Lexi’s Cupcake Flower Birthday Cake

This weekend I realized that omigosh, Lexi’s birthday is in 3 days and we haven’t picked out a cake yet.  Normally, they can not WAIT to finally pick out a cake from the grocery store.  They have always loved going by the cake case and deciding on which they will pick for their birthday.  Well, sadly I think they are getting a bit old for that so a cake was not on the forefront of my mind.  So a-googling I went!  I was inspired by this cupcake cake and thankfully Lexi approved!

And this is what we came up with:

It’s not as professional as the inspiration and Lexi REALLY wanted blue flowers instead of the pretty pink but overall, I’m super proud of it and Lexi LOVES it.

And I’m happy to say we took some pictures along the way so you could see how it’s done!

First, Lexi wanted yellow cake.  Sorry to all my chocolate-loving family including myself that will be eating yellow cake tonight.

Next, Daddy got involved a cut some board to 20×30” and wrapped it in tinfoil. 

After the cupcakes cooled, I arranged them how I wanted them.  I put the puffier ones in the middle with the smaller ones would fit better.

Then I made some of my mom’s icing.  I separated them into 4 bowls, the largest going to the blue that is not pictured.  We used this really cool NEON food coloring I got from Harris Teeter.

Then, I got to decorating.  This is approximately 9pm at night so sorry for the bad lighting and hair. 

Then, dear goodness, I actually broke out my cake decorating set.  I have to say, I had fond memories of my mom doing this very same thing the night before my birthdays.  Mom, thanks for all the hard work you always put into our birthday cakes!  I put 3 purple dots at the edge of each flower near the middle.  And then outlined each flower so it made it look more like one cake.

And I just have to include this bad picture because it catches me going, “Oh my, is this going well?  I’m really not sure!”

I used the rest of the purple to write “Happy Birthday Lexi” on the side.  Given my bad handwriting skills, I felt like it went well.

And then, I used my spatula to “paint” a stem with the green.

And that’s it!

Oh, until we get to the end and go, oh my, how are we going to keep this covered until tomorrow?  And then Scott’s resourcefulness and OCD took over.

I think it’s safely covered until the party tonight.

Here is my mom’s icing recipe I used:

1 cup of Crisco
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract

Dump all of this in a bowl and blend with a mixer.  If it’s too thick, add a little more milk. 

Good luck on not eating it before it makes it to the cake!