Audrey's B~Day Cake

Audrey kept telling people she was getting a "pluto" cake for her birthday party;) I got this idea from a Family Fun magazine. I was worried about getting the shape right because I had never cut cake before. But it was all surprisingly easy. I did have to angle the legs a bit because my tray wasn't quite wide enough to place them like it was shown in the example. We, of course, had to go with strawberry (pink) cake and I tinted both the vanilla icing and pink coconut "fur". Frosting the cake was time consuming as I had to dirty ice and and then re~ice the entire thing. I was trying to be really careful not to smear frosting all over the serving tray, too. I used pink and orange gumballs for the poodle's pearl necklace collar, fruit roll~ups for the eyelashes and mouth, and a malted milk ball for nose.

Austin's B~Day Cake

This was a basic yellow cake with vanilla frosting. I split the cake and filled it with chocolate "mousse" (chocolate pudding {made with less milk than called for} and cool whip mixed together), so the cake was pretty thick and heavy. I used fruit roll~ups for the keys and center court and outlined and wrote with a black decorating gel. The finishing touch was m&m's pressed into the sides to resemble fans in the bleachers.

Merry Mice

So simple....

1. drain and pat dry 24 cherries with stems
2. melt a couple cups of semi sweet chocolate chips (follow instructions on chip bag)
3. dip cherries into chocolate and place on wax paper lined cookie sheet
4. immediately "attach" hershey kiss head and almond slice ears
5. pipe confectioners sugar icing (a cup or so with a few tsps. water~ you want this icing thick so that it doesn't run down the "faces") for eyes (save a bit and mix with black and red food colorings for pupils and noses) I spooned my icing into little ziplock baggies and snipped a tiny hole in the corner.
6. refrigerate until serving