We hope any child’s birthday would turn out to be memorable, right? Over twenty years ago, I made our oldest son a Ninja Turtle Birthday Cake for his sixth birthday. It was quite memorable. Most memorable: It took HOURS just to decorate! Ah, but it was worth it.
So I asked my six-year-old granddaughter what kind of birthday cake she’d like last week. Me: “Honey, would you like chocolate, yellow, or strawberry cake?” She said, “Yes.” Then she excitedly informed her brother that I’d be making her a Chocolate Yellow Strawberry Cake. Time to get to work!
I found plenty of decorating ideas when I did a search for “images of girls’ birthday cakes”. Practically all of them used fondant. Humm… The last time I used fondant was on my own 50th birthday cake. That was when I discovered (after the fact) that it’s best to let ribbons and bows dry separately, overnight, lest they “melt” a little onto the main layer of fondant.
I cheated that time; bought packaged fondant. It made life easier, even if it didn’t taste particularly yummy.
I had saved this on Pinterest (recipe here, at “Annie’s Eats”), to remind me of an easy marshmallow fondant recipe. That particular recipe used extra ingredients; I found simpler versions on many other sites. This one (on the “What’s Cooking America” site) seemed most straight-forward, although I would sub butter for the Crisco. Also, most recipes call for 16 oz. , but I’d picked up a 10 oz. bag of marshmallows, so I made a smaller recipe using that. It was enough for one two-layer cake. I posted the recipe here.
I’m all for easy decorating. I had bought some dipped marshmallow “pops” at the church bake sale, figuring that would help decorate Elizabeth’s cake. Wow- they tasted delicious, too! I saved this pic on Pinterest, to remind me to make those myself sometime. Melted chocolate chips would also work to dip the marshmallows into.
You could also use leftover fondant to create simple pieces to add on top of the main fondant. Even white leaves on top of white can look pretty cool. (See my pinterest pic here.)
Side note: yes, cake pops are all the rage. But isn’t that a lot of bother, when one might much more easily use marshmallows to dip? Says daughter-in-law Michelle, “I’m not real big on marshmallows, but these are awesome!” Easy too!
I guess the main point is: We celebrated a memorable sixth birthday over the weekend, and our granddaughter thoroughly enjoyed herself. So did we!
The Ninja Turtles cake is INCREDIBLE!!
Thanks, Mellody! Oh, those were the days… a once-in-a-lifetime project. But Miles and his buddies really loved it 🙂