The Birthday Cake Recipe I Have Used for Years

I was a cake decorator for nine years and would love to share my birthday cake recipe with you. This recipe is very simple and can be used for more than birthday cakes!

You will need two boxes of any flavor cake mix you like. Follow the instructions on the box but use one less egg. Most mixes call for 3 eggs per box so you would be asked to use 6 eggs, I always use 5 eggs. Don't worry the cake will raise and be nice and level, this is important for decorating. Once you have everything mixed you will need to pour it into a greased and floured 9x13 pan or what ever shape you would like to use, do not fill your pan more then 3/4 full, You will need to bake the cake a little while longer than stated on the box because you have doubled the mix. Your cake will need to bake somewhere close to an hour depending on your oven. Check your cake at around the 45 minute mark it will probably still be soft in the center, don't shake the pan just slide it back in and allow to continue to bake, Your cake will be done when you can insert a knife and it comes out clean.

Remove your cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan on a rack, after an hour if you desire you can flip your cake onto a piece of tin foil covered cardboard or a serving platter. Allow your cake to finish cooling for about 3 hours.

I have always made my own icing because i can control the thickness of it. My recipe for this is also simple!
In a large mixing bowl combine with a mixer
2 cups of shortining
1 bag of 10x sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
and slowly add water till desired thickness.

Feel free to use canned icing if you prefer.

Now comes the fun! In the past 9 years i have made over 100 wedding/anniversary cakes and 1000s of Birthday cakes! The things you can put on top of a cake are endless. But one of the easiest things to do is place store bought figures on top
For example if the birthday person has a favorite cartoon, buy a few figures that go with that and your are half done!
You will want to ice your cake using an icing spreader or a knife or you can place the icing in a bag with a tip and pipe it on the cake. For the cartoon cake I suggest smoothing the icing on with a knife then mixing some green food coloring with some icing and putting it in a bag and making grass along one edge at the top of the cake put a small amount of blue food coloring along the edge of your knife and smear it across the top of you cake lightly, this will make blue sky. Don't worry you will want it to look streaked! Now you can place on your figure and place a small amount of icing in a bag with the tip cut off of it and write "Happy Birthday"
Throw on a few colored sprinkles around the edge and you have a wonderful homemade birthday cake! Enjoy!!