Balloon Birthday Party Cake
This is what I made for my son's 4th birthday. I'll warn you, it's fairly time-consuming, but it's really cute.
Balloon Birthday Cake
You'll need:
One boxed cake mix, baked as a 13x9 sheet cake
A 4 inch circle for tracing purposes (a plastic lid, or I used a large plastic Hardee's cup)
One tub of white frosting, whatever flavor you desire
Food coloring
6 length of ribbon, I'd say at least 3 feet each
A large (at least 2'x2') piece of cardboard, foil-covered
Piping bag or ziploc with a snipped corner
First I made the cake and cooled it. Then I traced and cut out 6 circles, "discarding" the extra pieces of cake. (You know where they went!) Leave the cake circles in the pan for right now.
Now, you can do the frosting two ways.
You could just divide it into 6 equal portions and color each one separately. (Be sure to leave a couple of tablespoons of plain frosting for adding the "reflection" on each balloon, plus any writing you want to do.)
What I actually did was less efficient — I scooped out 3 or 4 tablespoons of frosting and colored it one color, then frosted one cake. Then I took the left over frosting, added more and put in a different color to mix a brand-new color. For instance, you could start with blue. Then take any blue that is left over, mix in some more frosting, and add red to turn it into purple. You can't do this each time, of course.
Frost each cake a different color, arranging them on the cardboard piece after you frost each individual one. (Don't try to arrange them, then frost them on the board, they will be too close together.)
After you have arranged the cakes as you want them, then take the remaining white frosting and pipe the "reflections" on each balloon — you know, the little curved rectangle you always draw on balloons to give it dimension. Then pipe on any birthday message you want. Of course, you'll probably have to split it between different cakes. I wrote, "Happy" on one, "4th" on another and my son's name on another.
Now add the ribbons. I took a chopstick and folded about 2 inches of ribbon over the end of it, then inserted that into the bottom of each cake. This is an easy way to get them in far enough to stay, and the chopstick also allows you to maneuver between the closely-placed cakes without getting frosting all over your hands. Bring the ribbons down to the bottom of the cake board and tie together, or you may want to put a bow on it to hold them together.
This should serve about 24 people, 1/4th of each individual cake is plenty for an adult serving, let alone a child's serving.
