Cake makers come in

[mrshandy]

I'm making this cake for DD's birthday party next weekend. Any advice on tools I need ? I was looking at a cake decorating YouTube video and they had a cake leveler. It looked kind of neat.

I want to write happy birthday on it. Any advice on a good frosting for the letters?

birdonacake.blogspot.com/2012/05/watermelon-flavored-cake.html

Thanks so much!

[dexteroni]

What a cute cake! You don't really need a lot of special tools for this. A spatula and an offset spatula are always handy for frosting, so I would get those if you don't have them. You don't need a cake leveler. Leveling is pretty easy to eyeball that with a knife. But if you would prefer to use one, of course go right ahead. I find a turntable to be really handy, but if you won't be making a lot of cakes, you might not want to bother buying / storing one. You can always place the cake plate atop an overturned stock pot or a few books to raise it up a little, which makes it easier to frost.

The only tricky part I see here is getting the top edge of the green frosting perfectly neat. I would pipe a thick line of green where you want the inner edge, and flatten it out toward the edge of the cake. To pipe, you can just use a thick ziploc (like the freezer thickness) and cut off a corner, or you can buy disposable piping bags and a tip pretty inexpensively. I would go for maybe #8 or #9 tip size (they'll be marked). The pink frosting and side green frosting can just be done with the regular spatulas, no tips needed.

For the letters, I would either use the same green as on the sides, or a contrasting color like bright yellow or white. If you want to do cursive I would go with a #2 tip, if you want to print you can probably use a #3. If you aren't used to writing with tips, try it on a sheet of waxed paper until you get the hang of it. In my experience, the two most common mistakes are squiggly lines from squeezing too hard or having too thick of frosting, or skips from moving too quickly. A few practice letters will let you get the hang of it.  And I wouldn't put the chips on the top until after you've the done the letters. Piping letters over little lumps makes it really easy to mess up.

I also recommend taking the blogger's advice to toss the chocolate chips in flour before adding them to the cake batter. Even then they sometimes sink, but they stand a better chance that way.

Good luck! I'm sure it will come out cute. And post pics!

[thumper55]

not sure if you had the steps down ;

here is the order I would do it in

frost the top pink

frost the sides green

Smooth and level it top and sides  using a scraper

anything with a straight edge will work  www.amazon.com/Ateco-1303-Bowl-Scraper/dp/B000KEUKO2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1406243815&sr=8-4&keywords=scraper

I like to use a metal edge, it feels studier www.amazon.com/Norpro-577-Stainless-Scraper-Chopper/dp/B000SSZ4Q4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406243815&sr=8-1&keywords=scraper

I would then use  decorative tip to go around the perimeter of the cake to cover where the pink and green meet on the edges.  I use a star tip a lot, like #30, to make a scalloped border

To make it look more like the photo, use a tip that will make a flat ribbon, like #45

decorating tips   blog-imgs-45-origin.fc2.com/c/a/k/cake811/Cake-Decorating-Tips-3.jpg

for letters, you could just buy a tube of gel frosting at Target or Walmart like this www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=1329&trng=fgle&gclid=CPDGr66N378CFedzMgodThMAtQ

[mrshandy]

This is so awesome ! Thanks so much! Keep it coming.

[dirtyred]

Cake levelers are cool, but they're about $50-60, so I don't think you should run out and get one. The other ladies have given great advice.

[womet]

If you want to crumb coat the cake, I would use the pink frosting all over. Then let it set in the fridge.

I would use an offset spatula to frost the top. From the picture, it looks like the pink frosting goes out to the edge of the cake.
Then I would frost the sides of the cake with the green frosting. I would put the cake in the fridge at this point to let the frosting set.
Then you could pipe some green frosting around the edge of the cake and flatten it with the offset spatula. I'd be careful to work quickly and make sure you aren't mixing the green and pink frostings.

If you are going to get any equipment to make this cake, I would get an offset spatula and a turntable. You don't need to buy a leveler.

[Deleted]

Jul 25, 2014 8:12:14 GMT -5 dirtyred said:

Cake levelers are cool, but they're about $50-60, so I don't think you should run out and get one. The other ladies have given great advice.

Word. Just use a good bread knife.

[cmarie11]

Before writing on the cake, use a toothpick or wooden skewer and write your message, then go over it with frosting. This way, if its not centered or something you can smooth out the icing and start over.

[mrshandy]

Jul 25, 2014 8:52:31 GMT -5 cmarie11 said:

Before writing on the cake, use a toothpick or wooden skewer and write your message, then go over it with frosting. This way, if its not centered or something you can smooth out the icing and start over.

This is genius!

[Deleted]

I'm just glad there's someone else on here that actually *makes* a cake (despite not being a pro putting crazy elaborate fondant figures on top). This looks like a very cute cake to make yourself and I think the jello watermelon will be yummy!

[mrshandy]

Jul 25, 2014 9:11:26 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

I'm just glad there's someone else on here that actually *makes* a cake (despite not being a pro putting crazy elaborate fondant figures on top). This looks like a very cute cake to make yourself and I think the jello watermelon will be yummy!

Thanks. I made DS' last year. Nothing professional. It was really yummy though! My Mom always made our cakes so I would like to continue the tradition. The only problem was my H put too much black dye in the frosting so it turned everyone's mouths black. Ha!

[Deleted]

Yes, my friend made Spiderman cupcakes with the black frosting... and then her husband ate one and it dyed his whole mouth black. So they scraped it off and refrosted without the black.

My mom always made our cakes and I make my kid's cakes, but they're just simple things. She had a book we got to pick from that told you how to cut round or square cakes into different shapes and assemble them into like an elephant or a butterfly or whatever. There was a thread on MMM about first birthday cakes and it was _entirely_ bakery cakes. I was confused.