Charlotte's 3rd Birthday and "Barbie Cake"

"You're makin' me ANGEE Caire!"......is what I hear as I'm attempting to write this.  Again, it's been awhile since I've written a blog post!  I haven't made the time and haven't felt like I have had that much to write about honestly!  I try to only write while the girls are napping and that feels like such a small span of time.  Basically, we're just surviving over here and living our hectic life that is now parenthood.  I wouldn't change it for the world!

We celebrated my birthday earlier in the month with a cookie cake made by Cliff with a little help from the girls.

Then our lab, Bronco, turned 10 a week later.

And then, the big celebration of the month was Char Char turning the big 3! Time flies when you're having fun!  We kept her birthday low key this year since she had a party last year.  Just tryin' to keep her humble yall. 😜 She requested to go to the jump place so we took a family trip to Sky Zone for toddler time (5 and under.....and one large kid, my hubby).  I think Cliff and I may have had more fun than the girls.

Again, I am pretty frugal and I also like to DIY so I spent countless (approximately 3 😴) hours and made our big girl a "Puple" Barbie Cake.  This was definitely a labor of love and was by no means perfect.  I tried my best and after watching a couple Youtube videos, I felt pretty inspired 😏.  Here's how the cake making went down. The Inspo.....

and the reality.........

I mean, not a complete disaster.....she's standing so that's a win in my book!

I just used box cake mixes because let's be honest, they're the best and the easiest!  I mixed together the first box cake and poured into my two 9 inch round pans and baked them.  If I did this again, I'd use one 9 inch pan and one 8 inch round pan....you'll see why in a minute.

While those layers cooled, I baked the next two layers in two smaller diameter Pyrex bowls.  I didn't know that you can bake in these but according to youtube you can and so I did.   It also takes a lot longer to bake cakes in bowls so give yourself enough time!

I let those cool completely and once they did, I assembled the cake dress.  I stacked the original two layers after cutting off the tops to make them smooth.  I cut off part of the second layer to make it smaller, I wouldn't have had to do this had I used the 8 inch pan. Then, I did the same with the bowl cakes.  In the youtube video they put a cup in the middle for the Barbie so I did the same.  I'm assuming to protect the Barbie from being cut....who knows.  I placed parchment paper under the cake to keep the cake plate clean while icing it.

Crumb coating.  I did not know this was a thing and my previous years cakes would have looked WAY better had I known. I just used store bought icing for this part and iced the whole cake.  I used the entire jar then stuck the cake into the fridge.  I assembled the cake on the cake stand because it is easier to decorate that way and you won't have to move it!

My friend gave me the link to this Buttercream Icing so I went to town and prepared the next batch of icing.  It didn't spread as smoothly as I had hoped but I am pretty sure it was user error.  I'm guilty of not measuring correctly.  I used this icing spatula to slap it on there as smooth as possible.  Then, I ran out of butter and food coloring so the darker purple icing was not my favorite.  I tried to pipe it on as best that I could once I had the Ballerina Barbie assembled in there.  I wrapped her in plastic wrap to keep from getting icing in her joints.  That would have been a nightmare.

So that's roughly how the cake was made.  I was spent afterwards but I was dying to see how excited Charlotte would be!  She loved it so it was well worth my time and the money that I saved! Oh how we love our purple loving princess!