The Kid's Birthday Fun Review » Easter

Make a Cross Cake~ Instructions and Photos

Linette — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:07:31 +0000

I made a cross cake for my nephew’s First Communion last weekend. This cake would also be great for a Baptism, or for Easter. I know I’m posting it a little late, but if I wait I’m afraid it will get lost in my sea of photos, and be totally forgotten about by next spring.

I think the cross cake turned out really well. It was for my nephew, so the only request my sister had was no pink. She has a horror story from a past cake she ordered from a grocery store bakery arriving in pink in yellow, after she requested tan. So I decided to make the cake in blue.

How To Make a Cross Cake

Materials (click item to view details):

Instructions:

1. Bake your cake according to the recipe or mix directions. The Wilton cross cake pan fits one cake mix perfectly. Spray the pan with no stick cooking spray with flour, and pour in the batter.

2. Once the cake is baked, remove it carefully from the pan by flipping it onto a cooling rack. Place the rack over the pan and flip the whole thing over. Then gently lift the pan.

3. While your cake is baking and cooling color a small amount of fondant blue (about the size of a golf ball). Use a toothpick to apply a small amount of blue food color to the fondant, then work the color in by pushing, pulling and twisting the fondant until the color is all through. Keep adding blue food color and working it in until the fondant is the desired shade of blue.

4. Use the fondant roller and a fondant mat to roll out the fondant. If the fondant is sticking use a small amount of vegetable oil on the mat or the roller. Use the guides on your roller to set the thickness. For these tiny flowers I usually use the thinnest guide.

5. Using a small blossom fondant cutter cut out about 30 flowers. Use a tiny bit of vanilla in the middle of the flower to secure a sugar pearl for your flower center. You can apply the vanilla with a small paint brush (used only for food), or with the end of a toothpick. Clear vanilla works best. Place one sugar pearl on each flower.

6.Measure and cut a sheet of cardboard to fit the cake, or use the back of a large baking sheet, and cover it with cake foil.

7. Use a bread knife or a cake leveler to cut the top of the cake off so it is level, then carefully flip the cake onto the covered cardboard.

8. Set the flowers aside to dry while you ice your cake using your favorite decorator icing. Here’s my favorite recipe: Butter Cream Icing.

9. Reserve a small amount of icing in a bowl. Add royal blue food coloring to the rest of the icing until it is the desired shade of blue.

10. Color the reserved icing with green food coloring for the vines and leaves.

11. Ice your cake with the blue icing. I usually apply a thin layer of icing first, to seal in the crumbs. Then I apply a second layer of icing.

12. Once the cake is iced use the #4 round decorating tip and the green icing in a decorator bag to make vines on your cake. Start at the base of the cross and go up.

13. Next add your flowers to the ends of the vines, or where vines intersect. Place 2 or 3 flowers at each spot.

14. Use the #67 leaf tip on a decorator bag filled with green icing to make small leaves coming out from under each of the flowers. Apply a small amount of pressure to the decorator bag, then pull forward and release the pressure. Don’t worry if each leaf isn’t perfect.

15. Use the Wilton #21 star tip and a decorator bag to make a shell border around the base of the cake. You can color some icing a little darker blue, if you’d like the border to be darker than your cake. Make the shell border by applying pressure to the decorator bag while you have the tip down next to the base of the cake. Let the icing build up a little, then pull the tip up and forward. If you’ve never made a border before you may want to practice on a small piece of foil until you get the hang of it.

Like I said above this cake would be wonderful for a First Communion, Baptism, or for an Easter brunch.

8 Fun Easter Cake and Cupcake Ideas

Linette — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:38:10 +0000

I’m always ready for spring to get here! One of my favorite holidays of the year is Easter. I love all the cute Easter cakes and cupcake ideas that are out there, so I thought I’d round up a few of my favorites to share with you this week. Maybe one of them will inspire your Easter baking this week.

1. PartyBluPrints invites you to make a Mr. Bunny cake in five easy steps. I always love easy!

2. At Amazing Moms I wrote up the instructions for this pink Easter Basket Cake.

3. Celebrate It has an adorable Brown Easter Bunny Cake outlined in pink.

4. The Party Animal made some really cute Donut Bunnies (they’re not exactly cupcakes, but close enough).

5. At Amazing Moms I also posted this fun Hatching Easter Bunny Cake.

6. Here at The Kid’s Fun Review I just added some Spring Jelly Bean Flower Cupcakes.

7.The Party Animal also created these super simple Lemon Drop Chick cupcakes.

