SOMBRERO BIRTHDAY CAKE 0

I am a true believer that children’s birthday parties are held for 2 reasons 1) the ‘satisfaction factor’ for the parents and 2) so pics can be taken and we can show them to our kids to prove that we actually DID put in effort when they were young (that’s kind of another “for the parents” reason isn’t it?!)….Anyway…..

Last week my nephew turned 2 (well he didn’t realllllly, he turns 2 this week, but we TOLLLLLLD him he did LAST week as that’s what suited the adults!), and my sister threw him a MEXICAN FIETSA themed birthday party. As soon as she announced the theme, the thinking caps went on with regards to what the cake would be. “Should we make a large Taco cake, with crumbled oreos for meat and green-coloured shredded coconut for the lettuce??”…..”Or a giant red chilli pepper complete with edible red glitter and a bright green stem??”….. “What about a cactus cake – we could use mint leave lollies to act as ‘spikes’??”……. “NO! NO! I know! A Sombrero! We will make a Sombrero cake!” my sister finally announced. And with that, the project began.

After much debate about the best way forward, many sketches of the vast array of construction options (the Architect within coming out) and a model or 2, we decided on the best approach to building the beast. We then went shopping. Came home. Made a cuppa. Set everything up. Prayed. And began…… If you are game enough to give this a go – here’s what you gotta do!

1) Purchase a Sombrero from the Hot Dollar Shop @ Westfield Bondi Junction (or similar!!) Cut off the cone part of the hat, set aside, and centre the Sombrero rim on cake board.

2) Purchase a million sponge cakes from the supermarket, or alternatively, bake a million sponge cakes,. Note: I DO NOT RECOMMEND the bake option because as you will see below, there’s lots of wastage. In addition, unless you = Zumbo, yours won’t be as perfect and easy to work with as the bought ones anyway! Place the Sombrero “cone” on the sponge cakes, and cut out a circle the same size as the base of this “cone”.

Don’t panic about being “perfect” at this stage, you will get a chance to “trim” later!

Note below: Kilometres of wastage BUT do NOT throw out – these can be used later…..simply stack and place to side.

3) Place first “circle” (may have to make it from 2 halves, depending on size of cake you are making and sponges that you buy) inside the Sombrero rim, push down so they are firmly laying flat on the cake board.

4) Cut another circle, approximately the same size and place it on top of these base cakes.

5) Keep cuttin’…..the idea is that we want to build circle, upon circle, upon circle……geeeeeeenerally getting smaller as we go up, but not havvvvving to be perfect……use the circle cut before the current circle to get a vague idea about what size circle you need to be cutting…..I THINK I JUST CONFUSED MYSELF!? Hopefully you understand what I am saying…..and if you don’t, just look at the pictures….they are prettier than my words anyway…….

6) Stack, stack, stackin’ away…. circle, upon circle, upon circle…….

7) Then it’s time to get out your very very veryyyyy sharp filleting knife…..holding it vertically, start shaving the piles of circles into shape…..it’s better to err on the safe side and go slowwwwwwwwly…..you can always take more off but you can’t glue it back on!

Hmmmmm….that’ll do…..not perfect but am about to slatherrrrrrrrrrrr it to death with 10 million kilos of icing!

8) Onto the icing! Again, you have  a “make vs buy” option here, and it is entirely up to you…..in my case, like the sponge, I bought….. The reason for this is that CONSISTENCY is very very very important as you don’t want it to be running down the Sombrero cone! Betty Crocker make AN INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS and PERFECTLY THICK vanilla icing, or frosting as they call it……chuck in your coloured food dye and you’re good to go!

We decided on 4 colours; blue, pink, green and yellow. We made them up only as we needed them. Once the dye is added, the icing has about a 20 minute life before it goes a little hard……it can be whipped back into submission, but who needs another task!?

9) Then really, there wasn’t that much of a method to the madness…..well, there kinda was… We started by icing the hat rim, as we knew it would be easier (no slippery slopes!)

A closer look…..If you have one, a mini palette knife makes slappin’ on the icing easy peasy!

Onto the next colour…..

Annnnnnnd the next oneeee……..

Now to tackle the “cone”….. We worked my way from bottom to top and in no time (10hrs from beginning to end arghhhh) we were finished!

10)….and you know those off cuts?! We cubed ’em up, iced ’em and wrote a special birthday message IN SPANISH (*very proud*) for the gorgeous birthday boy!

And because it was 1am when we finished, these final few pics were clearly taken in DARKNESSSSSSSSSSSSS…..soooooooo, here’s one from the next day, the day of the party……

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS MY ANGEL POP!