I'm a little late in blogging this party, but it's worth the wait!
The Boy turned 10 a couple of weeks ago... I cannot believe it! Crazy crazy crazy.
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| Poor Jigglypuff fell over in this picture |
The kids have been super into Pokemon recently, and I'm not sad about that. The Hubby and I actually used to record Pokemon every day when we first got married and watch it when we got home from work. Yeah, this is one we can get behind.
I made a whole bunch of Pokemon themed treats - mostly Pokeballs, because those are the easiest.
I made Pokeball Babybells - "Poke-Bells" - super simple, just by cutting the wax, and then coloring the black band in with a black food marker.
I was pretty proud of these, too - I made meatball and cheese stuffed bread (just used a standard bread dough recipe - you could even buy pre-made pizza dough! I rolled the dough out thinly, and then stuffed with a pre-cooked meatball and a little cheese.
Then, I rolled them up and sealed them tightly.
From there, I baked them at 350 F for about 10 minutes, then the magic happened... I used egg wash that I had colored red with a little food coloring and a paint brush to paint half of the balls red. I did this when they were HALF baked, so they were hot. Just be careful not to burn yourself! I used a black food marker to color in the band to finish the Pokeballs! Then, I baked for an additional 5-8 minutes, or until lightly browned and cooked through.
Now... for the CAKE!
The Boy wanted the cake to be red and white (or, yellow), like a Pokeball. I started with a yellow cake, using the King Arthur Flour recipe for
Back-to-Basics Moist Yellow Cake. I made half of my
ball cake pan with the yellow cake, and used the rest of the batter to make a square cake (in my
square springform pan)
The red half of the cake was made with this
strawberry cake recipe. I did not use their frosting recipe or their filling - I'll get to my recipes in a second. I made a second half of the ball in strawberry, as well as a sheet cake.
For the frosting, I made a Strawberry Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
I used some freeze-dried strawberries blended into a powder to flavor the buttercream. One bag of freeze-dried strawberries from Trader Joe's is 1.2 oz - that's what I used to flavor the frosting! It really packs a punch.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream(
modified from OvenLoveBlog)
3 egg whites
⅔ c sugar
1.2 oz freeze-dried strawberries, processed into powder in food processor or blender
10 Tbsp butter, cubed and at room temp
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz cream cheese, cubed and at room temp
Bring a saucepan of water to simmer. Fit a mixing bowl or double boiler over the top of the pan. Combine egg whites and sugar in the bowl and whisk constantly until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar is completely dissolved - about 5 minutes.
Transfer the hot egg and sugar mixer to the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip on high speed until the bowl is no longer warm to the touch, about 10-15 minutes.
Turn the mixer to medium-low and begin adding the butter, one cube at a time, allowing each cube to incorporate completely before adding the next.
After all of the butter has been added, add the vanilla and the freeze-dried strawberry powder and turn the speed back to high. Whip for about 3 minutes or until the buttercream comes together. Turn the speed down to low and add the cream cheese, then mix on medium to fully incorporate.
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| Cake covered in the buttercream, awaiting fondant... |
Now, for the fun part - the Pokemon! The Boy had a long list of Pokemon he wanted me to make, but I stuck to just a few.
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| White Pikachu |
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| Painted Pikachu |
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| Snorlax - He is molded around a plastic Easter egg, so that he didn't use up all of the modeling chocolate |
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| The array... Snorlax, Snubull, Jigglypuff, Oddish, and Bulbasaur |
I started with modeling chocolate - I just made white, so that I wouldn't have to make lots of different colors. Then, I painted them all with food coloring.
The cake, I covered in store bought fondant. I didn't want to have to make red and black - they are tricky to get the really saturated colors.
It was pretty delicious.
The filling of the cake was a Cookies & Cream filling.
Cookies & Cream Filling
(modified from Brown Eyed Baker)
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 c powdered sugar
1 box chocolate sandwich cookies
Overall, The Boy was pretty pleased with his birthday party, and so was I!
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| Kind of looks like a Pokeball |
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| One of these years, he is going to ask for a Watermelon themed cake |
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| The Boy made the Deviled eggs |
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The Spread
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