More cake decorating! This time for a super special occasion, my brother’s 40th birthday. We both love our home state to pieces, yet hate it at the same time for not making it easy/possible to live there full time. Soon, Vermont, soon…
I used this Carrot Cake Recipe for the cake but I wouldn’t really recommend using carrot cake of any kind for this type of “sculptured” cake. It is a bit too crumbly and while it worked out fine, it would have been easier if it had been a pound cake, which has a smaller crumb and holds together better under the knife.
Vermont Cake – Step by Step Assembly
I went online and found an outline for Vermont. I think next time I’d make it bigger, extending to the top and bottom of the page. The cake came out smaller than I’d have liked.The cake is a 12″ round. Cut the outline out and put it on the cake.Cut around the outline with a sharp knife,. It doesn’t have to be perfect but go slowly so as not to make any drastic changes in Vermont’s geography!The final cut cake.Frosting the cake. To make white frosting dark green, add a ton of green food coloring and then a few drops of blue to darken it. You’ll probably have to play around with the green and blue until you get the color you want. I wanted a darker green, but got tired of mixing the colors so settled on this color.The frosted cake.I used this Wilton silicone Christmas tree mold to make the trees for the top of the cake. I got these molds years ago but had actually never used them – they worked great!The trees when they came out of the mold. They had a little “muffin top” where the batter had spread above the line of the mold which I cut off to make them more even.The trees ready to be frosted.So, I guess I was too involved in the process and forgot to take pictures, but here is what the finished tree looked like. I took three toothpicks and put them spaced out in the bottom of the tree, and then stuck the tree into the cake. I then used a star tip and piped the trees as shown. I piped the backs, sides & front, which is why I waited to do the piping until after they were on the cake. It’s a little awkward to do , but they are small so it didn’t take long.I put the trees in the corner of the cake (over Burlington), for no real reason except I thought they looked good there.Close up of the two trees.The finished cake.The finished cake all lit up. Couldn’t fit 40 candles!You don’t look a day over 39! 🙂
