hudson’s 4th birthday cake
One of our grandson’s is completely enamored with bowling –and– CAKE! Since he was old enough to walk and push a ball, he’s loved bowling! It matters not where, he loves to set up pins and knock them down and his favorite outing/event is to go bowling! That was the inspiration behind this cake. And CAKE! I don’t know anyone who delights in cake more than this little guy! ~smile~
I didn’t know how I’d do the pins, initially, but one night I was thinking and rethinking this cake and I mentally counted out the pins – then the letters of his name and years he’s passed. And then it came to me: it’s just the right amount… the letters of his name and that he’s knocked down four years.
The pins and ball are made of fondant. I should’ve made them days prior to the decorating for the party so that they would’ve hardened — two days prior was not long enough. I rolled the fondant into a ‘log’ and evenly cut lengths. To ensure they were the same size, each cut from the “log” was one ounce. To shape the pins, I rolled them completely smooth, rounded at each end and tapered in the top third. The bowling ball was more difficult to colour solid black–so I used a piece of navy fondant and rolled it over and over again in black coloring. {I order these colours from Amazon AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste}
I baked the cakes, this time making the Epicurious Guinness Dark Chocolate cake. On the day of the party, I frosted and filled them with buttercream and dark chocolate ganache. I coloured and lettered/numbered the pins and placed them on the cake top where I piped six dollops to be the base to hold the six pins and then arranged the knocked down 4 pins, piped four hearts for the candle placement — this, a nod to this little Valentine’s February 14th birthdate.
