Two D-I-Y Birthday Cakes

This July, two members of the family celebrated their birthdays one week apart of each other. The nephew turned 1 and my aunt turned 57.

My nephew’s first birthday was also his christening. It was a 2-in-1 celebration and my cousin worked on a tight budget. The couple only invited 50 people. In Philippine standards, it was a small party.  Nevertheless, we wanted to make it beautiful.  What is a birthday without a birthday cake, right? For my nephew’s birthday, we ordered 50 cupcakes instead of those layered and themed cakes.  No, we did not order those fancy and expensive cupcakes. We ordered P10 per piece cupcake from a neighborhood bakery, Julie’s Bakeshop. The cupcakes do not have the exquisite taste of those gourmet cupcakes but the satisfaction and happiness cupcakes brought to one’s face are the same.

I still have the printed liners I used last Christmas so I asked Julie’s to use them for the cupcakes.

I bought these decorations from another store for P48 a set.

We now have more personalized looking cupcakes. The caterer did some presentation magic. This is how the birthday cupcakes were arranged.

The second birthday cake

A few days ago, it was my aunt’s turn to celebrate her birthday. She did not have a party. We just  have a filling lunch to celebrate the occasion.

I baked the birthday cake. (I practice effortless baking. See previous attempts here and here.) I found this mix in the grocery.

I figured this is the cake mix I was looking for to experiment on making multicolored cake. I saw my aunt’s birthday as an opportunity to experiment.  I followed the cake mix instructions and portioned the batter and added food coloring.

I wanted the 4th color to be purple but for some reason the mixture between the red and blue food color did not turnout quite right. While trying to tweak it, I ended up with gray (not an appetizing color). I “marbled” the mixture.

My frosting was a little bit runny because I only have a less than a cup of confectioner’s sugar. Gaisano was already too far for me to buy the sugar. I was hoping to create rosettes like the cupcakes here.  I have to make use with what I have. This is the best I can come up with.

I told my Tita to blow her candle immediately because the icing might run out. HA! Btw, the cake was delish! Good job, Pillsbury!

This is how it looked when sliced.

This looks so far from the multicolored cake I had mind. Anyare? (What happened?)

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The important thing is that my aunt was happy to receive the cake. 😀 Yay, for effort!

Someday, I’ll bake that multicolored cake. I’ll practice more. My birthday is coming up in the less than two months. I’ll experiment again.

21 Responses

  4. Jen

    I dress up store-bought cupcakes, too! Love what you did on those cupcakes. Looking forward to your future rainbow cake post!

  5. postcardtrail

    the cupcakes will do for kids. they are not keen with the taste as long as its has an icing and it tastes sweet, you are good to go. the picture for that rainbow cake is soooo cool. i’d like to try that one day.

  6. Chin chin

    D-I-Y cakes is a wonderful way to celebrate birthdays on a budget. I also do that (use cake mixes) sometimes besides my kids like to help bake the cake and decorate it.

  13. Paula

    Huwaw, very ingenious! Cake from a box, ika nga. Naku, may pag-asa pa pala akong makapag-bake ng cake. Thanks for the idea. May idea na, kulang ko na lang ay oven. haha!

  15. reese

    like your cupcakes, its lovely and looks yummy!
    of course, as well as the cake
    i also love to cook and bake…sometimes i do experiments in our kitchen
    what i’m looking is your recipe…please share it

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