Barlow - Easy Cut-up Cakes for Kids

Now you can bake and decorate your very own fun shape cake! This book is full of easy cake ideas that you can make for birthdays or other special occasions. Choose from bugs, animals, and silly shapes to surprise your family and friends with your creative genius!

Before you start baking, please do two very important things:

1. Ask permission from your parent or guardian.

2. Find an adult helper to join you in the funmainly to keep you safe, but also to answer questions you might have about the recipe or ingredients. In this book you will use electric mixers, hot ovens, and knives. You need an adult helper and must always be careful!

The first step when making any recipe in this book is to read the whole recipe first. Search the cupboards to make sure you have the right pans for the cake you've chosen. Then gather all the ingredients together so they will be handy.

Now turn on the oven to the temperature noted in the recipe. Let the oven preheat (reach the desired temperature) while you grease the cake pans and mix the batter. An oven that has been preheated will cook the cake evenly. And pans that have been well greased will let the cake pop out in one piece after it has cooled a bit.

After mixing the ingredients together and making a deliciously smooth ?batter, carefully transfer the batter to the greased pans. Then your adult helper can help you carefully put the pans into the oven. Set a timer and then relax until it rings, dings, or whistles at you. To test for doneness, have your adult helper insert a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.

Let cakes cool completely before you frost them. This will help keep crumbs out of your frosting. You can even bake the cake a day before you'll need it.

Frosting is one of the most important parts of decorating your cake. Frosting can be messy, so be very careful as you decorate and ask your adult helper to work with you.

To help keep you clean, wear an apron. To help keep your cake plate clean, stick little pieces of wax paper just under the edges of your cake. Then your cake plate won't have frosting all over it. When you finish frosting the cake, just pull out the wax paper pieces and throw them away.

There are many yummy flavors of frosting that you can buy. These are usually whipped, making them easy to spread. Sometimes you need frosting that is stiffer, such as for squeezing through a decorating bag to draw lines or make shapes. For stiffer frosting (or if you want to flavor it yourself), you and your adult helper can make these easy recipes instead of buying frosting from the store:

Beat margarine or butter, water or milk, and vanilla together with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Add salt, if using. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. If the frosting is too thick, add more water or milk by the teaspoon until it reaches the right consistency. If it is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.

*Substitute 1 cup regular vegetable shortening and clear vanilla if you want a more pure white, less cream-colored frosting.

Beat margarine or butter, water or milk, and vanilla together with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Add salt, if using. Beat in cocoa powder. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. If the frosting is too thick, add more water or milk by the teaspoon until it reaches the right consistency. If it is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.

You can buy frosting at the grocery store that comes in tubes. You might want to use these instead of decorator bags. They are great to use for decorating and adding details to your cakes. The tubes come in small and large sizes. The small tubes are usually filled with gel frosting and the large tubes come with regular frosting. Both kinds come in all colors of the rainbow and are very easy to use.

Most grocery stores have food-coloring kits somewhere on the cake aisle. These work well, but sometimes the colors aren't as deep or dark as you'd like them to be. You and your adult helper may want to go to a craft store and buy some Wilton Icing Colors. They are not expensive and will help you get the exact color you need. If there isn't a craft store near you that carries Wilton products, some chain stores do, like Wal-Mart, or you can visit their website at www.wilton.com to look for products and icing colors available online. Just remember to be careful when using any coloring, because it will stain your clothes!

Now comes the best part. You can choose to decorate your cake with your favorite candy and other treats! You don't have to use exactly what is listed in each recipe, just remember it's best to use bright, colorful candy.

A lot of recipes call for different types of snack cakes to use when decorating. For example, your cake may call for mini donuts or Oreos that are then used for wheels on a car or train, or Twinkies cut in half that are used for legs on a turtle. Use what you think sounds best.

Just remember that the most important thing is to be creative and have fun. The possibilities are endless!

Freddy the Froggy

Pans

Cupcake pan

1 (8-inch) square pan

1 (8-inch) round pan

Ingredients

1 cake mix, any flavor

Bright green frosting

White frosting

2 chocolate chips or mini Oreo cookies

1 piece red licorice

1 tube red gel frosting or red Fruit by the Foot

10 green or white mini marshmallows

1 tube black gel frosting

1. Make cake mix according to package directions. Fill two cups in the cupcake pan about two-thirds full. Pour half of the remaining batter into the square pan and the other half into the round pan. Bake cupcakes and cakes at 350 degrees F for 20 to 23 minutes and then carefully remove cupcakes from oven. Continue baking the cakes until done, according to directions on box. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes, and then invert and cool completely on a wire rack.