A Trio of Cakes

Our youngest shares his birthday with one cousin, another cousin's birthday is the day after. We got together on Sunday to celebrate the three birthdays and had a grand time. I can bake a cake but it seems beyond me to make it look pretty. This is actually a secret desire of mine to decorate beautiful, cakes like these and these. Maybe someday. Despite my deficiencies, I wanted to make three cakes, one for each birthday child. Well aware of my handicap, I had to choose carefully; Rice-krispie cake with chocolate marshmellow icing, tower of chocolate cupcakes, chocolate box cake with pink buttercream icing.


For the choclate cake and cupcakes, I made one recipe of One Bowl Chocolate Cake and baked part in an 8x8 pan, the rest in mini cupcake pans. For the small square cake, I cut the 8x8 into 4 equal squares, and then cut each in half horizontally. This gave me 8 layers. I made two cakes, 4 layers each and used one on Colin's actual birthday.

Buttercream
1 lb. butter
6 C. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
salt to taste (I like quite a bit of salt actually, it gives the sweet a little balance. If you use salted butter you might not need any salt.)

Crisp-Rice Birthday Cake (from Martha Stewart Kids)
Melt 10 T. butter over low heat in large saucepan. Add 12 cups mini marshmellows; stir until melted, about 10 minutes. Stir in 16 cups (a 13.5 oz. box) crisp rice cereal. Coat 2 8" rounds with cooking spray. Reserve 2 T. mixture for patching. Divide remaining mixture among pans. Press into pans. Let cool until set, about 30 min. Make Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting by melting 1 1/2 T. over medium-low heat. Add 4 1/2 c. marshmallows; cook, stirring, until just beginning to melt. Add 3/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips, stir until smooth.
To assemble cake: unmold cakes, spread chocolate marshmallow frosting on top of one layer, top with other cake. Use reserved mixture to patch where frosting shows through. Decorate with other cereal (I used Trix).