Franklin Is One Happy Camper
My nephew Franklin just turned one and he had such a fun birthday party theme. He was “One Happy Camper”. This theme was perfect because he is always so happy and smiley! Just look at him!
Of Course he needed a cake (or two) for his party! (recipe below!) I love making the cakes for my family. It is so fun, and I always get to partake in eating them! LOL
The hardest part about making a cake is deciding on what to make. So when the theme is chosen by someone else it makes it easy for me!
I decided to do a tent and a campfire in the woods for the sheet cake. I frosted the bottom half with chocolate buttercream (recipe below) for the “ground” and used regular buttercream (recipe below) dyed blue for the sky. Once that was all smoothed out I did the details! Making the fire was my favorite part. I got the new Wilton color swirl coupler. How it works is you put up to three colored frostings that are in separate bags in the same coupler. So when you go to pipe the frosting it swirls the colors together out of one tip! Genius! It was super easy.
Here are the tips I used for the decorations
Logs 
Tree 
Writing 
Tent 
Fire
Here are the colors I used for the cake decorations. I always prefer to make the piping bags with the frosting before I start. It can be time consuming and when your in the “zone” decorating it’s hard to stop and fill more bags…
Since this was a 1st birthday party, we needed a smash cake of course! This was super fun and easy to make. I frosted the cake with chocolate buttercream (recipe below) and made a big campfire using the frosting and the color swirl tool I mentioned above. How easy is that?! Franklin definitely “smashed” this cake. It was such a mess, but well worth the cleanup. (especially because I didn’t have to clean it!)
How cute are these cookies?! I sadly did not make them, but someone did and they were awesome! We were all “One Happy Camper”!
The party was such a great time and a big success! As long as the birthday boy was “One Happy Camper”, so was everyone else!!
Check out my other cakes by visiting my cake gallery and also below are some more posts you might enjoy. Subscribe to Fun and Frosted to stay in the loop!!
Easy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Notes
Store In the Refrigerator
Can be stored for 2 weeks
Make sure Buttercream is at room temp before spreading on cakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups softened butter (salted or unsalted, depending on your preference)
- 1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 7 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 5 tablespoons milk or heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add the softened butter
- Beat butter on medium to high until fluffy
- Add vanilla and salt
- Add in cocoa
- Gradually add powdered sugar and alternate adding in cream
- Continue beating for 2-3 minutes on medium
- Turn to high speed once sugar is incorporated
- If you want to add in food coloring, add in while it is beating.
- If frosting is too stiff add in more milk or cream 1 tsp at a time and beat until combined.
- Spread on Cake and/or put in piping bags
Easy Buttercream
Notes
Store In the Refrigerator
Can be stored for 2 weeks
Make sure Buttercream is at room temp before spreading on cakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup softened unsalted butter
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 6 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 3-5 tablespoons milk or heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add the softened butter
- Beat butter on medium to high until fluffy
- Add vanilla and salt
- Gradually add powdered sugar and alternate adding in cream
- Continue beating for 2-3 minutes on medium
- Turn to high speed once sugar is incorporated
- If you want to add in food coloring, add in while it is beating.
- If frosting is too stiff add in more milk or cream 1 tsp at a time and beat until combined.
- Spread on Cake and/or put in piping bags
12×18 Sheet Cake
Notes
- You can get away with using only 2.5 boxes of the cake mix. I fill 12 cupcakes (since that’s half a box) first and then pour the rest into the pan. Having cupcakes is great because when the cake comes out my kids always want to stick their fingers in it, so I just hand them a cupcake instead! You can also taste it to make sure it’s delicious!!
- TIP – Every oven seems to bake differently. I always put the timer on for 5-10 minutes before the recipe tells me, because I fear it will over cook…My oven cooks super fast and 35 minutes is enough.
- TIP – If your cake breaks when coming out of the pan (because it happens to the best of us) DON’T PANIC. You can piece it together and carefully cover with frosting. Do your best and keep going. Who’s going to know?!
Ingredients
- 3 Boxes of Cake Mix (any flavor)
- 3 Cups Water
- 1 1/2 Cups Canola Oil
- Cake Release to grease the pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
- In a stand mixer, (I LOVE my Kitchenaid!) mix the cake ingredients together – I always put the eggs in first for two reasons. 1. If you get shells in the bowl you can fish them out easier. 2. The cake mix won’t stick to the bottom of the bowl
- Bake the Cake at 325 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Make sure you check the cake with a toothpick and that it comes out clean.
- After the cake comes out of the oven I put the cupcakes in for 15 minutes
- Let the Cake cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then put on a cooling rack. It needs to completely cool before you can frost!
- Once cooled transfer to a cake board