Shoe Box

A friend requested a cake for her niece turning 16.  Something fashionable.  So I did a Shoe Box Cake with a gum paste shoe.  The top is an actual shoe box lid covered with fondant.

Flavour Devil's Food cake, and I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to give it a kick. 

I used a 9"x13" pan to bake the cake.  I cut the cake in half (9"x6.5") and layered the halves with buttercream icing. I decorated it with fondant after.

Ingredients:

- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

Creating My Birthday Cake

Well it's that time of the year again. My Birthday. Since I am taking Cake Decorating Classes, it would be a shame if I celebrated my big day, with a store bought cake. So I present to you, the making of Dee's (that's me) birthday cake. The recipe? Pumpkin Spice Cake, with a Cream Cheese Icing. I used the pumpkin insides that I froze, when I was carving my jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. You can freeze the insides for up to 6 months.

As I type this, it is baking in my NEW convection oven. I can barely concentrate. Check back from time to time, as I am uploading my photos, as I progress.

Happy Birthday to me... Here we go!

Recipe
1 package spice cake mix
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 eggs

Icing
1 (16 ounce) can vanilla frosting
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x13 inch baking pan, or two 9 inch cake pans.
2.In a large bowl, mix together the yellow cake mix, sugar, vegetable oil, pumpkin, water, cinnamon, nutmeg and eggs. Beat until well blended. Transfer to the baking dish or cake pans.
3.Bake in the preheated oven 50 minutes.

What I liked about this recipe, was that it was easy. I mean, this is my birthday cake, but I wanted to bake a cake that was quick and delicious.

(keep on checking, as I am adding more photos to this post)