My son’s birthday was this week. We do not do a lot for birthdays. Neither my husband or I grew up having big birthday parities. In fact neither of us are really party people. We like simple things and keeping things simple.
Once we had kids, we never really thought about having a big party and going all out for birthdays. We prefer to keep it simple, with just family. And since we don’t have a lot of family close by, it is easy to keep it simple. I do however let my kids pick what they want for their birthday cake each year. They always enjoy this and it is much cheaper than buying a cake.
The problem is I do not really enjoy cake decorating. I love to bake cakes. I love to spend time in the kitchen making a cake taste good. But I do not enjoy spending a lot of time making a cake look like something other than a cake. I love the results other people get when they spend the time doing it, just don’t like to do it myself
In the past my kids have requested things like a baseball cake, a butterfly cake, a caterpillar cake, and a bunny cake. I have tackled all of these and they have turned out okay. My kids are usually thrilled, even if I am not, and that is what counts.
When I asked my son a couple of weeks ago what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday this year, he said, ” A chocolate OU cake. ” I asked him, what kind of OU cake because I was not sure what he was thinking. He said, “You know a chocolate cake with the letters OU on it. ” I thought, wow that is easy, I can do that. For those who might not follow college sports, OU, as in the University of Oklahoma, is my husband and son’s favorite college football team. And I know for all my family in OR, it is the wrong OU, but what can I say. I live in Oklahoma now.
So here is the OU cake.
I was pretty happy at how the cake turned out. I made a chocolate cake, recipe coming soon, in a 9×13 pan and frosted it with cream cheese frosting. It was simple and pretty easy to do, especially since my cake decorating skills are quite lacking. The one mistake I did make though was that I should have tried to find a better color for the red. I used the gel paste, which is my favorite when coloring frosting, but red is tough to do. It takes a lot to get it red. My red looked more pinkish then it should. I thought it was okay, my son disagreed. He wanted to know why he had a pinkish, purplish cake, as he put it. But besides the color not being quite right, he was pleased.
For those of you that are new to my blog here are a couple of cakes I have tackled in the past.
Lego Cake – I think this was my favorite of all the ones that I have done. It turned out really well.
Sunflower Cake – This cake is really easy and will serve a large group of people because of all the Twinkies. Kids love this one.
We also enjoy making Ice Cream Cakes and
Cookie Cakes for birthdays.
And even though I am not big on parties in general, I have joined in on the fun of the Ultimate Blog Party 2009. I hope to find lots of new blogs and welcome to all of you who are visiting me for the first time. If you are here for the first time, let me tell you a little about myself.
I have been married for 14 years and have three kids. I grew up in the NW Oregon, but now live in Oklahoma. I love to cook and try new recipes. I am always looking for new things to make in the kitchen. Over the last year I have been trying to cook healthier and to get away from packaged foods due to my daughter’s health. I don’t always cook as healthy as I should, but I am trying. This blog is all about my adventures in the kitchen.
I love to cook and bake, and my family loves to eat. Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures is all about sharing my love of cooking, recipes, tips, and ideas of how I combine this cooking passion with a busy life. [
MMMM The cakes look awesome. Love the sunflower.
ice cream cake… sounds amazing. that sunflower cake is really cool too!
I’m glad I’ve found your blog – your recipes are wonderful.
Nice looking cakes. I like the idea of using twinkies for the sunflower petals. Genius! And the ice cream cake look soo yummy.
Mmm . . . ice cream cake! One of my favorites. Love your sunflower cake. I think I may try to convince my daughter to let me do the sunflower cake for her birthday this year! Do sunflowers go with a princess party theme?! She’s had the princess theme for the last two years. I think it’s time for a sunflower theme!
Over in my neck of the woods, my husband would ask for an OSU cake. Big ten style. BG
i think you do a great job with the cakes. i too love baking but am not so good at decorating. i love the sunflower cake! what a great idea!!!
The Lego cake is really cute!!
Susan
i’ve made the twinkie sunflower a few years back! it was so much fun and everyone loved it! last year i did a bowl of dogfood cake (used whoppers for the dogfood and gingerbread cookies with the dogbone shape).. everyone loved that!
the lego looks very cute!
i’ll have to look around some more!
Your Lego cake is too cute, and I love the idea of a cookie cake!
Great job on the cakes! I love the sunflower Twinkie idea. That would be a big hit here!
Happy Birthday to your big guy!
The cake looks wonderful and all of the Sooner fans in my house were extremely impressed.
I love the legos cake you did. Would you consider posting it on my birthday cake website? It couldn’t hurt to have more exposure and I’d be happy to link back to your blog in the cake’s description form (I’d add that on top of your description on how the cake was made).
My site is http://www.birthday-cake-central.com and there is a submission form on there.
Wow you are talented! Those lego cakes are fun! Party on!
Ooh I love me some cake. I’ll come here for a party any time!
I love the cakes. Especially teh lego and sunflower one.
Hi Lynn-
The Lego cake rocks!!
Coming by from the Ultimate Blog Party to say hi. Make certain to check out my place for your chance to win a LeapFrog Tag Reading System. 🙂
Stacie
The Divine Miss Mommy
http://www.thedivinemissmommy.com
http://www.twitter.com/stacieinatlanta
I love to bake too!
Hello! Poppin’ in from The Ultimate Blog Party…all the way from Queensland, Australia! G’Day! I hope you have time to visit my party soon.
Ta!
I want to invite you to the Mommie Daze Virtual Baby Shower that I am hosting May 15 to June 8. This is an international even and there are prizes! Stop by my blog for all the details.
Hi, there. Stopping over while blog hopping. I’m enjoying the UBP party. It’s in the wee hours of the morning but I have a migraine so can’t sleep. It’s nice to meet you and your blog. My blog list keeps growing. Blogs are my favorite “me” time. I have a toddler learing blog at http://www.superfunmama.blogspot.com. So nice to meet you!
Hi there. Making my way through the party. Lots of fun so far! It was nice to meet you and I will be back!
Nell
I’m jealous of your baking skills – I’ve had many,many disasters! Stopping by from UBP to say “hi” – party on 🙂
carma
Hi Lynn
I am a friend of Emily’s and have checked out your blog because of Emily’s “apron give away”. I have really enjoyed looking at the recipes and have tagged some try. I love the sunflower cake. We are having a big group at church in a few weeks and I am going to make the cake for our luncheon.
Looking at your cakes just made me really hungry, I like the lego cakes and the sunflower cake. I need a snack!
Just want to tell you I loved the sunflower cake -it makes a simple and fun cake decorating idea!