Xbox 360 Controller cake with glowing buttons

As you know, I discussed my past cake creations earlier and it was within the comments of that entry that the suggestion came in from my good friend Luis to make an Xbox controller cake. I instantly agreed that would be the perfect idea for my Xbox Live-addicted 11 year-old. It also seemed like it could be do-able with some fondant and a little creativity. So last night, I embarked on the journey to create the ultimate Xbox 360 controller cake! (Thank goodness I had the help of my husband or I’d still be working on it now.)

What I did was make two layers, one chocolate, one yellow, from scratch. While those were cooking I made some marshmallow fondant (ok, a LOT). I made two bags of mini marshmallows worth…which meant I used almost FOUR bags of powdered sugar to get it to stop being sticky. (as usual, click on each picture to see it full-sized)

Home made fondant from melting marshmallows and adding powdered sugar

It was quite the arm workout too. And made an absolutely crazy amount of mess. Once it finally comes together though, it feels like such an accomplishment! I’m really not sure I’d make it again…although I haven’t used store-bought fondant, so I’m not sure if it’s more difficult to work with.

Next I whipped up (literally) some buttercream frosting to go between the layers and on top as a crumb coating before the fondant went on. J. and I made the buttons and such out of fondant (thank goodness he was there to tint it grey because mine looked like melted rainbow sherbet before I called him over). J. also carved the cake to the controller shape…I wasn’t confident enough to attempt that.

The cake, shaped into the controller and covered with fondant

Making the D-pad button

Getting the buttons on

It took a long time to figure out how to get the idea of how I wanted the buttons to look and work in my head, translated into fondant. I wanted to add the shoulder buttons too, even though it’d be on the back of the cake.

The back left and right bumpers and triggers

The hardest part was the Xbox guide button, that glows and shows you which player you are. It is metal-looking with the green X, so I knew I wanted it to be shiny. We played around with a few ideas before I decided to cut up the disposable cake pans and make an X in that, trying to shape it into a button shape too. It could’ve been better, but hey, I am an amateur!

The finished cake - with the actual Xbox controller for comparison

For the A, B, X and Y buttons, I stuck glow sticks in vertically and topped them with gel icing, which I think came out really well. If I tried to write the letters on them, I think it would’ve ruined them so I kept them plain. I also didn’t attempt the Microsoft name or port in the back of the controller. I had to stop somewhere. I know there are some flaws and places where it could look better, but as my first personal attempt with making and working with fondant, I think it’s pretty good. And both kids said “COOOOOL!” so that’s all that really counts. (And the people at the party place asked if I made cakes for a living, so that was nice too.)

I thought I’d share how this all started. I’ve always loved baking but have never taken a cake decorating class and have gone through many hit or miss experiments along the way. (I’m still looking for a fool-proof white cake and cupcake recipe!!) I guess it first started when I made a Lego cake for C’s 6th birthday. I wish I had pictures of that but they are stuck on a non-working hard drive. It looked like a rectangular Lego brick with a square one on top, achieved by putting cupcake bottoms on top of the cake and then frosting the two bricks in different colors. It was a little more stressful than enjoyable at that time because I was in a tiny apartment kitchen trying to make a masterpiece, so I relied on store-bought cakes for a few years after that.

A few years later, S. wanted a puppy theme for her 7th birthday. I checked every grocery store in our area and could not find a puppy-themed cake. So I thought, why not, I’ll make one. She picked the colors of green and orange. She was on a green and orange kick that year. I used Scooby Snacks graham crackers for decorating (which everyone avoided thinking they were actual dog biscuits!). I also used a pound cake with almond flavoring like I’d had from a bakery once, which was good, but resulted in the cake weighing about 25lbs. Everyone loved it though and then it seemed that I’d started a trend.

Next up was C’s 9th birthday. He was really into Guitar Hero
that year. I had the vision for a perfect cake. Of course getting what was in my mind to translate into cake was another task altogether, but I tried. He loved it and all the kids (and moms) at the party were impressed, so I guess it wasn’t too bad. I had a LOT of fun making that one and though I’m sure my skills could’ve used polishing, I worked with what I had and thought it was a hit.

Two years ago S. decided on a luau theme for her 8th birthday. We had the party at the house and thanks to years of visiting Disney’s Polynesian Resort, I had free party favors in the form of silk flower leis. It was a fun party full of silly games, limbo contests and a Pinata. Don’t ask. We aren’t strict adherers to party theme rules around these parts.

