A Boy and His Castle

Pretty much since the day after his last birthday, my friend's son Brady has been telling me he wanted a cake in the shape of a Zamboni. I had NO idea how I was going to pull that off. Fortunately for me he is now into Lego's and crazy about his castle and knight themed Lego's and decided he wanted a castle instead.

The cake was a 10 inch and 6 inch yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and was surrounded by a blue gel moat. The towers were ice cream cones frosted with buttercream and covered in red sanding sugar. The Knights and dragon were supplied courtesy of the birthday boy. 

Happy 5th birthday, Sir Brady! 

Yes, This Blog Still Exists (well, kind of...)

Yeah, so this blog thing didn't go exactly as planned. It's only been like, um, 4 months or so. That's not so bad, right? One post every 4 months. Yep.. totally successful blogger.

So, here it is... the cake that saved the From the Hill blog... yellow cake, cookie dough (egg-less so as not to freak anyone out), and chocolate buttercream frosting. I'm not sure life gets any better than this.

p.s. Really you could use any cake flavor/recipe you want... I just am partial to yellow.
p.p.s Also, my photography skills have not improved AT ALL during this blogging hiatus. So sorry.

Cookie Dough Cake

Cookie Dough

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 Tbs. milk

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups mini-chocolate chips

Combine first 5 ingredients in mixing bowl and combine. Add in flour; stir until well combined. Add in chocolate chips. I made this the night before, but would recommend you let it sit out or it will be more difficult to spread on the cake.

Cake

1 yellow cake mix

1 vanilla instant pudding mix (3.4 ounces)

1 cup milk (I used whole milk... i think it's best for baking, and what's a few more calories?)

1 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all ingredients; mix well. Pour into 2- 8 inch cake pans that have been greased & floured (I cheat and use the Pam Baking spray... ). Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set on baking wracks and remove from pans after 10 minutes.

*I know the ingredients sound a little crazy... a cup of oil is a lot. You could totally just bake the mix as the box says. This recipe is from the Cake Doctor and it it, in my opinion, SO much better than just the plain mix.

Chocolate Buttercream

1 stick butter, softened

1/3 cup cocoa (more if you like a stronger chocolate taste)

3-5 cups powdered sugar (I used probably closer to 5 this time because I felt it was too chocolate-y. Use your best judgement)

1/3 cup milk, plus additional as needed.

1 tsp vanilla

Mix butter and cocoa until well combined. Add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beet until frosting is fluffy. Add additional milk as needed.

taken from my cell phone... I'm slightly embarrassed to post this horrific picture, but I had to show you the cookie dough!

Video

Ok, I have been an extremely poor blogger as of late. In my defense, I've been out of the country training for a new job for the better part of 2 weeks and just haven't had the energy. And I'm totally being lazy on this post to share a video I watched today... it's adorable. I especially love when the daughter sings and yawns at the same time. So cute.