zebra party

Ryan's big zebra birthday...

We don't do big birthday parties for our kids. It's just not my thing. 

I do, however, like to make them a special cake for their day. I've always let them choose what they wanted to have. My favorite one so far was the "monster truck" for Jacob's 4th birthday.

(As I was looking for the pics of the monster truck, I came across these cute little cake pops that I made for...something. I had completely forgotten about then, but they were adorable!)

This year, Ryan said he wanted a "zebra party" for his birthday. Short of getting him an actual zebra, we delivered. A special behind the scenes tour of the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park got him closer to the zebras than most kids ever get. 

Then, he got his "zebra party," complete with pin the tail on the zebra, a zebra pinata, zebra balloons, etc. (Thank you, Amazon.)

But, the highlight of the zebra party, for me anyway, since I wasn't the one getting presents, was the zebra cake.

First, I tried to find a plastic zebra to stick on the top as a cake topper. I couldn't find any at Target, so they clearly don't exist. I had to make one. Luckily I had an unopened bag of fondant left from some other project that I probably never did. I quickly, without over-thinking it, squished together a little zebra and painted him with food coloring. He's pretty adorable, though his glamour shot is a little blurry.

Then, I made the cake from a box like I always do. While I do usually prefer making things myself and NOT using stuff from a box, I cannot see the point in making cake from scratch. So I don't.

I wanted it to be a surprise when we cut into the cake that the inside had zebra stripes, too! I did a quick Pinterest search for "zebra cake" and found that f you just make a batch of white cake mix and a batch of chocolate cake mix, you can create a stripey pattern by dropping alternating spoonfuls of each mix into the center of the cake pan. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, so it was a surprise for everyone.

I don't care for fondant and love buttercream, so I just frosted the cake with white buttercream frosting that I flavored with honey. (I had some sitting ont he counter, and Ryan LOVES honey. It was delicious.) But I did use some strips on Wilton's sugar sheets for the zebra stripes. So simple...just cut and stick to frosting. Done. And they are not as thick as fondant, so not as disgusting.

I mixed up some green frosting and made some grass all along the edges. This worked well, since what I was really trying to do was hide the fact that my layers weren't even and I cut the sugar sheets like I had my eyes closed. Messy edges? Add grass!

I kinda was running out of time, so there are obviously flaws in the execution of this (like the obvious seams, the uneven layers of the cake, the horribly messy piping...), but overall, when you stand back a little way, it looks very cute.

And the birthday boy loved it!

He was pretty excited to see the inside of the cake, too.

Happy 4th birthday to my sweet little man.