Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Happy Birthday Makenzie!

The day has come!  With Bradey's, Mike's & my birthdays all within 2 weeks of one another in February/March, poor Kenzie starts counting down really early until the day arrives when it's her turn to be the princess for the day {she's that EVERY day at our house!}  And she has been faithfully, with a calendar, marking off the days until June 29th arrived.  She has had it all planned out how she wanted her cake decorated and for the last 2 months, I've heard, "for my birthday, I think ------ would work" at practically everything we've came across.  But, in reality, the girl is so easy to please!  She loves bright pink and she loves zebra print on anything, so I have had the cake planned in my head for months!  I also bought the cutest cupcake liners, but they'll have to wait until a later date to be put to use because this cake was oodles! Cupcakes would have been adorable along with the cake, but would have went to waste!

Makenzie is shy, yet witty.  She always has a little twinkle in her eye!  I just love that about her!

Some of my favorite things about Makenzie are:

Her Beautiful eyes!

 Her Contagious laughter!

Her Loving, Sweet & Caring Personality!

Her "Spunky"-ness!

And the fact that she can be all dressed up to go out on the town.....

....and then turn around and....

hop on her beautiful horse, Jack... that she just got for her birthday!  A step up from her pony!

I love that she loves Fashion.... And ALL things ZEBRA!!! Because I do too!

It's been a wonderful day!

Here's how I made the cake!  Sorry there are no step-by-step pictures, as I was in a hurry this morning :)  P.S.  I did make my deadline with an hour to spare;)

To stay with the zebra motif, I did one layer of white cake and one layer of chocolate cake for both tiers.  I filled the layers with Strawberry Whipped Frosting.  Oh My!  I could eat that stuff by the spoonfuls, no kidding! So really, I guess this cake is Neopolitan (sp?)....

One cake mix made 1 9-inch and 1 6-inch.  So I used two cake mixes.  I baked them for about 20-25 minutes.  Cooled in pan for 10 minutes then put them out on a wire rack to cool.  Leveled the tops off, the filled between the layers with Strawberry Whipped Frosting. I put a crumb coat of butter cream on both tiers, then let them dry.  Then I frosted them.  Then I colored some buttercream black and piped the zebra stripes on , then smoothed them out with a knife.  I then put the top layer on and covered it in polka-dots.  I used a 2 inch ribbon to contrast the layers, and just taped the ends at the back.  The M on the top is a little wooden M that I mod-podged zebra paper onto and filed the edges with a nail file to finish it.  I then attached sucker sticks to the bottom of the M and pushed them in the top of the cake. Oh! And I tied a bow to the top of the M to tie it in with the ribbon on the cake.  It was that easy! 

I used Betty Crocker White and Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Cake mixes, made as directed on boxes.

Strawberry Whipped Frosting
from cupboard to cupboard

1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
4 TBSP strawberry puree

Whip your cream until it looks like whipping cream.  Add sugar and mix in well.  Then add strawberry puree (hull and wash strawberries, blend) and mix in.  Fill the cake with it before you eat it all!  It also makes great frosting!!! Looks beautiful piped!

Buttercream Frosting

1 cup shortening
7 TBSP water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lb powder sugar

blend... add more water to make it an easier consistency for frosting and piping!

Happy Cooking!

Teauna