Saturday, September 5, 2009

LEGO Birthday Cake


I made this cake for my son's 8th birthday. Since Legos is his favorite toy we had a Lego themed birthday party and had to have a Lego birthday cake as well. I did not like any of the Lego cakes I found pictures of on the internet so I had the idea to put the Lego logo on the cake and my son thought this would be great.

This cake was in several ways different than my previous ones. First, I used homemade fondant for the first time and second, I used artificial food coloring. There was no way that I could have made the logo with natural food coloring. I put the Lego logo on wax paper and lifted it off the cake before I cut it but still lots of kids wanted to have a taste of it and the parents did not mind at all that they were eating the artificial stuff. The artificial colors sure make cake decorating a lot easier. I might just as well stick with it. Just use it sparingly. I am sure my kids will not get sick or die if they have the artificial colors once every few months. At least I hope so....

This cakes had 3 layers of my standard yellow butter cake, made with whole wheat pastry flour.
For the filling I made caramel for the first time and then turned it into whipped caramel cream. I really liked that filling. The icing was a classic buttercream, meaning I used sugar syrup instead of powdered sugar. For the vegetarian fondant I used a recipe I found on the internet and I was very satisfied with the result. Making the LEGO logo was quite time consuming. I think fondant is very similar to play dough in consitency. You can make all kinds of shapes and figures with it. I have seen pictues of cakes decorated with fondant that look like a piece of art, but for me the taste of the cake is more important than the looks. But I will see were fondant will take me... The possibilities are endless...



Not my prettiest cake. I did not have enough time to make it. The birthday boy liked it.


Speaking of the birthday boy - here he is, blowing out the candles. Happy birthday Janardan!