Birthday cake for Foodie Friday!

I wanted to share picture of Connor's 11th birthday "cakes" for my first Foodie Friday...hosted by Gollum @ Designs by Gollum. Gollum is one of the most talented women I know. She's an accomplished authoress, decorator & foodie w/ a wonderful home & idyllic life. I could hate her for that but she's too nice. ;o)


Anyway, (putting my envy of Gollum aside) Connor put in a request for a big cookie cake for his birthday, several months ago. I found this recipe by Emeril & it turned out perfectly...thick & chewy while still managing to have a crispy exterior. I highly recommend the recipe! You'll have to excuse my piping job. I was running behind (of course I was!) & was piping Happy Birthday on it as the guests were arriving.

I didn't think there were would be enough cookie cake to feed all the guests & originally, was going to make cupcakes but when Connor let it be known that he wanted hamburgers to be served, I found this adorable "french fries" cake on parenting.com. It didn't really fool anybody as the "ketchup" wasn't red enough (my Wilton food coloring gel dried out so I had to use the liquid) but everyone loved it. Isn't it cute? I actually made 2 baskets of "fries".

French Fries Birthday Cake

Ingredients:
1 (8-inch) round cake
1 can (16 oz) vanilla frosting
Red food coloring
1 frozen pound cake (12 oz), thawed

What you'll need:
A bread knife
A sheet pan
A wax-paper-lined basket, bowl, or plate
1 resealable sandwich-size plastic bag (Ziploc)
1 mini-paper cupcake liner

For the base of the cake:
Using the bread knife, trim the 8-inch cake to fit into a wax-paper–lined basket, bowl, or plate.
Set aside 3 Tbsp of the vanilla frosting in a small bowl. Spread the remaining vanilla frosting over the trimmed cake to cover completely.

For the french fries:
Preheat broiler. Trim the darker crusts of the cake away with a bread knife. Cut the pound cake crosswise into ½-inch slices. Cut each slice into ½-inch-thick sticks. Spread the pound-cake sticks in a single layer on a sheet pan. Place under the broiler for 15 to 30 seconds until the tops are lightly toasted and golden brown. (Watch the pound cake carefully -- it burns easily. Turn the pound-cake sticks and repeat on each side until they are lightly toasted all over. Arrange the pound-cake sticks on top of the frosted cake to resemble french fries.

For the ketchup:
Add red food coloring to the reserved 3 Tbsp of vanilla frosting to tint it the color of ketchup ( I added a bit of flavored coffee creamer to add flavor & thin it out some so that the french fries wouldn't break when dipped). Spoon the red frosting into a resealable plastic bag. Place the mini–paper cupcake liner on top of the "french fries." Snip a small corner from the bag with the red frosting. Pipe the red frosting into the paper liner.

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Now I'm off to Gollum's to see all the other food & I'm bringing an appetite...won't you come w/ me?