Birthday Edition

Someone in our home has a birthday this week (more on that in a few days!). So I thought I would share 2 of my best birthday cake tips. Because who doesn't love birthday cake?!?

Each year when I was a kid, I woke up on the morning of my birthday to the smell of homemade birthday cake. My mom always got up extra early to start on my cake and it is such a special memory to me. Now, I can't say that I wake up early and start baking on my children's birthdays, but I love making a homemade cake or cupcakes for them on their special day! 

Some people love to make cakes from scratch. That's not me. I am all about the box cake mix. And honestly, I prefer to make cupcakes (you'll see why in a minute!). However, I do think homemade frosting is what makes the cake! And I'm not giving away any names, but I have a friend who is a professional cake baker and she totally agrees with me! I'm just saying... ;)

So I am going to share my homemade chocolate frosting recipe with you. I have some friends who have been known to eat this frosting with a spoon! This recipe will frost one 2 layer round cake or 2 dozen cupcakes with some extra for snacking on with a spoon. ;)

Homemade Chocolate Frosting

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

2/3 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk

1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Use an electric hand mixer to beat together softened butter and cocoa. (Be sure to use stick butter.) 

Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed until smooth.

Stir in 1 to 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. (This measurement is flexible depending on how strong your vanilla extract is.) 

My second birthday cake tip actually has to do with decorating cupcakes. I said earlier that I prefer to make cupcakes. To me, I can make cupcakes look a little more "fancy" by doing 2 easy things. One, I love using the No-Fade cupcake liners. You can buy these almost anywhere now and they come in such a variety of adorable patterns and colors. And to me they make a big difference because the liners don't fade (obviously!) or get all greasy looking after the cupcakes have been baked. This is the brand I prefer:

And second, I use The Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator. It looks like this:

If you don't have something like this and you love baking, please go buy one!...or at least add it to your Christmas wish list! I use mine all the time because it has all these different attachments that are great for all kinds of things besides making your frosting look pretty like this (and it is way faster and easier than using a knife to spread the frosting!):

These are some cupcakes I made this summer for a super
special friend of mine.

Here are some I made for Chazzy's 3rd birthday. He was all about Angry Birds last year so I found some Angry Bird ring pops to add to the top. I love the way they turned out and so did he!

And lastly, here's one from Channing's 5th birthday. I used several of her favorite cupcake liners and made vanilla and chocolate cake and frosting. I love the fun colors! 

Looks easy right? It totally is!! And it is WAY less expensive than custom cupcakes. And they are super special because they are made with love! Now, enough with the birthday cake tips! It is time for me to go make some homemade cupcakes for my special birthday boy! :) I might even get crazy and try a different decorating attachment for the frosting!