Half Birthday Cakes

I think it was when my daughter was three and a half years old, we decided to start celebrating half birthdays. By that point, she was making sure everyone knew she was two and a half versus three versus three AND A HALF. So, we decided to start a family tradition of marking the occasion.  We make a half cake and sing "Happy Half Birthday to you..." and blow out # and a half candles.  No presents. As much as my daughter begs, we don't give gifts.


First of all, I usually make a whole cake and then just cut it in half.  And for the candles, we just shove one of them farther down into the cake.

So, here are a few of the half birthday cakes I have made over the years for my son and daughter.

The Giant Cupcake has made several appearances over the years on half birthdays. 

I have also made a round or square layer cake and then cut it in half and stacked it up to make a half cake that is twice as tall.  My son likes sprinkles.  Can you tell?

My daughter requested a cheesecake one year.

And the Giant Chocolate Donut is always popular.

Candy Clay

I've been using Candy Clay for quite a while for edible cake decorations.  The recipe on Wilton's site has you use an entire bag of Candy Melts.  (Melt one 12oz package of Candy Melts according to package directions, then stir in 1/4 cup light corn syrup until smooth.)  That makes a ton of candy clay and I never need that much.  So, a while back, I did the math to scale down the recipe.  If you want a smaller amount, use one teaspoon of corn syrup for every ten candy melt discs. (This only applies to Wilton brand Candy Melts.  Other brands may have different sized pieces.)  The instructions Wilton provides are easy to follow - but basically, it is melt the candy melts (I use microwave method), stir in the corn syrup, then spread out on a plate or wax paper and let it cool overnight.  When you are ready to use it, you knead it a little at a time to soften it up and you are ready to go.  If it starts getting too soft, put it in the refrigerator (or other cool location) to firm up a bit.

Examples of things I've made with Candy Clay:

Trees for a "Frozen" Cake

The host for a First Communion cake

Rapunzel and her hair, Pascal, flowers, hairbrush, sun

Red trim, basketball hoop and net

For the tree above, I shaped the prepared candy clay into a cone shape and then stuck a lollipop stick in.  I used kitchen scissors to make small snips all the way around.  When done, I stuck them into the cake evenly around the bottom layer.

My kids and party guests seem to always argue over who gets the Candy Clay pieces.  I think they like it more than the cake itself. Try it out and see if you like it.  Let me know how it turns out for you.

"Frozen" Cake

"Frozen" is the biggest movie on the planet currently, right?  So, of course, my daughter requests a "Frozen"-themed birthday party and cake.  Here is the finished cake...

The first thing I did was search Pinterest for ideas.  We found this image of a cake and my daughter gave me the go-ahead.  

She chose two different flavors of boxed cake mix (because I have yet to attempt baking a cake from scratch) - blue velvet and pink lemonade.  I baked them according to package directions, leveled them, stacked them, and crumb-coated them in store-bought icing.

Somewhere along the line, I decided this cake would be the perfect opportunity to finally try using fondant, and homemade fondant at that.  I followed the instructions for Homemade Fondant found on Johanna's blog My Crazy Blessed Life.  It was easy to make - just marshmallows, powdered sugar, and water.  I added a bit of blue gel food coloring at the end and kneaded it in to make a marbled effect. However, after I rolled it out nice and thin and got ready to pick it up to gracefully drape over the cake, it was hard-core stuck to the counter.  So I had to knead it some more before rolling again (with way more powdered sugar on the counter this time) and my marbling was gone.  I did the bottom tier by itself first, then did the top, and then stacked them.  I covered the rough edges with a fondant rope.  The ice/snow steps in front were blocks of fondant and a fondant rope railing held in place at the top and bottom with a cut toothpick.

Now for the other decorations...  I made the trees out of candy clay.  I've been using candy clay for quite a while for edible cake decorations.  The recipe on Wilton's site has you use an entire bag of Candy Melts.  That makes a ton of candy clay and I never need that much.  So, a while back, I did the math to scale down the recipe.  If you want a smaller amount, use one teaspoon of corn syrup for every ten candy melt discs. (This only applies to Wilton brand Candy Melts.  Other brands may have different sized pieces.)  The instructions Wilton provides are easy to follow - but basically, it is melt the candy melts (I use microwave method), then stir in the corn syrup, then spread out on a plate or wax paper and let it cool overnight.  When you are ready to use it, you knead it a little at a time to soften it up and you are ready to go.

I shaped the prepared candy clay into a cone shape and then stuck a lollipop stick in.  I used kitchen scissors to make small snips all the way around.  When done, I stuck them into the cake evenly around the bottom layer.

Next up, I needed some Anna and Elsa and Olaf to actually make this look "Frozen" and to meet the approval of my daughter.  This is where things got surprisingly complicated.

I planned to just go to Target or Wal-Mart and buy small Anna and Elsa toys to put on the cake like in the inspiration photo.  Not so easy.  I went to every store I could think of and couldn't find Elsa.  I found Anna at a few stores, but the cheapest small Elsa I could find was included in a larger playset and cost around $40.  I love my daughter, but I am not spending that much on a cake topper.  Sorry.  I explored every option I could think of and settled on printing my own Shrinky Dinks.  If you are not familiar with Shrinky Dinks, immediately stop reading this and go Google it and then buy some and have hours of fun.  Just come back and finish reading this blog post eventually.

So, anyway, I found these printable "shrink sheets" forever ago and tucked them away.  

