16th Birthday DIY Graffiti Cake

 

 

I had to think whether to post this picture or not. You see, as a cake maker, I feel it's expected that I'll make my children large, extravagant cakes. But sometimes, they don't know what they want; I don't know what to make them; and - to be very honest - time doesn't always allow for such creations!

 Yet, it's my elder son's 16th birthday and he had to have SOMETHING, right?

So I had an idea...  Not big. Not extravagant. But FUN! And that's what birthday cakes should be all about.  I baked then iced the flavour that he said he'd love to try (he does like me to try new flavours out on him!  He asked for chocolate with mint - I ended up making a mint and chocolate marble cake) and after covering with a layer of ganache, I iced it. Now, in an ideal world, this would have been done 24 hours ahead of when I needed it (not an hour and a half!!) so that the icing could set a little bit.

But once his friends arrived for lunch (before they all headed off to football - Come on you O's!!!!!) I called them into another room and asked them to write a message or draw a pic on the cake using edible markers. It wasn't easy as the icing was so soft... but they had such a laugh making it! And Matthew loved reading them all!

I wonder if this could catch on? I could provide an iced cake and three or four edible pens ..... DIY graffiti cake.... Whadyafink?

Anyway, here is Matthew's 16th birthday cake.

BMX Bike Half-Pipe Cake

 BMX Half-Pipe/Ramp Cake

This cake was on a huge 20"x14" cake board!!  It took 3 separate cakes to create this, with minimal carving (I hate waste!!)  I must confess that the bike is actually a mini toy that the customer provided.  The colourful graffiti inscription is all hand-cut and coloured and then added to the cake.  The other graffiti is written with an edible food marker.  Billy is the birthday boy and Josh is his twin brother (I'm about to upload a post of Joshua's birthday cake!!)
To view my full website visit: www.patacake-parties.com