), and we had a make-your-own burger station, and we had Minecraft birthday cake. Very chill and very fun!

A few days before the party, I prepped some fondant minecraft squares that I was going to decorate the cake with. I used regular white fondant and tinted it several colors (bright green, army green, brown, and black). Then I rolled it out and used a small square cutter to cut out little squares. (You could also use a ruler and a knife or a pizza cutter to get even squares).

For the cake itself, he wanted vanilla and filled with whipped cream and fresh berries. So I did a combo of raspberries and blueberries (although I forgot to take a picture of the blueberry layer!), nestled in whipped cream, in between layers of homemade vanilla cake (baked in two 8-inch cake pans, and sliced in half horizontally to give me four cake layers - you can find my favorite vanilla cake recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!). 

Then I whipped up a batch of buttercream frosting, tinted it green, and covered the cake in two coats of frosting. First a crumb coat, which I let chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, and then a second final coat, which I smoothed out with a long metal spatula. Then I put the cake back in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, I used black icing to pipe his name on the side of the cake.

Afterwards, I attached my pre-made fondant squares, which were supposed to look like the pixels in the Minecraft game. Just a tiny bit of frosting on the back of each square help to hold them in place.

I added a few squares to the top of the cake as well.

The final touch was adding gold number candles (which I found at Party City, and saved me the trouble of making a gold "10" out of fondant, which I was fully prepared to do until I found these candles!)

And then it was done! Minecraft cake!

Happy 10th Birthday, my Matthew!

minion cookies

To go along with the minion cake that I made for my son Matthew's 9th birthday last September, I also made minion cookies for him to bring to school, to celebrate his birthday with his class. In the past, his teachers allowed me to bring cupcakes for a short and quick class celebration, but this year his teacher only allowed a snack to be passed out as the students leave the classroom at the end of the day. (Maybe 4th grade is too old for class parties still?)

For the cookies, I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe (in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book), rolled out my dough to about 1/8 inch thick, and cut them out with circle cookie cutters. Then I baked them at 350F for 10-12 minutes, until they turned golden brown.

After whipping up the royal icing (recipe also in my book!), I tinted the majority of it yellow, and used a small round tip in a disposable piping bag to outline each cookie with stiff icing. Then I filled it in with runny icing.

After letting the yellow icing dry for several hours, I used gray stiff icing to pipe circles for the goggles, and then filled it in with white runny icing.

Then after letting the white icing dry for a few hours, I piped the rest of the details - brown icing for the eyeballs, and black icing for the pupils, hair, smile, and goggle straps. And the final touch was piping a little white dot in each eyeball, to bring the minions to life!

Happy Birthday, Matthew! We love you!