Owl Birthday Cake

Birthdays at our house are always special.  We celebrate them twice.  First, on the actual day, with just family. Then, we celebrate again with friends.

For the family cake, my daughter requested a Lemon cake with raspberry filling but left the decorations up to me.  She has recently created a fascination for owls, so I knew what to do.

Let me start with the cake. I modified my White Sour Cream Cake to create a Luscious Lemon Cake

 
In a bowl, mix together dry ingredients, with a whisk.  In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients with an electric mixer. Add 1/2 of the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the remaining dry ingredients.   Divide batter between two 8″ round prepared (greased and floured) cake pans. Bake at 300 for 20 minutes, then increase temperature to 325 and bake another 25 minutes. Allow to cool 5 minutes in pan before removing the cake. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before decorating.

It should come as no surprise to my regular readers that I used Decorator’s Frosting Recipe.  This creates a nice smooth finish and crusts nicely.  To create a nice lemony flavor I used 2 teaspoons of lemon extract.

Once my cake was cool, I was ready to assemble.  After leveling the bottom cake, I placed it on my glass plate.  I spread a thin layer of frosting on the top. This was to keep the raspberry filing from seeping into the cake.  I opted to use a can of SOLO Raspberry filling. I have found it to be an economical choice when raspberries are out of season (I used less than one 12 oz can).

The owl and tree branch were made from fondant.  I found a piece of clip art online that I liked and printed it several times.  Using a pair of scissors, I cut the clip art into pieces creating paper templates.  The piece when then placed onto sheets of fondant that I had rolled 1/8 inch think. Using a pairing knife I cut each piece and re-assembled them on the top of the cake.  After the fondant was added, I piped a shell border and the writing.