Anyway, I had a vision to have a volcano themed cake. After not wanting to press my luck with lava cakes like you find in restaurants, I decided on a mini volcano with candied ‘lava’ set on top of a beach/ocean themed cake. I got a bit Martha Stewart-ish about it and spent way too much time using a hot glue gun and tons of toothpicks and popsicle sticks to make a tiki hut, but I think it was worth it. It was another really fun cake to do. I had a white layer and a chocolate layer, and the sand was crushed Nilla Wafers with a couple of Oreos mixed in for color. The lava was candy I made and colored myself, and splashed out on tin foil to dry in splattered-looking shapes.

As I said, I took a bit of time off while caring for baby G during C’s last party, but got back on track with S’s 9th party, which I’ve blogged about already – the Spaghetti and Meatballs cake. No matter what the reaction, this cake got the most response of any I’ve done. People either loved it or were grossed out thinking we were eating spaghetti and meatballs on top of cake. I loved trying something different and succeeding in making it look like dinner rather than dessert!

So that leaves me with my problem today. What to do for C’s 11th birthday this year?! With his extreme interest in video games, I might have to go that route, but I’m really not relishing the thought of making zombie hands or army men. Anyone seen any good cakes lately? Is it time for me to venture into layers? Fondant? Actually I did try my hand at fondant about a year ago, just for fun (on top of a pink cake!). My friend helped out, but I discovered it was easier than I thought to actually make marshmallow fondant. She came up with the decorating idea in theme with my love for all things black and white.

What are your thoughts, suggestions or crazy ideas for his cake this year? I’m all ears!! And Duff, Mary Alice, Geoff & gang, if you’re reading this, I’ll happily accept any help you have to offer!

Ingredients:

Follow the preheating instructions and place the tarts on a non-stick cookie sheet, or one lined with parchment. Slice rounds of the cheese and place on top of the tarts. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to your tastes. Chop the basil and sprinkle on top. Bake according to tart instructions or until golden brown. If you don’t want the inside part of the tarts to be a little doughy, cook them for about 5 minutes without the cheese and toppings, then add those and continue cooking. Let cool slightly and enjoy!

You can of course mix and match any other toppings you like, or even use your own puff pastry recipe. As is it’s just a really easy, elegant appetizer to serve up during a dinner party or anytime. It’ll look like you spent hours slaving over a hot oven, when really, it took minutes!

In an effort to get the word out to even more volunteers, the Muppets, mascots of this promotion have put together a very special video for you!

So get out there and volunteer! Personally, I donated blood for my first effort. It was so motivating that I’m going to head back to Florida Blood Services soon and donate platelets which can save 3 lives with one donation. I hope to sign the rest of the family up as well to take advantage of the many kid-friendly volunteer options in my area. If you aren’t seeing anything available in your area or the site is giving you issues, keep checking back!

Thanksgiving Table Crafts

Inspired by some of my fellow bloggers as well as my favorite, Family Fun magazine, I thought I’d share my family’s top Turkey Day crafts! I have to admit, almost all of the crafts my children have done over the years are thanks to their amazing grandmother, my mom. She has an agenda when it comes to the holidays and always makes sure the kids get to create something new each year and feel like a big part of the festivities. I have come up with a few of my own over the years though, so this list combines both.

Turkey Cut-out Napkin Rings

Personalized Turkey Cut-out Napkin Rings

This was one of my mom’s crafts last year. The kids just cut out card stock turkey shapes, rectangles to write everyone’s name on the front, then made rings out of the card stock, using cut cardboard tubes as reinforcement. They came out really cute and of course depending on the age and skill level of your artists, you could have some really unique turkeys! Another option we’ve done in the past is one I found instructions for on Family Fun – Turkey Napkin Rings from flat wooden craft spoons. I have another similar project using the craft spoons below. 

Cornucopia Nut Cups

Cornucopia Nut Cups

This was another from last year. Growing up, my grandmother always had painted scallop shells filled with mixed nuts at everyone’s place setting for the holidays. I may or may not have gone around picking all the cashews out of those shells, as a child. (whistles innocently…) Anyway, while we don’t use the shells anymore, we do still enjoy having mixed nuts out for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays. My mom found this craft to make a fun, reusable decoration. The kids just drew out their own cornucopia pictures on the front of some construction paper. My daughter wanted to color hers in, while my son chose to leave his just plain (and really I was quite impressed with their creations!!) then they attached the paper to a ring using glue sticks, so they stood up on their own. Next she just put some mini cup cake liners in the ring and you fill them with nuts of your choice. You can then remove the liners and put new ones in for the next event. Of course you can fill them with whatever you like: candies, mints, anything! You could also make bigger rings to fit larger liners if you’d like the cups to hold more items.

