Monday, September 19, 2005

Happy Birthday Jeff!

**As you can see I have changed the look of the website. If you happen to find anything that does not work right in your browser please feel free to e-mail me with the link on the right hand side. Thanks!

So that is where the brownies from yesterday went. Jeff and one of his co-workers have a birthday that is fairly close and they requested brownies to celebrate with their teams. They all went to work and none came home - Maybe I will have to make a half batch just so I can try some!

Being a big kid at heart he likes disney a lot (maybe that's an understatement...) so I was trying to figure out what kind of cake to make. I found the pan and decided to try and make a mickey face cake.
I'm not the best cake decorater so hopefully it came out ok. I didn't get the exact tint for the icing of the face but it's pretty close from the picture. The stars are hard to see with the black tinting, but it looks just like the other colors close up. I used Vanilla buttercream for all colors execpt black which I used a chocolate buttercream (so the black color would be attainable without bitterness from the coloring.)

The actual cake recipe was King Arthurs Elegant White Cake. This one bakes up beautifully and has a fine crumb while still quite moist. The cake is very white on the inside and the taste is pretty light.The dinner request was for BBQ chicken pizza - I made a whole wheat dough that I normally use. I thought I would use this one to play around with for future entertaining - that's why it is in the ring shape. I think we could use this in the future as a fun appetizer with a dip or something in the center. After laying the BBQ chicken mixture around in a circle you make 8 cuts in the center and pull each one towards the back crust and tuck under.


21 comments:

  1. The cake looks awesome! Great job on it! The pizza ring though, now THAT is awesome. Such a great idea to perk up the presentation. I will be filing that in my "must do for company" file.

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  2. Happy Birthday, Jeff!!

    Another Virgo/September baby...excellent!

    Joe...you did a very good job with the cake; my Mom ran a cake decorating business for almost twenty years (before she decided to train to be a chef/pastry chef), so I ought to know!

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  3. Happy Birthday, Jeff - hope it was a wonderful one!

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  4. That's a cake you made?! It looks like a stuffed animal, not a cake. That's incredible!

    I love the re-design. Very clean and much easier to read. And hey! Thanks for adding my site to your links list.

    Happy Birthday, Jeff!

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  5. Happy birthday, Jeff! I am also a Disney-lover, and am a bit sad that it has been too long since our last Disneyworld trip. I loved the cake...very pretty!

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  6. Thanks for the birhtday wishes!! I had a great day and was spoiled rotten :)

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  7. i am so impressed with that cake! its an incredible likeness- really well done!

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  8. Just wanted to say hi and that I've enjoyed reading your blog. You have such wonderful looking things here that I don't think I'll ever be able to make everything on my list. Keep up the good work on this interesting site!!

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  9. Hip HipHooray! Glad you had a Great Day Jeff!!!

    Fab Cake (you outdid your self Joe, Cute pizza ring :))

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  10. Very nice Mickey cake!! I was wondering how you got the black tint to look so good...chocolate buttercream, of course...excellent idea. The pizza ring is a really clever idea! I love the idea of putting a dip in the center.

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  11. I saw that same idea with the pizza ring on Sandra Lee...did you see that episode too or did you make it up on the fly?

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  12. joe,
    that is one incredibly professional-looking cake! great job!!
    val

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  13. That's a fun-looking pizza, Joe - and the cake is amazing. As usual, you impress me with the amount of energy and creativity that you put into your cooking. Great job!

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  14. That cake is amazing and the BBQ pizza is impressive in its own right! Joe - you are quickly becoming one of my cooking idols.
    :-)

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  15. oh yes the cake looks wonderful! and that is the most interesting looking pizza ive ever seen, well done :D

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  16. WOW!!!! I am so impressed. My birthday is in about a month, if you want to come visit. ;).

    Also, what a fun idea for the pizza. It looks great.

    Happy Birthday Jeff.

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  17. Oh, now I want a Mickey Mouse cake too!!! The cake was awesome, so pretty!! You did a wonderful job!!
    And the idea of the pizza ring... so cool! I really like the effect, very nice!
    Ana

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  18. Everything looks fabulous, especially the cake. We just had a small birthday party for my honey and my daughter (their birthdays are 4 days apart). She requested a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, but yours would have wowed her.

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  19. joe, that bbq pizza looks fantastic! well done.

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  20. Wow! I love the cake! You did a great job with it! Happy Belated Birthday to Jeff! Sounds like the food was awesome!

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  21. beautiful and creative food, clean and easy to read redesign, and good taste in blogs for the link list grin ...what more could one ask for? (btw, thanks for linking to me...)

    that marvelous looking pizza-ring also looks thick, how long did it take to bake?

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