Mommy, Joi and the Boy: Look WHOOO's One!

Giving a HOOT at the Boy's 1st Birthday!

Cupcakes sent to daycare...

Alright, so here we go. The Boy's 1st Birthday was a while back and I really must say that I outdid myself. His actual birthday was on a Thursday, which means that he went to daycare that day (note to self: always take child's birthday off, you deserve it like mad, and you'll miss him all day long). So, as any good Mama does, I made cupcakes the night before. Banana with cream cheese frosting. And they got excellent reviews.

While I was making those banana cupcakes, I got to thinking about the cake for his party. We'd already decided on an Owl theme, and had ordered the entire get-up, pinata and T-shirt included, for the event, so I wanted to make it a masterpiece.

I quite enjoyed the cupcakes, but looked up banana cakes just to be sure...

I found the Best Ever Banana Cake recipe, and I was sold. Off I went, collecting lemon juice and buttermilk, which I don't usually put in my banana breads (I simply used a banana bread recipe for that first batch of cupcakes), and cleared space in the freezer so the process of sealing in the moisture would not come up against any complications. In case the link doesn't work, here is the recipe from Rhonda *J* at Food.com:

Ingredients: (Serves: 16 Yield: 1 9x13 pan) (I tripled both the cake and frosting recipes).

1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed, ripe

2 teaspoons lemon juice

3 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

2 1/8 cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups icing sugar

Garnish chopped walnuts (mmmm, nope)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 275°. (Yes, it seems low, but it really did work)

2. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan. (Or 3, if you're me)

3. In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.

4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

5. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.
7. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.

8. Stir in banana mixture.

9. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

10. Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist. (I questioned this step, especially when it came time to making room in the freezer, but now I truly credit it for the delightful-ness that was the finished product).

11. For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

12. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla.

13. Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.

14. Spread on cooled cake.

15. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over top of the frosting, if desired (I did not desire).

I did as instructed. And although it was well into the night by the time the cake came out of the freezer, I still had to devise a pattern. During the freezing process, I did many a Google search (and this is where I first learned of the glory that is Pinerest) to find all sorts of Owl Cake Designs. None of them were exactly what I wanted though, so I just improvised. With the first two round cakes I made the body and the head. I used the pieces from the wing shaping and where the neck might be to form the ear tufts and the feet and then used the third cake to build up the wings and the belly for more definition (I used some of that cream cheese frosting to stick the layers together) before giving the whole thing a crumb coat:

Two cakes, and you start to see the owl.

Add 3rd cake for definition, then crumb coat

The crumb coat may seem like an extra step, but really, it is very important (I learned this from my sister-in-law, who baked our wedding cake with divine perfection) as it lends the ability of actually manipulating the frosting to do what you want it to, rather than getting all full of crumbs and having the cake fall apart before your eyes.

Now the real fun began. This was the next day, of course, as I had long since crashed (I started the baking Thursday night, the party was Saturday). So, Friday morning, I had the wife go out and buy up the entire stock of Nutella. That's right. Nutella. See, I thought, why should I try to mix the perfect blend of brown for the owl feathers, when I can have Nutella at the ready? It is already just the color I want, and what goes better with banana than Nutella? Um, nothin'.

So I set out, armed with cream cheese frosting, Nutella, food coloring (for beak, eyes, feet and leaves), and pretzels (a respectable bird needs something to stand on). I studied photos of real owls and owl cakes alike. And finally, again in the wee hours of the morning, I did it:

Ah, but I was not finished. This was, after all, the Boy's 1st Birthday Party. And no 1st Birthday Party is complete without a personal cake that can be devoured by the guest of honor. With my triple-recipe action, I made a tiny heart-shaped cake and also a half-dozen cupcakes (again), so that I could make that personal cake for the Boy and have some leftover treats for us. But then I thought better and decided to send his little friends off with their own cupcake owl as a favor.