Wooden Craft Spoon Turkeys

Wooden Spoon Turkeys

Another fun craft item to decorate your Thanksgiving table are these wooden craft spoon turkeys. Gather about 5 of the craft spoons and glue together with wood glue. Next glue another stick to act as the holder for the turkeys. Cut out felt for the head and the beak/waddle parts. Attach those parts and googly eyes with glue. We cut out pilgrim hats with construction paper and glued those on as well. You can then color in the ‘feathers’ any color you like with markers or even paint. The possibilities for creativity are endless! We just placed them around the table and on plates for decoration, but you could probably put them in tall cups full of nuts or candy, or even flower pots.

Pine Cone Turkey Place Cards

My mom made this one with the kids a few years back but unfortunately I do not have pictures of their creations, so I found a similar craft with instructions on Family Fun’s site.  We just added little cards with guest’s names on them to turn them into place cards for the table. These are especially fun to make because you get to go on a nature walk to collect the pine cones first!

Oreo Turkeys

I saw this on a baking group last year and had to make them. They are so simple to do, yet involved so the kids loved making them. For each turkey you make, you’ll need 2 Oreos, a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup, a Whopper, some candy corn, white frosting for ‘glue’ and yellow frosting/gel for the feet. You can also use some blue or other color frosting for the eyes.

Oreo Turkey - edible crafty fun!

Stand one Oreo up on top of a flat Oreo, and use some of the white frosting to attach them. Add 5 or 6 candy corn white part down, into the top Oreo’s filling to make the ‘feathers’ of the turkey. Be VERY careful with this because if you push to hard you will split open the Oreo. We went through quite a few, but no one complained. Cut the Reese’s mini cup in half, and attach with a bit of frosting so the cut part is facing down onto the Oreo. Attach the Whopper on top of the Reese’s cup as the head, with a bit more frosting. Next add 2 candy corns, with the white tips facing up, to the Reese’s cup, as wings – this is optional if you’d rather have a turkey without wings, it looks cute without too. Cut off the tip of another candy corn and attach with frosting to the Whopper as the beak. Next use the white frosting to make eyes, using a colored gel if you’d like for pupils. Use the yellow frosting for feet on the bottom Oreo. You can also get red frosting or gel to make a waddle, but we forgot that step last year! This year we might experiment with chocolate-filled Oreos, or maybe even save some Halloween orange-filled ones next year! The best part about this table decor is everyone gets to eat their creation!

Laminated Thanksgiving Artwork Place Mats

Our Thanksgiving Place Mats

A few years back a neighbor of mine invited a bunch of us over to have the kids create Thanksgiving place mats. The kids decorated large sheets of construction paper using markers, crayons, glitter and leaves they’d collected from outside. (Keep in mind we live in Florida, you can probably find much prettier leaves in the northern regions!) I may have helped a bit with some of the drawing. Then they colored their names in with stencils and the moms printed out Happy Thanksgiving with the year on them. Our neighbor then took them down to the local print shop and got them laminated for just a few dollars. This will be the 6th Thanksgiving that we’ve used these place mats, they are a treasured keepsake! I can’t wait till the baby is old enough to make his own place mat to add to the table.

…

I hope you try out some of our family’s Thanksgiving crafts, I know my children enjoy the traditions they created so much and love showing off their handi-work each year. So many of these can take on a personal twist and embellishments from your own family will make these one-of-a-kind decorations something to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

It all started with the party invitation...

When we decided on having our daughter’s 9th birthday party at the movies for a showing of “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” it seemed only right that I’d attempt to make a cake to match – a Spaghetti and Meatballs cake of course!

cooling cakes

First, I baked 2 cakes, one 2-layer yellow cake for the base, and a chocolate cake to be crumbled up and turned into ‘meatballs’. Any kind of cake will do, whatever you prefer. The cake balls do not have to be chocolate cake if you are dipping them in chocolate, but if you don’t want to do that step, chocolate cake will look more authentic. Next I made a buttercream frosting for the ‘spaghetti’, topped it with thinned out strawberry preserves for the ‘sauce’ and added ‘grated cheese’ of white chocolate. You can use any recipe you want for the cakes and frosting, whichever you have tried and liked – even box cake!

scoop out a spot for the 'meatballs'

Once the layer cakes cool, scoop out a little ‘bowl’ shape for the ‘meatballs’ to go in when the cake is frosted. This helps it look more real because real meatballs would sink down into a bowl of spaghetti, not balance on top. A step I missed but would do next time is to also shave down the sides of the cake so it’s more like a hill than a regular cake. That way you don’t have any sharp right angles for the spaghetti to break off on, that happened a lot on my cake.

