Hottest Birthday Cake Around

For my 10 year old son’s birthday party we decided to have a camping party in our backyard. It was a big hit! We set up tents in the back, built a real campfire, roasted marshmallows, and told ghost stories, in addition to singing happy birthday with our the Hottest Cake Around! I always enjoy the challenge of building a cake into a shape so when my kids choose their theme we have a fun time brainstorming ideas for what to have me build.

The fire was more difficult than others I have done because I had to shape the logs and the flames and try to keep them somewhat in perspective. In addition, trying to carve moist chocolate cake into flame points was agonizing as it wants to break off at the tips. ha! To start, I baked two 8-inch square cakes. After cooling and refrigerating to help it from crumbling when shaping, I took one of the cakes and carved a triangle out of the middle of each side, leaving as thick a strip of cake at each corner to make mimic the logs, and enough cake in the middle to support the flames. I then rounded the tops and iced with brown icing. Finally, I finished the logs by etching wood grain into them with a toothpick.

For the flames I “glued” the triangles that I had cut out, along with cake from the other 8-inch cake, onto the top of the logs using icing. I had to shape as needed while making it look free flowing like a real flame. It was not easy! Icing the cake was super fun trying to mix the colors and portray the nuances and color of a live fire. And everyone loved seeing his name in flames on the side!

The cake was finished off with “roasted marshmallows” on the side. The kids really enjoyed the cake and even pretended they were burning their mouths while eating it! It was truly the hottest cake around.

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