The 2017 May Birthday Cakes

My father's birthday is usually the kickoff to our May celebrations. With Easter so late, and a second cake to bake at the end of the week, I pitched an idea for the kids to make for their abuelo. I present to you the Scone cake. It's one and a half batches of Buelo's favorite treat, drizzled with chocolate ganache. It actually made a very light tasting cake.

The second cake would be a challenge. My youngest requested a cake that depicted a scene from Steven Universe: The Strawberry Field which was the Gem Battlefield. I baked a chocolate buttermilk cake and used buttercream frosting for decorating. Marina baked chocolate sugar cookies to use for the background mountains and shrubs and the Warp Pad (their transporter). I also skewered strawberries with little plastic cocktail swords. It looks like a stage scene. You really can only look at it from the front.

 Marina's birthday was next. I think she knew I really wanted to try making Lion from Steven Universe. Lion is a velvet cake decorated with whipped cream frosting. Melted chocolate was my glue to hold the pieces together and to detail the eyes and nose. I think the face is a little too flat. I baked a smaller cake for it and I should have sliced it on more of an angle. I also almost forgot to give him ears. Good thing I had plenty of cake scraps to work with! The eyes are slivers of marshmallow decorated with melted chocolate.

The final cake would come five days later for my son's birthday. I used both a velvet cake and a chocolate buttermilk cake for this one. He planned to play D&D that night and go out for his first drink, so I made cupcakes for him to bring to his friends. The base cake is a layer of chocolate cake and a layer of velvet cake frosted with whipped cream. Then I made buttercream frosting to decorate Aku, the main villain from Samurai Jack. My son had actually requested Scaramouche's head, but I thought Aku would add some color. (Who wants a gray cake?) Scaramouche is a cyborg that was cut apart by Samurai Jack. He's made with one and a half cupcakes frosted with buttercream. His spine is made from a Pirouette cookie. (Yes, I bought a whole tin of Pirouettes so I could use a piece of one cookie. It was a very hot week and I didn't want to do any more baking than necessary.)

In all, it was an incredibly busy May, between birthdays and work and some meetings. I'm glad I have a month's break before my husband's birthday. And just a note, I have come to depend upon those two cake recipes. When you have to bake so many cakes in quick succession, you want to rely on a recipe that is tried and true. Save the experiments for low stress baking!