'spaghetti' frosting

When mixing the buttercream frosting, I added drops of yellow food coloring and about a tablespoon of cocoa powder to give it real spaghetti color. Just make sure the food coloring and cocoa are fully mixed before you add more, just get it to a color that looks like cooked spaghetti to you. I then lightly frosted the cakes so I didn’t have a ton of brown to cover up with the spaghetti. I also plopped a bit of frosting on the bottom of the pasta bowl I used to hold the cakes, so it wouldn’t slip around. Once that’s done, add the frosting to a pastry bag with a round tip (I used a #3 tip, but would probably go up one size next time) or you can use a plastic bag with the corner cut off. Just keep piping it out in a noodle-like pattern until it looks like a bowl of spaghetti.

chocolate cake balls

dipped in chocolate

Next up are the meatballs! For these I used Bakerella’s famous Cake Balls recipe. I’d never tried them, but friends had and swore by their deliciousness. For these I used an instant cake mix, because that’s what the recipe used and I didn’t want to mess these up. The basic idea is crumbling up the cake into a big bowl, adding a can of frosting, mixing together and forming into balls, chilling, then dipping in melted chocolate and letting harden. Oh my, they are SO good. Now normally I’d take great care in dipping them into the chocolate so they were all pretty like on Bakerella, but since these were meatballs, neatness didn’t count and actually made them look more believable. I just used a pack of chocolate chips, but I would not recommend that again because it wasn’t nearly enough and was really hard to use because it hardened up so quick. My friend said candy melts in the craft store work really well.

plain spaghetti & meatballs

Here are the completed meatballs on top of the spaghetti. Just arrange the meatballs however you like. I used a lot, but I knew we’d have a lot of kids at the party and wanted to be sure everyone got a meatball. You can use as few or as many as you want. Just be careful because once you place them, you can’t really move them around, the spaghetti frosting will be crushed. Needs some tomato sauce, yes?

with added 'tomato sauce'

For the sauce, thin out some strawberry preserves with water, heating if needed to stir it up, just be sure to cool it back down before pouring it on the cake, or you’ll melt all that great spaghetti! Of course you don’t have to use sauce at all if you have guests that don’t care for strawberry or other fruit on their cake! I took a risk using it with my kids, but they let it slide this once.

The finished product - with 'grated cheese'!!

We got some crazy looks walking into the movie theatre with a giant bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. I told my husband we should’ve announced “We’re here for the Pot Luck!” The person in charge of our party actually said – “what IS that?” I guess curiosity got the better of her wondering why people would bring hot food to a kids birthday party in a movie theatre. Once she found out it was a cake, she thought it was hilarious.

The cake also received the 9-10 year-old seal of approval and they all thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to eat dinner for dessert. It really wasn’t too hard to make, I’d recommend it to anyone that wants a unique spin on a traditional birthday cake. The reaction is definitely worth it!! Oh! And the movie was really great too – really funny, great 3-D effects. Steve the Monkey (voiced by The NPH) steals the show.

the birthday girl seal of approval!

'Ohana at Disney's Polynesian Resort

These Mickey shaped waffles are small in size, but big in taste. I like to save them for the end of my breakfast, almost like having a “breakfast dessert” (that’s allowed on vacation, right?). Once home, however, you might find yourself pining away for that fluffy golden breakfast treat. Of course the best part of making breakfast at home is that you can have it any time of day or night! Our family loves breakfast-for-dinner nights. How can you make a Disney breakfast at home, you ask? Simple!

our Mickey Waffle maker

Next, you need the official Mickey Waffle recipe:

Mickey Waffles
4 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
2 cups flour
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted but cooled
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Beat egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until light. Add melted butter (cooling makes sure you don’t cook the egg yolks as you mix it), milk and vanilla extract. Sift the flour, baking powder & salt into the egg mixture beat well. Beat egg whites until stiff and gently fold into batter. Bake and serve. [edit: just discovered the wonderful DisneyFoodBlog's article on Mickey Waffles, which notes a recommended 'secret ingredient' for the flour used in the batter that you may want to check out and try.]

Voila! Disney breakfast at home. Tipping your server is optional, please thank the chef. Enjoy the happy smiles and full tummies that follow!

now a Mickey Waffle afficionado!