The boys celebrated their birthdays last week, and being 6 and 10, they are HUGE Mario brothers fans. I’d love to be able to say that they don’t get into anything commercial, but it can’t be helped. The good news is that it’s limited and balanced.
Here’s a close up of the cake. It’s far from perfect. And the perfectionist in me screams a bit when I look at it. Then I shush it with the fact that it made our boys SO happy. And I’m not trying to win Cake Wars or anything. Sheesh.
I wanted to offer a few tips for putting a cake like this together – just in case you have boys {or a princess} of your own!
Supplies you’ll need:
2- 9″ round cake pans
2- 6″ round cake pans
2- cake mixes
double batch of buttercream frosting
For the decorating:
paste food colorings in black, yellow, orange, and red
2- bamboo skewers
black and white baker’s twine
chipboard banners and letters
cardstock and letter stickers
Mario action figures {our boys already had these, so we just gave them a good washing}
round cardboard cake board
Mix up the cake mixes according to the box directions. Our boys chose marble, so I bought a chocolate and a vanilla, and it worked out perfectly. I then poured the batter into all greased and floured four pans, filling each roughly 2/3 full. Pop them into the oven to bake – the smaller ones usually only take 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven.
Cool the cakes according to instructions, and remove them from their pans. I decorated them the next day, so after they cooled, I loosened them from the pan, and then put them back in for storage. You have to loosen them, though, or they’ll be stuck.
Mix up the buttercream according to the recipe instructions. Place the bottom layer on your stand, add a layer of buttercream and then the second bottom layer.
Cut a cake board to fit your top layers, and then stack then in the same manner. Gently set it on top of the bottom layers. I took a gamble and didn’t prop my bottom layer with dowels, because my cake was both heavy enough, and small enough that I didn’t think I needed it.
Apply a “crumb coat”. It’s basically a light coat of frosting to catch all of the loose crumbs so that they’re not in the pretty frosting on the outside.
Scoop out a bowl of frosting {about 2 cups?} to save for the orange and yellow colors, and then color the rest of the icing grey using the black paste food coloring. You can find the pastes at your local crafting store that carries wilton supplies.
Smooth on a layer of grey, and let it dry for just a couple of minutes. Then add the brick marks using a knife. Color the leftover grey darker to black to make the door. I just smoothed it on and shaped it with a knife. I then took the leftovers and put them in a bag that I cut the tip from to add an outline. I had decorator bags on hand, but you could use a ziploc.
Color about 2/3 c. of the leftover frosting yellow, and smooth it on around the bottom with a knife in a wave pattern. Color the rest of your icing orange, then streak with a bit of red to make it look like lava. Smooth it on over the yellow, leaving just a bit peeking through.
Add the action figures. Create the banner by tying the twine to the bamboo skewers adding the banner pieces with letters attached to spell happy, and create the sign by sticking down letters onto a piece of black cardstock.
I feel like this makes it sound complicated, but I had the whole thing together in around an hour. Including the time that it took to make the frosting. 🙂 I just have a tendency to offer a lot of instructions! Anyway, we had two VERY hapy boys, and that’s what it’s about, right? And did I mention that it tasted heavenly?
Happy creating!
~ Leah
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