Happy birthday to meeee!
Yes, today is my birthday! To celebrate, I wanted a rainbow cake, but I also wanted an animal cake - so thanks to some of my
Coco Cake Land Facebook fans, I had the idea to combine the two into my dream birthday cake. So here ya go: RAINBOW CAT CAKE! It maybe also kind of looks like a bunny but when I showed it to Teddy he made a MEOW sound (he's 15 months old) so I think it's legit enough for me! :)
Yep, I'm 37 years old today. A lady isn't supposed to share her age but it's 2013, guys - and we need to stop being so freaked out about women aging. So there you have it. Sounds golden oldie to be 37 but I've got some pretty sweet Asian genes on my side, so I'll keep on trucking and hope for the best. Besides, growing old is a beautiful thing, right? We're slathered and badgered daily by the idea of staying "young." But I've had some amazing times in my 37 years. Rough times, too - but that's what makes us stronger and wiser. And more wrinkly. And prone to ice cream binges.
People often ask me how I got into the
cake biz and how I started making cakes. Well let me tell ya - I've had 101 careers, and truly, I'm always thinking of what my next "career" will be. In the past fifteen years, I've worked at a photo developing shop, I was a secretary for a mental health centre, I temped in a lawyer's office, I worked in an art gallery, I toured in bands playing music across North America and even Europe, I taught art to children, when I was 30 I even worked at a snow cone stand and had an 18 year old "manager"! I traded a snowcone for a fake tattoo from the teen who worked across the fairway from me.
Too many jobs to even remember. A couple of years ago I even started taking classes to become an elementary school teacher but then didn't end up following through with that idea (man, Canadian Geography SUCKED!) and now it's been five years since I started making cakes! I've learned and grown and developed a particular design niche with it - and met so many awesome people along the way. So yeah, learning to bake at 31 has been a pretty, pretty good turn of events, I'd say.
For anyone reading this who might be wondering what the hell they're doing with their life - there's been many times I've felt lost and unsure of what I was doing or what I wanted to do next. I guess now I feel like my life is a continual work in progress and that it will continue to ebb and flow. I'll always be wondering and searching and learning, but with a firm base of my belief in the utter importance of family, friendship and love, and love most especially for my little boy, and my husband R.
Oh, and crazy mad love for some RAINBOW CAT CAKES!
RAINBOW CAT CAKE DIY
A note about this cake: due to the multiple cake layers and a LOT of buttercream, this cake is a heavy block-headed, cat noggin on a plate BEAST! I used 7 inch cake pans and still the cake will feed 20+ guests for sure. (When the cake is this tall you don't need huge slices. Or do you?? :) Also, place your fondant "face" bits on the cake just prior to serving, so the fondant doesn't get too melty.
You will need:
A double recipe for a vanilla cake - box mix or from scratch, whatever you like!
Five 7 inch cake pans
Five bowls for mixing your rainbow cake batter colours
Gel food colouring in your fave rainbow colours - I used pink, yellow, green, blue and purple for my layers!
8 cups (woh!) of vanilla buttercream
An offset spatula for frosting your cake
White fondant and gel colours to mix and create your cat's eyes, ears, nose and whiskers
Make it!
1. Make batter according to recipe instructions.
2. Divide batter into five bowls - add gel food colours to each and mix to combine. (the amount is up to you - just know that a little goes a long way!)
3. Pour into greased and floured cake pans. Bake according to recipe's instructions.
4. Let cakes completely cool.
5. Make buttercream according to recipe instructions.
6. Level your cake layers with a serrated knife.
6. Place your first coloured cake layer on a cake board or cake stand. Frost the top, and add the next colour. Continue until you reach your last cake layer!
7. Frost the entire exterior of the cake.
8. Pipe the entire exterior cake with buttercream "fur!"
9. Make your fondant face pieces using piping tips for cutters, or just your hands, and make ears by creating fondant triangles and placing them on wooden BBQ sticks.
10. Place your ears into the top of the cake - pipe "borders" around the edges of the ears if you like!
11. Place your fondant eyes, nose and whiskers on!
12. MEOW - you are ready to party SO hard!
Gad it is SO exciting cutting into a rainbow layer cake! Eeks! It is pure beautiful magic!
Rainbows and sunshine and kitties - that's not a bad analogy for life, right? I hope you guys are all doing great - and thank you for coming to my blog and having a cakey visit in Coco Cake Land!
Happy weekend, cake pals!
xo Lyndsay