8. Family Fun has another idea for sweet tweet Chick Cupcakes.

Any of these cakes or cupcakes would make a fun addition to your Easter table, and the kids would have a blast helping you create them.

Spring Jelly Bean Flower Cupcakes

Linette — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 05:07:12 +0000

I have a super simple spring cupcake idea for you. It’s also a really great way to use up some of those extra jelly beans you get for Easter this year.

What’s more fun than brightly colored jelly bean flowers on top of your cupcakes?

Jelly Bean Spring Flower Cupcakes

Materials:

Jelly beans
Green Fondant (or white fondant and green food color)
Leaf fondant cutter
Toothpicks
Green food color
Wilton tip #233
Decorator bag
Buttercream icing
Cupcakes

Instructions:

1. A day before you’re going to make your Jelly bean flower cupcakes, paint several toothpicks with green food color and set them aside to dry. You’ll need about 3 toothpicks for each cupcake you plan to make.

2. Bake your cupcakes according to your recipe or mix directions and set them aside to cool.

3. While your cupcakes are baking and cooling, color a piece of fondant green, by dipping an end of a toothpick into the green food color then touching it to the fondant. Work the green food color into the fondant by pulling and stretching the fondant with your hands until the color is worked through.

4. Roll the fondant with a fondant roller, on wax paper or a plastic mat until the fondant is about 1/8″ thick. Use the leaf cutter to cut out the leaves. You’ll need about 6 for each cupcake (2 for each jelly bean flower).

5. Wrap the base of the leaf around the green toothpicks. Wrap one or two leaves around each toothpick, then have an adult carefully push a jellybean onto the end of the toothpick. Do this carefully, and don’t push too hard.

6. Lay your jelly bean flowers aside to dry for a couple minutes while you ice the cupcakes.

7. Ice the cupcakes using a Wilton #233 decorating tip and a pastry bag, with some green decorator icing. If your icing is white, tint it green with a little food coloring.

8. Put the tip inside the pastry bag so the end is sticking out the bottom of the bag, then add the icing.

9. Hold the tip just above the top of the cupcake and gently squeeze the bag. When the icing starts to come out raise the tip slightly, then release the pressure and lift the tip away. Move over just a little and repeat the process until the top of your cupcake looks like a field of grass.

10. Carefully insert three jelly bean flowers into the cupcake and you’re finished.

These would be fun for a spring party, or a school Easter party or take them over to grandma’s house.

New PAAS Easter Egg Decorating Kits

Linette — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:31:35 +0000

We got to check out two of PAAS new Easter egg decorating kits this week. We tried out the Build A Basket and the Mini Monsters egg decorating kits.

We boiled the eggs one day, then the next day we colored and created our egg masterpieces. I’ve never been a fan of those little wire egg holders that come in the kits, so we used a pair of kitchen tongs to get the eggs in and out of the colors.

My son took charge of the Mini Monster kit, he was all over making monsters out of his eggs. The kit included funky monster eyeballs and mouths, a little glue, and some wild hair you could add to your monsters. There were also pipe cleaners so you could add monster antennae or arms.

I really liked the Build a Basket kit, it included everything you would normally find in a PAAS egg decorating kit, including crayons, stickers, and the egg coloring tablets, plus two little cardboard baskets kids can color and fold out. There’s also Easter grass to display the eggs on in the basket.
I think the baskets are fun if you’re planning on giving some of your eggs away to friends or family. You can also let each child color a basket to put their own eggs into.

Easter egg coloring is something we enjoy doing together every year. So we spent an afternoon coloring and decorating a couple dozen eggs, while we were talking and having a great time.

You can find the new PAAS Egg Decorating Kits at most grocery stores, and retail stores. You can also find more information on all their kits at the PAAS Easter Eggs website.

Disclosure: PAAS sent me the Build a Basket and the Mini Monster egg decorating kits to check out. The opinions, and fun we had with the kits was all ours.

Easter Basket Cake With Chocolate Eggs

Linette — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:01:40 +0000

I made this Easter basket cake with chocolate eggs for Amazing Moms last week, but I thought I’d share it here too.

There are two projects in one, you can make the chocolate eggs or the cake separately, or combine them to make the cake pictured above.

