Happy Birthday!

Michael is now two! We had a good time at his birthday party, with both sets of grandparents attending as well as our friends from Sioux Falls. We were thinking of having a Bob the Builder theme, but then we found some cute Thomas and Friends things, so we decided to go with that. Michael approved, as he really likes playing trains.

Here is the cake, made by David and Amy, with artistic advice from Dan. Sarah helped decorate it with the "Chipboard Medley" of Thomas cutouts. It was an Eggless Crazy Cake with white Crazy Cake filling on top and buttercream frosting decorations. We ended up using two batches of the white filling to hold it all together because the cake fell apart as we took it out of the pan. Some pieces were especially delicious with all that extra filling!

Here is the recipe for the cake, courtesy of the Dining on a Dime cookbook:

Eggless Crazy Cake

3 c. flour

2 c. sugar

2 t. baking soda

1/4 c. cocoa, packed

1 t. salt

1 t. vanilla

1 T. vinegar

3/4 c. vegetable oil

2 c. water

DO NOT GREASE PAN. (Maybe that's why we had trouble getting it out!) Sift dry ingredients into a 9 x 13 inch pan. Make 3 holes in the mixture. Put vanilla in one hole, vinegar in another, and vegetable oil in the last hole. Pour water over all the mixture and blend gently with a fork. Do not beat. Bake 25-30 min. at 350. Cool and top with filling and then frosting. Serves 18.

Filling for Crazy Cake

2 1/2 T. flour

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. margarine or butter

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 t. vanilla

Mix milk and flour in a saucepan and cook over medium heat to a thick paste, stirring constantly. Let cool. Cream together butter and sugar. Add lukewarm flour mixture and beat until fluffy. This may take a little while. Fold in vanilla. Spread on top of cake.

Original Crazy Cake frosting (chocolate drizzle)

2 T cocoa

1/4 c. margarine or butter

1/4 c. milk

1 c. sugar

2 T. light corn syrup

1/2 t. vanilla

Bring all the ingredients except vanilla to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Add vanilla and beat until thick. Drizzle over cake.

We used this for our Valentine's cake hearts. It's really good!

Here we have Michael and Sarah eyeing the cake:

Here they are, blowing out the candles: