This past Sunday we got to celebrate Lily's second birthday at her tutu party.
I've always done a dessert buffet for our family for these super young parties. Once Moshe started school I did a party there (he's actually a summer baby so he gets a camp party). It's nice to have our family come and eat too many sugary things in honor of our birthday girl.
I took a bunch of different ideas from Pinterest and put them all together for Lily's cake.
I wanted a simple cake with a topper that looked pretty but not super exciting so that when we cut into it there would be a major surprise.
When I cut into the cake I did an end zone dance in my head that it actually worked. Our guests were super shocked and it was so fun to watch.
So for anyone looking to try this, here's how it worked for me.
I made a double batch of brownies but instead of baking it in a regular pan I used a cookie sheet. This way there was a lot of surface area to use to cut out the letters and the brownies bake flatter so it's easier to get a cookie cutter to push the whole way through. (Bad blogger points here for not taking a picture of this step).
Once your brownies are baked take letter cookie cutters and go to town cutting out the name you need. I cut out Lily's name 12 times so that's 48 letters that came out of a cookie sheet of brownies.
Next you will need four small loaf pans. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Lay the letters down and then stack two more brownie layers on top.
Each pan should have your name three brownies high. At this point stick your pans in the freezer. I decided it couldn't hurt to freeze the brownies so that when they were being baked a second time in the cake they weren't going to get super hot. Probably they wouldn't have been fine in the oven without being frozen first but it also helped that they were frozen hard for the next step.
Make the yellow cake you are going to use. It will take two batches to fill four loaf pans but I made one batch at a time. Fill a large ziploc bag with the batter and then snip a small corner off and start to fill the pan around the brownies.
Bake the four pans. Here's where I get a bazillion more bad blogger points because I didn't take pictures of the next steps.
When the cakes are cool cut the tops off so they are level. (I find it's easiest to do this after the cakes have been refrigerated over night). You will be able to see the name in the cake so stand it up on your cake plate in the right direction. Basically you have your loaf standing on its side and not bottom. Put the three other loafs the same way on their sides behind the first one. You want it to look like its one square cake instead of four smaller ones. Put some frosting in between each of the cakes so they hold together well. Then frost the whole cake and decorate however you wish!
Make sure you remember which is the front of the cake so you cut it the right way. If you cut from the wrong side you won't see the name. My cake platter has a silver decoration so I put the front of the cake that way so I knew I would cut it the right way. Once you cut the whole way across the cake you should see the surprise name.
The birthday boo loved it.
Any birthdays coming up for you? Are surprises being baked into cakes, wrapped in boxes, or happening some other fun way? Let me know below!