I love how it all turned out. You just never know when a project starts as an idea in your head, how it’s going to come out when you actually try to create it.

Of course you have to head on over to Amazing Moms to see how I made it. Here are the links to the articles:

How to make the Easter basket cake

How to make the chocolate eggs

I should have some Easter cupcake ideas coming up! Stay tuned!

Dollar Store Easter Party Centerpiece Craft

Linette — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:11:54 +0000

I went to the local dollar store the other day to see what I could come up with on a budget for cute Easter table decorations. I found a pack of glittery eggs, and some daisy flower lollipops both in bright Spring colors. The colors coordinated really well so I decided I would take them home and see what I could do.

When I got them home I thought they might look cute coming out of a pot like flowers, so I found an old clay pot, washed it out and gave it a coat of paint. I also grabbed some floral Styrofoam, paper Easter grass from last year, some Robin’s Egg Candy, and some acrylic paints and brushes I had in my craft drawers.

I painted the flower pot a bright pink with some craft paint I already had, the pink matched some of the other colors in my dollar store finds. I also painted some little daisies on the pot in spring colors to coordinate it with the flower lollipops I bought at the Dollar Store.

I cut the floral foam to fit inside the flower pot and put some of the Easter grass on top to hide the foam.

I arranged the flower lollies, and the eggs in the flower pot until everything looked in proportion. Then I dropped the candies into the grass.

These would make fun low cost Easter table centerpieces, or party favors for your kid’s Easter party. Each finished table decoration or favor would cost less than $5, and would be easy to assemble. You don’t have to get fancy when you paint the pots, you can paint them one solid color if you don’t want to spend the time making flowers.

When the party is over you can send them home with the guests as party favors, or draw a couple names or numbers out of a hat and give them as door prizes.

New Bella Sara Miniatures and Sunflower Trading Cards

Linette — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:27:47 +0000

Bella Sara sent me a couple of their new miniature velvet horses, and some of their Sunflower trading cards to check out. I have a confession, I was horse crazy when I was growing up! I loved horses (still do), so I was like a kid when I received these in the mail. They’re adorable!

The velvet horses are soo cute and tiny! If I was a little girl I would love to find these in my Easter basket on Easter morning. Their price point of $2.99 for the card packs, and $1.99 each for the mini horses, makes them a perfect alternative to candy.

Each Miniature pack includes a secret code. Once they receive a pack of Bella Sara cards kids can head to BellaSara.com and sign up or sign in to journey through the magical world of North of North. They can enter their secret code to unlock Bela Sara Adventures and other fun games.

The new Sunflowers cards lets kids join Emma and her friends on a search for Herd Sunflower, unlocking new adventures on the way using secret codes.

The new Miniatures Series 3 set contains 20 new velvety little figurine horses to go along with the release of the new Sunflower cards. There are also new beautifully illustrated Keepsake Cases featuring 4 collectible carde packs, an exclusive collectible promo card, and one secret code to unlock Sunflowers adventures and Horseshoes at Bella Sara.

Bella Sara is offering a special coupon code for Kid’s Fun Reviewed readers! Shop the Bella Sara Website and use the promotion code: SUNFLWRS to recieve 10% off your order (limit 1 per customer) between now and April 30th 2010!

Disclosure: Bella Sara did send me some of these adorable little horses, but all of the opinions here are strictly mine. I can’t help it if I’m still a horse crazy little girl on the inside!

20 Last Minute Spring and Easter Party Treats

Linette — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:21:06 +0000

If you’re looking for a last minute Easter treat idea or recipe here are a few sweet treats you can choose from.

Easter Cake Pops from Bakerella (my faves so they get number 1)
Homemade Marshmallow Peeps
Cadbury Mini Egg Cookies
Birds Nest Spring Treats
How To Make An Easter Basket Cookie
Little Lamb Cupcakes
Marshmallow Bunnies
Easter Sugar Cookies
Easter Bunny Cupcakes
Chocolate Rabbits
Chick and Egg Cupcakes (with Peeps)
Chocolate Fudge Easter Eggs
Making Easter Chocolates
Sweet Tooth Bunny Cupcakes
Pastel Mints
Chocolate Dipped Almond Eggs
Mini Cheesecake Easter Baskets
Fluffer Bunnies
Peeps Chocolate Mousse Dessert
Chocolate Eggs

Have fun making your Easter treats, stop back and let me know how the recipes worked out for you!