My little girl turned a year old on Friday. I seriously can’t believe that year flew by so fast. We decided to have a little party for her with some of our friends. It was a pink themed party, and turned out so cute. For my son’s 1^st birthday I just bought a huge cake because we had so many people at his party. We were back at home with family for the summer, and I made dinner for everyone as well. For our baby girl we just kept it simple. Well besides being a little ambitious with the cake. It was my first time making a three layer cake, but I thought it was so fun. I am already looking for ideas for my son’s cake.

Cakes:

2 Duncan Hines white box cakes

2 vanilla snack pack puddings

Red food coloring

I mixed the boxes separately. To make a box cake taste more like a homemade cake I added an extra egg then the box asks for and a vanilla pudding. Follow the directions on the back of the box for the other ingredients.

Pick your food coloring that you would like to use. I did an ombre cake. This means I did one dark pink layer, one a little lighter, and the top layer a very, very light pink. Once you have both box cakes mixed up separate the batter into three different bowls. For the lightest pink color add about 2 drops of color. For the next darkest pink add about 5-6 drops. For the very bottom dark pink I believe I added 10-12 drops. Just eye the colors, and make them however dark or light you want them.

Be sure to spray your 8 inch round cake pans with nonstick spray and cover them with flour to prevent your cakes from sticking to the pan.

The first box was split into two different bowls, but the last box was only one bowl. I used a 7 x 3 round cake pan to put the rest of that batter. It ended up being the little cake for my daughter to eat and blow her candle out. 

Bake all 4 cakes at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Be sure to check for readiness with a toothpick. Because there are 4 cakes in the oven they are not all going to be done at the same time. At least they weren’t with my oven. So be sure to check. You might have to cook one or two of them longer. 

Remove from oven to cool before frosting.

Raspberry Cream Filling:

1 stick of unsalted butter

2 blocks of cream cheese

3 cups of powdered sugar

3/4 cups of frozen raspberries

Soften the butter and cream cheese to room temperature. Mix them together. then add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Lastly add the frozen raspberries. 

Once your cakes have cooled. Its time to add the cream filling to in between the different layers. Take your cake stand or whatever you plan to put your cake on and place the darkest pink colored cake on the stand. You will want to trim the top off with a cake knife so that the layers lay flat. Add as much cream filling as you want on top of the bottom layer. Place the next pink layer on top of cream filling. Trim this layer as well, and add the cream filling to the top as well. Lastly you can add the very lightest pink color layer. You wont need the cream filling on top of this layer because you will frost it. I took some of the filling and filled in the cracks of the layers. 

Place the cake in the fridge to cool while you make the frosting. 

Butter Cream Frosting:

2 cups of unsalted butter

2 dashes of salt

9-10 cups of powdered sugar

2 t of vanilla

4 T of milk

Have the butter sit out so that it is softened. Mix the butter, vanilla and salt together. Add once cup of powdered sugar at a time. Check the taste after every couple of cups, so that you reach the sweetness you are looking for. Once you have reach it add about 4 tablespoons of milk to make the the frosting creamy. 

Now its time to frost the cake. You will need frosting tips, and frosting bags. I found mine at Wal-mart, but they can also be purchased at Amazon.com. This kit includes some food colors and frosting spatula which you will need to frost this cake.

I frosted the whole cake with the frosting spatula. Then I used the tips to create the designs on it. Be creative, and you can always scrap it off if you mess it. Frosting is forgiving. 

Once I was done with my frosting and designing with the frosting I used this great color mist that colored the frosting such a pretty pink. You can purchase the product on Amazon as well.  

Here is my finished product I thought it turned out great.