BOSTON TERRIER BIRTHDAY CAKE

Hello, everyone!  It's been quite a year and this is LONG overdue!  I set myself up for a little challenge this past August (10th to be exact) and decided to make a Boston Terrier Birthday Cake for my then Fiance, Mike.  This may not sound so challenging to you cake makers out there BUUUT he only likes STORE BOUGHT CAKE.  That includes ICING.  This is QUITE the challenge for an at home baker and also the biggest slap in the face.    Yes, it's easy and also tasty but I am constantly asking him to just TRY a cake from scratch.  He loves my other baked goodies... I guess you love what you know.

To make this cake I literally just decided to WING it.  I do this often and I fail... A LOT.  This time... It worked (at least I think so).  It helped that my muse was begging at my feet the ENTIRE time so I ws able to look down and go off of Oliver's face (my boston terrier) when I needed to.

As you can see  I actually baked 1 chocolate sheet cake, 1 vanilla round, and some  vanilla cupcakes as well from the same batch.  It was just Mike and I celebrating his birthday so I didn't feel the need to make the cake any larger.  Otherwise, I would have made 2 sheet cakes to build up off of.  You'll see what I mean later.  These cakes are completely cooled.

Now that I have my basic shapes I need to think about how this is going to look like MAH DAWG!  Where do I cut?  What do I leave? It's pretty simple.

Here's Oliver posing/begging.  See how I cut the circle?  I then took a part of it and pieced it up the head just like on Oliver.  I made sure that Any part that would be WHITE ICING was made with Yellow Cake (the store literally had NO WHITE CAKE... Seriously.)  See how it's not perfect?  I'm cool with that.  My dog is weird looking so the cake should be too.  Right about now though I was a little worried because I thought the cake looked like a bear.

After some fretting... I drank some wine, cut out the ears, scaled down the head, and slapped in a mouth. Oliver just sat there.  For the Nose I drew a template on paper, cut it out, then traced around it with a sharp knife.  BOOM, Done.

When icing the cake remember you can always throw it in the fridge for a few minutes to make it not so melty and runny.  I didn't buy enough chocolate icing (ANNOYING) so I had to use all of my black and some other colors to create that black you see there to the white icing.  To make it all stretch a little further I did put them into my mixer which fluffed them and doubled the amount in each container.  

The eye is off to the side on purpose.  It is also an odd shape on purpose as Oliver has weird eyeballs.

Here I used piping bags for the details on his face.  For the "Happy Birthday" and the bone up top... Yeah, that little disaster... I had run out of everything.  I had some of those ready write gel tube  things that I had never used... I gave them a whirl.  They really bite the big one.  I found that microwaving them in increments helped to get things going but I threw them out immediately after this.

Mike- The Birthday Man!  Apparently this is what
you get when you turn 38 in our house.

My dog is missing some face! See... You could do more layers underneath!  Yes, Mike ate the entire thing.  So not fair.

This is the recipe I followed for the cake.  You MUST ADAPT THE CAKE BATTER.    Found it on CakeCentral.com

I didn't use Duncan Hines cake.  I have used this recipe many times from Cake Central.  It's what I used for the beer pong cake and the ear cake as well.  It always does the trick.  The difference with those cakes is that I am able to use buttercream and fondant....

What do you do with your egg yolks?  I cook them up for Oliver.  He's so spoiled.

My blogs should start coming more regularly now that I am a married woman... No wedding planning to get in the way!  If you would like to see what I did for my wedding and or some ideas check out kakiewedding.com

Minty Fresh Kisses- Keep your Guests FRESH Cookies

I literally copied and pasted this recipe below.  Don't be a hater.  I had nothing to change!  It's a good recipe!  I did decide to make these a New Years Cookie so I used festive fun fireworks sugar (plus it was all I had).  I am going to my brother's for a New Years get together and thought it would be cute to bring minty cookies.  While we won't be kissing each other... Might be great to have something fresh for your guests!     

Some issues that I had were that I made some of my balls too big.  I also poked my wooden spoon down a little too far so when I put the filling in I had some balls have accidents.   Other than that.  They are good.  I think these are the type of cookie that you either love or don't.  They are very rich in flavor so if you love chocolate than these are for you!

Ingredients

• 4 ounces (110 grams) dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/2 cup (190 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (40 grams) cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup (65 grams) sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
• Coarse sugar, for rolling
For the filling:
• 3 ounces (85 grams) white chocolate, chopped
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
2. In a double boiler or heat proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate. Stir until smooth, then remove from heat to cool slightly.
3. In a bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar and brown sugar together on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing after each, followed by the vanilla and peppermint extracts.
4. Add the melted chocolate and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture all at once and mix until just combined. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
5. Roll the dough into rounded tablespoons and roll in the course sugar. Place on the prepared sheet pan and use your thumb or a dowel to create a well in the center of each cookie.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and reinforce indents with your thumb or dowel. Return to oven and bake for an additional 4-5 minutes, just until cracks begin to form in the cookies. Remove from oven and reinforce the indents again. Let cool completely on a cooling rack.
To make the filling:
7. In the microwave, heat the cream for about 30 seconds until boiling. Pour over the chocolate, let sit for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract.
8. Pour the filling into the cooled cookies. Let cookies firm up in the fridge for 15 minutes. Store cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to several days.

Note: For best results, use a good quality white chocolate.

The original Recipe.. And how they are supposed to look

First attempt at Cartooning- boston terrier

This is my first attempt at icing a cartoon face. Yes, I chose Oliver as my influence. What amazed me is that I could not doodle a pic. of him but I was able to ice an image that looks like a boston terrier. Cheers to cuteness!