Outdoor Cakes: Campout and In the Garden

This was a heavy cake-making week. My sister and mother both celebrated birthdays, so they each got a cake reflecting a part of their lives. Since they are both outdoor scenes and were presented on the same evening, I was able to share materials and save some time by using an assembly line approach for some of the elements. Warning to the viewer: both of these cakes have a lot going on. Maybe I should have stopped earlier, but it is always such a fine line...

Kimball camps (and hikes, and trail runs, and does almost anything athletic with absolute determination) regularly with her husband and two dogs, so the first cake was for her birthday. It was red velvet with cookies and cream (not Oreos, Sara!) buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream frosting. The tent is a pile of rice crispie treats formed into a triangle and covered in fondant. The dogs are both fondant, the grass is vanilla buttercream, and the rocks are chocolate. The cake is surrounded with Pirouette cookies.

Since it is summer, it seems like I always see Mom gardening when I visit. So her birthday cake depicts her in the garden...it was a white cake with the same filling and frosting as the first cake. She is made from fondant (I gave her what I think is a very cute, hip haircut), and the vegetable garden area is crushed chocolate cookies with some vegetables made from fruit chews.

It's a three hour drive (including the mandatory restroom stop...I pretend it's for Ben but it's really for me) from my house to Mom and Dad's, so I kept checking the cakes along the way. At one point, Gage announced, "your mom fell over!" and we pulled over to make the necessary adjustments.

In the end, the cakes made it ok and I ate way too much frosting, but it was great to see some of my family members and wish them happy birthday in person.