This second birthday cake was really fun to make. I love being given artistic freedom to make the cake look however I like. I haven’t made fondant curls in a while and I was missing them. They give children’s birthday cake just the right amount of fun!
Here is a look at the characters I hand made for this cute birthday cake. I cut all the pieces of the characters out of fondant. Then I used a black food coloring marker to outline the faces.
The birthday boys name was made to look like the Sesame Street Sign. I topped the cake off with 2 edible fondant candles to add to the fun. Happy 2nd Birthday Noah!
I absolutely love soft pretzels. They are the perfect any time snack, and they are surprisingly easy to make. Yes they start with a yeast dough, but their are only a few ingredients involved, and the dough comes together quickly. Once the dough is formed, it only needs to rise for an hour before it’s ready to be shaped and baked.
Shaping a pretzel seems complicated, but the way I twist mine is actually pretty easy. Follow these three easy steps and you will be making impressive looking pretzels too! Just make sure to roll the dough into a really thin strip because it puffs up a lot. I made mine into mini sized pretzels so they would make a lot (32 to be exact), but they can definitely be made into larger pretzels as well.
Pretzels get boiled in a warm bath of water and baking soda before they get baked. That process gives pretzels their unique tang and color. To help the pretzels brown a little more, I brushed mine with egg wash before sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar. I serve mine with a sweet non-dairy cream cheese dip (just in case you thought they weren’t sweet enough).
Here’s my son Charlie with my pretzels. He loves being part of my photo shoots. He’s always eager to help. I couldn’t say no to his cute face. Here’s my non-dairy recipe: the pretzel dough is adapted from Alton Brown’s recipe.
Mini Cinnamon Sugar Soft Pretzels with Sweet Cream Cheese Dip
Author: Lil' Miss Cakes
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 32
Ingredients
Pretzel Dough
1½ cups warm water
1 package active dry yeast (2¼ tsp.)
1 Tbs. sugar
4½ cups flour
2 tsp. salt
4 Tbs. coconut oil
5 cups water
⅓ cup baking soda
1 egg yolk
1 Tbs. water
½ cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
Sweet Cream Cheese Dip
3 cups confectioners sugar
½ cup non-dairy cream cheese (I use Tofutti Brand)
2 Tbs. margarine
2 Tbs. soy milk or water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
Pretzel Dough
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix warm water with the yeast and sugar. Allow the yeast to bubble and proof for 5-10 minutes.
Then add in the flour, salt, and coconut oil.
Turn the mixer on low and mix until the dough starts to form.
Switch the mixer to medium speed and mix for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth.
Remove the dough, spray the bowl with non-stick spray, return the dough to the bowl and cover with a towel. Allow to rise in a warm place for one hour.
Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Fill a large saucepan with 5 cups of water and ⅓ cup baking soda. Heat the water mixture on medium heat until it slightly simmers.
Divide the dough into 8 even pieces and then divide each piece into 4 even pieces yielding 32 pieces.
Roll each piece into a long thin rope, about 18 inches long. Form the pretzel shape. Drop each pretzel into the simmering baking soda water and let it simmer for 30 seconds. Use a flat spoon or spatula to remove each pretzel onto a baking sheet.
Once all the pretzels have simmered in the water bath, mix the egg yolk with 1 Tbs. water. Brush the egg wash onto each pretzel and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.
Bake for about 10 minutes, until the pretzels are light brown. Serve with the sweet cream cheese dip.
Sweet Cream Cheese Dip
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the confectioner sugar, cream cheese, margarine, soy milk, and vanilla until smooth. Serve with the soft cinnamon sugar pretzels.
This was a really fun cake to make. It was made to celebrate a 30th birthday. Dean loves his steak and Grey Goose vodka so I made them for him, but all out of cake!
The vodka bottle was a challenge, but I’m not one to turn down a challenge! It was really tall so I applied the fondant in two pieces. I wrapped one piece around the entire bottle. Then I used a second piece to cover the cap of the bottle. Once the cake was covered in fondant, I hand pained all the details onto the bottle. I personalized the label to say “distilled and bottled for Dean”. I thought it was a cute touch!
The steak was another fun challenge. The inside of the cake is red velvet, so I’m sure it looked really cool when it was cut open! I wanted it to be able to feed the whole party so I made it look like a really thick cut steak. I wrapped a marbleized piece of fondant all the way around the steak and added extra pieces of white fondant to give the cake an even more realistic look. It’s hard to tell, but I brushed the whole steak with a corn syrup and water mixture to give the steak some extra shine. The steak was completed with a little tag to celebrate Deans 30th Birthday.
Here’s my son Charlie with my pretzels. He loves being part of my photo shoots. He’s always eager to help. I couldn’t say no to his cute face. Here’s my non-dairy recipe: the pretzel dough is adapted from Alton Brown’s 
