School Bus Cake, Cupcakes and Cookies

I'm really surprised how quickly time has passed by. It seems like only yesterday we got our little bundle of joy home from the hospital. My little angel turned two a couple of months back. We threw a small birthday party for her at home. Since she loves the song "The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round", I made a bus cake for her. They also celebrated her birthday at her Daycare. Keeping the same theme in mind, I made some bus themed cupcakes and little bus cookies for her friends at the Daycare. I think the cake turned out pretty good though I missed out on a few details :(.
The inspiration for the cake, cupcakes and the cookies comes from different places on the web. I have included some of the links below.  I had lot of fun making these and I am very happy to share this with all of you.

SCHOOL BUS CAKE
I used 1 Betty Crocker yellow cake mix to bake two 9x5 cakes in the loaf pan. I used Wilton Butter cream frosting and icing colors to make the yellow, black and red frosting. The wheels on the bus were made from mini chocolate donuts and M&Ms were used for the headlights and other details. Mini Nilla wafers cookies were used for the faces of the bus driver and the kids while black licorice flavored Twizzlers were used to represent the front bumper of the bus. I forgot the stop sign but you could use a Mini Nilla wafer  topped with red and white icing for the stop sign.

 

SCHOOL BUS CUPCAKES

These cute bus themed cupcakes were very easy to decorate. Once again I used a Betty Crocker yellow cake mix and baked 24 cupcakes. I frosted the lower half of the cupcake green for the grass and the upper half was frosted in blue butter cream to form the sky. Then, all you need is a vanilla wafer cookie to cut out the bus shape and a mini M&M to create the stop sign.

SCHOOL BUS COOKIES

The bus themed no bake cookies were only a decorating project. I used plain graham crackers, yellow, black and white butter cream frosting and M&M candies to decorate these adorable cookies. I used one graham cracker square, with one rectangular (quarter of entire graham cracker) for the front and used royal icing to stick the 2 pieces together. Then I decorated the bus as shown in the pictures.

 

LINKS -

http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/school-bus-cake.html#c2
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/school-bus-cupcakes-685475/

Wilton Course # 2 - Grand Finale Basketweave Cake

Wilton Course # 2 - Grand Finale Cake Prep Work

 

 

 

 

 

Eggless Chocolate Brownie Cake

It looks like Tarla Dalal has a variety of easy eggless cake recipes. When I came across this brownie cake recipe, that uses yoghurt and has no eggs, I could not wait to try it out. This is pretty different than the brownies I have tasted here in the US. But can pass as a very simple yet delicious eggless chocolate cake that requires no fancy kitchen gadgets and only a few basic ingredients from your pantry. I have successfully baked this cake few times before. My baby turned 7 months old this week. I had this fun monkey shaped cake in mind and this chocolate cake turned out to be the perfect base for the decorations. All you need is some frosting and fun candies to bring this monkey to life. It was pretty simple to make and is sure to bring a smile on anyone's face





For the Brownie Cake

Ingredients -
1. 2 cups plain flour (maida)
2. ½ cup cocoa powder
3. 1½ cup powdered sugar
4. 1 teaspoon soda bi-carb
5. 1 teaspoon baking powder
6. 12 tablespoons curds
7. 10 tablespoons milk
8. 10 tablespoons melted butter
9. 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method -
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C (350 F).
2. Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl using a wooden spoon, making sure there are no lumps.
3. Pour this mixture into a greased and dusted 9" round baking pan
4. Place in the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Cool and proceed with the decoration as given below.

Note - If you like, you can also add 1 cup of chopped walnuts to the cake batter

For monkey cake decoration -

Ingredients -
1. 1 (9-inch) round cake
2. 2 chocolate-covered doughnuts
3. 1 cup pink frosting (I used left over pink icing from my Wilton class. You can use vanilla frosting and tint it pale pink with some red food coloring)
4. 1 Wilton ready to use red icing (You can tint @ 2 tbsp vanilla frosting with red food coloring for dark red color for the lips)
5. 2 tbsp white vanilla frosting
6. 1 can (16 oz) chocolate frosting
7. ½ cup chocolate sprinkles
8. 2 black jelly beans
9. 2 miniature York peppermint patties
10. 1 red Twizzler

Other Tools -
1. A bread knife/
2. A serving platter
3. 2 resealable sandwich-size plastic bags (Ziploc)
4. Kitchen shears or scissors

Trimming the cakes -

1. Place the cake on a clean work surface. Using the bread knife, trim a 1 ½-inch triangle-shaped notch from opposite sides of the cake (see template). Discard scraps. Place the trimmed cake onto a serving platter.
2. Cut ½ inch from one side of each doughnut.



For the white, red, and pink frosting -
1. Spoon ¼ cup of the untinted vanilla frosting into a resealable plastic bag.
2. Add enough red food coloring to 2 Tbsp of the vanilla frosting to tint it red and spoon it into a separate resealable plastic bag.
3. Add a few drops of the red food coloring to the remaining vanilla frosting to tint it a pale pink.

Frosting the cake -
1. Spread the chocolate frosting onto the top and sides of the cake
2. Spread the pale-pink frosting into a kidney bean–shaped area over the monkey's mouth, chin, and cheeks, as pictured.
3. Press the chocolate sprinkles into the forehead, the top of the head, and the underside of the monkey's chin.

Assembling the cake -
1. Press the trimmed edges of the doughnuts onto the cake for the monkey's ears. Press the jelly beans into the center of the cake to make the monkey's nostrils.
2. Pipe a red frosting line onto the pink part of the cake for the monkey's smile.
3. Pipe 2 white circles onto the top of the cake for the monkey's eyes and press the peppermint candies into them. Add a dab of white frosting for the sparkle in each eye, as pictured.
4. Snip the Twizzler into thin 2-inch strands with kitchen shears or clean scissors and insert them into the top of the cake for the monkey's hair.

ENJOY!

Wilton Course # 1 - Cake 3 - Eggless Pineapple Cake

Wilton Course #1 - Cake 2 - Clown Cake

Wilton Course #1 - Cake 1 - Chocolate Banana Cake