When I realized that my best friend Katie would be visiting me in Hawaii over her birthday, I decided that I wanted to do something special for her even though it would just be the two of us.
Katie is currently all about owls, so I figured I'd try my hand at an owl cake. I perused Pinterest for a little inspiration, then crafted this guy from a mixture of ideas from other people's owl cakes and my own imagination lack of the right bowls to make a cool 3-D cake semi-laziness.
*I made a half-batch of cake batter and baked a single round cake, then cut off a small crescent to form the ear shape. (Which I then smothered in frosting and ate... And this epitomizes the reason I haven't gotten any skinnier while Jarrod's been on his deployment!)
*Normally I'm all about homemade, but I used store-bought vanilla frosting for this cake. I tinted some of it with red food coloring to make a bubblegum pink shade and frosted the body of the owl, using the back of a spoon to make the "feathers." Then I frosted his chest in white (for some reason, even though he's pink, I think of Mr. Owl Cake as a boy) and used a knife to press some lines on it.
*The eyes are Oreo halves and brown M&Ms, and the beak and feet are orange M&Ms.
I'm an extremely novice cake decorator -- my cakes always taste good but usually look like crap -- so I was quite proud of myself when I realized that I had actually managed to create a passable owl!
*I made a half-batch of cake batter and baked a single round cake, then cut off a small crescent to form the ear shape. (Which I then smothered in frosting and ate... And this epitomizes the reason I haven't gotten any skinnier while Jarrod's been on his deployment!)
*Normally I'm all about homemade, but I used store-bought vanilla frosting for this cake. I tinted some of it with red food coloring to make a bubblegum pink shade and frosted the body of the owl, using the back of a spoon to make the "feathers." Then I frosted his chest in white (for some reason, even though he's pink, I think of Mr. Owl Cake as a boy) and used a knife to press some lines on it.
*The eyes are Oreo halves and brown M&Ms, and the beak and feet are orange M&Ms.
I'm an extremely novice cake decorator -- my cakes always taste good but usually look like crap -- so I was quite proud of myself when I realized that I had actually managed to create a passable owl!
I also surprised Katie with a banner and some tissue paper pom-poms. For the banner, I simply printed out the letters on pink scrapbook paper and cut them out in circles, glued them to larger circles of white cardstock, then punched two holes in each and strung ribbon through. And I used this very helpful tutorial to craft the pom-poms. (I made half-size ones because it turns out that tissue paper is extremely overpriced!).
Love the cake. I'm sure Katie did too. Great party decorations too.
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