It looks like Avery maybe discontinued the product, but this product on Amazon looks like it might work.  I found the images for Anna, Elsa, and Olaf on Google Images.  I used Photoshop to get them all on one sheet of plastic and faded the color quite a bit.  (You will want to experiment with this if the instructions don't give you specifics.  If you leave the image full color, it will be really dark after you bake/shrink it.)  I flipped the image and printed on the back also.  Then I carefully cut out the characters leaving a spike at the bottom of each one under the feet.  I baked them and stabbed them into the cake.

Shrinky Dink Elsa and Anna

And since my daughter wanted an "8" candle, I stuck a toothpick into the bottom of the candle for extra support and cut out a small spot of fondant for the base and placed the candle.

Elsa, Anna, Olaf, and a giant 8 candle

And with a finished cake, I had a very happy birthday girl.

The End.  And we all lived happily ever after.  Right?  Well, mostly.  Just one thing I wanted to point out.  This fondant is rather heavy.  Everything worked out just fine, but you may be able to see the fondant on the bottom cake layer buckling a bit.  Next time, I think I need to make a change or two to prevent this.  

Some options:

-roll the fondant thinner, thereby using less

-use a denser cake (at least for the bottom) to better support the weight

-put some sort of support system in the bottom cake, dowels to hold up a base for the top cake, maybe.

I think I was the only one that noticed it (and then pointed it out to everyone) and the cake didn't collapse or anything, so it all worked out, but just a word of warning...

Thanks for stopping by!

Giant Cupcake!

This year, for my daughter's half birthday, she choose to have half of a giant cupcake (just like last year). So, the first thing we had to do was bake a whole giant cupcake so that we could later cut it in half.The first thing you will need is a Giant Cupcake pan. Mine is from Wilton.  

You will also need two boxes of cake mix and all of the corresponding ingredients or the ingredients to make your cake batter from scratch.  You won't use all of the batter.  There should be some left for a few normal size cupcakes or whatever you want.

Hannah chose Devil's Food for the bottom half and Strawberry for the top.  Mix up the batter so it was ready to go.  And preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  (Wilton shares instructions for this process on their webpage, so you might want to skim their's also.)

Now to prep your pan.  I highly recommend Baker's Joy spray.  This whole process is entirely dependent on the cake coming cleanly out of the pan.  And this pan has a lot of small areas for cakes to get stuck.  You can just do the "grease and flour" thing, but I find the spray much easier.

For now, just spray the side of the pan that makes the bottom of the giant cupcake.  Get it really coated.  Don't leave any dry spots.  Then fill with your "bottom batter".  For our cake, that was the Devil's Food.  Fill it up about 2/3 of the way.  I think Wilton recommends 3 1/2 cups, but I really hate measuring prepared batter so I eyeball it to about 2/3 full.

Now this is where I stray from the official instructions.  I put mine in the oven at this point - with the "top" section still empty and unsprayed.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.  (You are going to bake for an hour total, so either set the timer for an hour at this point and set a second timer for 10 minutes, or set it for 10 now and 50 later.  Up to you.)

Remove the pan from the oven.  Spray the heck out of the empty section.  

Then fill about 2/3 full with the other batter.  (Wilton says 2 1/2 cups.)  We did Strawberry and I filled it up to about where the swirl lines start.  

And then get it back in the oven to bake for the remaining 50 minutes.  

Baking in progress!

After that, do your toothpick test to see if it is done.  Ours was.  (Then bake your cupcakes according to package directions.

Let it cool about 15 minutes in the pan. Then dump it out.  If you sprayed yours successfully, it should pretty much fall out when you turn your pan over.


Now, let the cake cool completely.  Then level off the baked top of each piece.  I used a massive serrated knife.

Please ignore my cluttered counter!  And my almost 6.5 YO is the photographer on some of these, if you couldn't tell.

Spread some icing on the cut side of the bottom and carefully place the top on...umm...top.  Handle it gently so it doesn't crack.

Now decorate it as you see fit.  We left the bottom un-iced.  Hannah coated the top in cherry icing.  
Not sure how all of this is going to taste together, but she picked it all out.  I hope she likes it.  And then she did a lovely rainbow design with sprinkles.

Then, we will end up cutting the whole thing in half, because she only gets half of a birthday cake on her half birthday.  (The other half usually ends up going to work with me.)

Sing "Happy Half Birthday to you...", blow out the 6 1/2 candles, and enjoy!

One extra tip - Before putting away your Baker's Joy, turn the can upside down over your sink and spray it until it is just spraying clear.  Then run the sprayer tip under hot water for a few seconds.  This should keep it from clogging up between uses.

Rapunzel Cake

Before you even look at the photo, I need to offer a disclaimer...I am not an artist.  I am not a sculpter.  I just enjoy making things.  

My daughter LOVES the Disney movie Tangled and everything Rapunzel.  If you haven't seen the movie, stop reading now and go rent or buy the movie and watch it.  It is really good.

I made three cakes, iced them, and stacked them up.  Round, square, round, decreasing in size.  The cakes were box mixes and the icing was store bought, too.

Now here is where the hard part starts.  I made Candy Clay in various colors using Wilton Candy Melts.  That recipe is for a whole bag of candy melts, but you can scale it down.  My calculations have it at 10 candy melts per 1 teaspoon of corn syrup.  I used the clay to make a (not-very-pretty) Rapunzel, Pascal the chameleon, a frying pan, a hair brush, my version of the sun symbol, lots of flowers and leaves, and then a Rapunzel-supply of hair.  I wrapped the "hair" around all the layers of the cake and then used my super-rusty cursive-writing skills to spell Hannah's name across the front of the cake.  (The "6" is the candle, not edible.)

I was a little disappointed in my Rapunzel-sculpting skills, but other than that, I love how it turned out.  And most importantly, my daughter thought it was the most awesome cake ever.