May

30

By Heather ·  Print This Post

Earlier this year, while visiting family in Omaha, we celebrated three different birthdays. Both my mom and sister bought gluten-free cakes at the Cupcake Island so we could enjoy their birthday cakes with them. The gluten-free cakes and cupcakes were delicious and decorated perfectly for the occasions. I hadn’t really investigated getting gluten-free cakes from local bakeries in Virginia. But when I came home, I thought I’d see if a local bakery could make a gluten-free cake for my daughter’s birthday. Surprise! Cakes by Happy Eatery in northern Virginia makes gluten-free cakes. Unfortunately, my daughter was having a lot of friends at her party, and the cake large enough to accommodate was going to cost $85-100. I just didn’t think that would fit into my budget. So, I made the cake myself.

I enjoy decorating cakes, but I was short on time this year. Rather than make the cake from scratch, I took the short cuts: Betty Crocker gluten-free cake mixes and frosting. I used four cake mixes. For the bottom layer, I combined two yellow cake mixes and baked them for about 50 minutes in a 9″x 13″ pan. For the top layer I did the same thing with two chocolate cake mixes. I used chocolate frosting between the layers, and vanilla frosting tinted green to cover the top and sides.

Now to decorate. My daughter wanted a Princess and the Frog birthday cake because Tiana is her new favorite princess. I bought the little Princess Tiana dress-up doll set that came with the frogs and firefly to help decorate the cake. That way I could quickly create a swamp and lily pads for the frogs. My daughter was pleased, and I got it done without too much time and drama.

Some of the tools I used to decorate the cake:

• Wilton Color Mist spray – blue and green for the swamp
• Disposable Decorating Bags
• Wilton frosting tips – Open Star Tip to decorate the edge of the cake, Leaf Tip and multiple-hole tip for grass to define the edge of the pond, and round tip for writing.

Want to purchase a gluten-free cake or cupcakes, instead?
Give these bakeries in the DC/MD/NOVA area a try:

• Cakes by Happy Eatery in Centreville and Manassas, VA
• Cherry Blossom Cakes in DC
• Free For All Cupcakes available by special order
• Mallow Drama in Reston, VA
• Sweet Sin Cupcakes in Baltimore, MD

More Notable Links:

• Don’t forget to visit The Gluten-Free Homemaker this week for the Cake Challenge. Lots of great gluten-free cake recipes are linked up.
• Celebrate It! is hosting this week’s All Things Family blog carnival with a roundup of summer party and craft ideas.