Let Them Eat Cake!

Pardon the mess as I work on a blog makeover.  Granny over here is trying to break into the 21st century, but my mind is an alphabet soup of HTML codes and CSS style sheets and RSS feeds and my ABCs and God knows what else.

Food is easier.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada.  I’m not really sure what Canadian Thanksgiving is all about, aside from the obvious gratefulness and appreciation for our abundance.  I’m not a Canadian myself, but I celebrated nonetheless with an abundance of cake.  I won’t reveal HOW much cake was consumed because, frankly, I’ve already had to lie to myself about the number of slices, but I will give you an idea by saying that in the past five days I’ve celebrated the birthdays of four people, including the Boyfriend.

The Boyfriend has a fascination with dinosaurs.  He used to want to be a paleontologist.  We own the Jurassic Park box set and he will frequently hum the theme (upon request or not). If tickets weren’t so flipping expensive, I would have bought him a couple to Walking with Dinosaurs.

But instead I made him a dinosaur cake.

The pan

A dinosaur emerges

Roar!

Since I am sort of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sort of girl, I baked the cake in a dinosaur-shaped pan, then eye-balled the outline.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I used a mix for the cake, but the frosting and icing were made and dyed by me.

Buttercream Frosting

1/2 c. shortening

3/4 stick butter, softened

1/2 t. vanilla

2 T. milk

4 c. powdered sugar

Cream the shortening and butter.  Add the vanilla and milk.  Add in the sugar without making a mess of yourself and your kitchen.  (Next time I’ll take my own advice.)  The recipe makes three cups, which was plenty for this green masterpiece.

Was there ever a happier birthday boy?

The general consensus? One friend commented, “This cake is delicious! And not just because it looks like a dinosaur.”