Birthday Party Day!

June 14th was my middle child's 12th birthday party.  She wanted a beach theme since we are having a pool party and I was up for that.  I decorated the ice cream cake and I wanted to share it with you. 

For this project, the best deal you can find is Dairy Queen large round ice cream cake for $21.95 plus tax.  Just ask for a blank cake.  They come that way from the factory to your local store in a plastic bag.  They will have it in the back deep freeze and be happy to hand it to you and collect their $22.

After you get the cake home it goes in the freezer until you are ready to decorate.  Get the blank cake out  and cut off plastic bag.  Do not remove the paper sleeve around the edges until you are ready to apply the kit-kat bars. 

I used blue food spray paint to paint the blue on the top of the cake.  The sleeve keeps your spray from overspraying the cake.  After I sprayed the blue onto the cake, I poured the Nilla wafers crumbs I made around one side of the cake to make a beach.  The sleeve will keep the crumbs from falling all over the side and serving tray.  I also added blue writing gel to the blue area to give the ocean some wave texture.  I just moved up and down in a kind of zigzag pattern while I squeezed the tube firmly.  I made sure that the "water" went up onto the edges of the sand.

Next step is to decorate the beach scene.  You can make an umbrella from a Q-tip and a cupcake liner.   You will need to trim about 1/2 inch (or a little more) from the ruffled edge of the liner and then fold it in half, flat.  Find the center of the liner and hold it there while you open the edges into 3D.   Just trim one end off the Q-tip and stick the cupcake liner to the other end.  You will want the cotton there to glue onto as it is larger and longer than a toothpick.

The umbrella went on over the bears laying out on the beach.  I made beach towels out of fruit roll-ups and I laid bears on them.  Then I used gummy Lifesavers as floatation devices and teddy grams in the rings.  I also put goldfish crackers in the water.  There are SOOO many cute ideas on Pinterest using fruit and candy items to decorate these cakes, you should DEFINITELY go check them out.



See picture below for the concept, mine was a little different. I will post my picture as soon as I can find it.  :(

This is not my photo.  If it is yours and you want me to remove it, please just let me know.

The final task is the kit-kat edge.  I like this because it gives a nice finish and you don't need to feel like you have to do any other decorating of the cake.  See above that they kept the bars together, I did not.  I think theirs looks more like a barrel and a privacy fence which is cute too.   First tip, use a sharp knife and cut between the bars, this prevents damaging the chocolate coating.   I held my first kit-kat stick up to the cake and decided how tall I wanted them to be.  Once I decide on the height, I then cut all the rest of the bars the same.  You save this until last because the cake will start to soften  and you can stick the kit-kats to the ice cream.   I put them all the way around (it took two 6-packs to do the entire outside of the cake.  Tie any ribbon around the kit-kats and pop it back into the freezer quick to solidify.

Being able to do this on an ice cream cake made my daughter's pool party in June extra special.  I was so glad it turned out cute.  It has taken WAY too long to get this posted.  Too much nursing school and not enough time for other stuff.