Rocket Ship Birthday Cake

This year Trevor wanted an Outer Space/Rocket themed birthday party. Being the daring and naive cook that I can sometimes be, I set out to make another birthday cake from scratch and decorate it. I found this cute cake and recipe on the internet, and thought I could handle it. It turned out to be rather easy, but of course, there had to be some cake drama as usual.

The recipe called for two box mixes, and they were to be baked in a Pampered Chef Batter Bowl. Turns out I had that bowl, and it worked wonderfully. The cakes baked nicely in the batter bowl and came out very easy too.

the two cakes on top of each other;

orange icing for flames and for the center layer

My helper;

cake iced and sugar cone landing gear added

The top of the cake included an astronaut figure (which happened to be Jeremy's childhood toy) inside a clear plastic cup. On top of the cup is an iced and sprinkled sugar cone. We added M & M's as rivets and decoration.

almost finished


Tah-Dah!

The cake drama occured after the cake was iced and decorated. I had purchased canned frosting even though it called for buttercream. Buttercream is not my favorite, and I thought the canned frosting would work just fine. The orange icing was thick enough, but the cream cheese variety I bought was a little thin. I should have trusted my insticts and not used it. But being naive, I thought "it should work." Shortly after the above photo was taken, the icing started sliding off the cake. By late afternoon, I was scraping the icing off and decided I would have to re-ice the cake in the morning before the party. A stiffer vanilla canned icing worked much better, but I didn't push my luck by using M & M's for the number and other decorations.

re-iced cake

I think the cake is pretty adorable, and enjoy taking on these challenges. Although it does stress me out a little bit, the end result is worth it!