Easy Birthday Cakes Anyone Can Make

The first thing you need to know is that it isn't necessary to bake a cake from scratch. There is nothing wrong with using a boxed mix if you aren't the world's greatest baker and even icing can be bought in a can, if you are in a hurry. So, a couple of days before the party, buy two or three boxed mixes and get ready to go.

You should bake the cakes the day before the party so they have time to cool, and then decorate in the morning of your child's birthday. Leave yourself lots of time to decorate so you can fix mistakes without feeling too much pressure.

\"Cake Recipes\"

Alright, that's it for the baking tips, let's get on to the actual cakes.

Easy Birthday Cakes Anyone Can Make

Caterpillar Cake

This is best for the younger set and it is super easy to make. Instead of using cake pans, you will bake the cake batter in muffin tins. You need one muffin for each guest, so if you have invited six children and their mothers, you will need 14 cupcakes. Although you can use muffin papers, you will need to remove them before you finish the cake.

On a big tray, arrange the cupcakes in an undulating line to form the body of the caterpillar. You can ice them any way you wish, each cupcake a different color, or all the same with letters spelling out the birthday child's name, or even with spots made of candies! The caterpillar's head will need eyes which can be made with chocolate circles and a dab of white icing.

For legs, you will need to cut strips of red or black licorice into 3" lengths and add 2 per cupcake, lying on the tray. You can add icing shoes if you like, just blobs at the end of each leg, but this isn't necessary. Two licorice antennae are a good touch as well! And there you have a very easy birthday cake that doesn't even need to be cut!

Lego Cake

To make this fun cake you will need to bake three rectangular layers. Put one on top of the other so you have a double layer, then use the third to make the "teeth" of your Lego cake. You will need to use a round cookie cutter, about 2.5-3" in diameter. Cut out 6 or 8 rounds, depending on the size of the cake.

Use icing to add the "teeth" to the top of your Lego block. This might be easier if you first ice the cake and the teeth separately, then attach and smooth the icing around the base of the teeth. Ice the cake in your child's favorite color.

Paw Print Cake

You need four cupcakes and a round cake layer for this birthday sweet. Simply ice them in chocolate icing (or in blue icing for Blue's Clue's prints) and set the round cake on a plate. Arrange the four cupcakes as toes at the top and you are ready to go!

As you can see, it is pretty easy to come up with a simple to make, great looking birthday cake that your child will be proud to eat! So don't let fear stop you, go ahead and get baking!

Easy Birthday Cakes Anyone Can Make

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5 Easy Microwave Egg Recipes For Students

Being a student means you have very little time or money to spend on your food. Heres five simple egg recipes that you can do in your microwave oven. Using your microwave will not only save you time but also use less energy and can provide you with some great nutritious meals.Eggs are simple and easy to cook, they have great nutritional value and will help retain you through those long evenings of study. Because they are full of protein they are a great source for athletes to help build up muscle.

1; Scrambled eggs;
This is probably the easiest thing to cook in a microwave.

\"Cake Recipes\"

Take one egg and crack it into a microwave safe container. Add about a tablespoon of water or milk and whisk the two together and put them in your microwave oven. Cook on full power for 50 seconds or 1/2 power for 1and a half minutes. Remove from your microwave and stir with a fork. Leave this to stand for two minutes and in less than five minutes you will have light fluffy scrambled eggs.

5 Easy Microwave Egg Recipes For Students

2; Breakfast English Muffin;

Take a microwave cup and melt some butter in it for about 15 seconds. Swish the butter around the cup [ this helps to stop the egg from sticking to the cup ] crack an egg into the cup and microwave on full power for 45 seconds. Be careful though to check the power of your microwave and adjust your cooking time appropriately as the egg may explode. Cook some bacon on a microwave griddle until your happy that its cooked right for you. Butter an English muffin add the bacon, a slice of cheese and the egg and blast on full power your microwave for another 15 seconds. You have a great breakfast muffin in little time that will keep you going through the morning.

3; Garlic cod with eggs;

Take a small piece of cod, between two and four ounces and place it in a microwave safe dish and add a clove of chopped garlic. Cover this with a microwave cover or microwave safe wrap. Cook on full power for about a minute. Whisk two or three eggs together and pour them over the fish cook on full power for a further two minutes. Take out of the microwave and leave to stand for two minutes. This makes a great filling and healthy meal for you to enjoy and will impress your friends.

4; Fridge omelette;

Take all those left over bits of veg,ham,bacon and any other left overs in your fridge. Put them in a microwave dish and add two or three eggs and cook on full power for one and a half minutes. This should use up your left overs ad give you a tasty fun snack.

5; Meringue with mars bar sauce.

Take two egg whites and add sugar or a sweetener, whisk the two together until the mixture turns into white peaks. Butter a microwave dish and spoon in three or four blobs of of the mixture. Microwave on full power until it puffs up. Take out of the microwave and leave to finish cooking through. Chop up a mars bar and put it in a microwave safe bowl. Cook on full power until it melts. Pour the sticky mess over the puffed up meringues and consume rapidly. Be careful as the melted mars will be very hot.

These recipes are all easy and quick to prepare and are great value. Ideal for students and people on tight budgets. You can use any microwave to cook them in.

5 Easy Microwave Egg Recipes For Students

Brought to you by Rossgo of http://www.everythingmicrowaves.com

Melting Method Cakes

Cake making by the melting method really is a piece of cake because it requires the minimum of effort. This method is specially designed to cope with the extra sweeteners needed to make soft and sticky traditional cakes such as gingerbread.

Melting-method cakes have a characteristic tacky, sticky texture throughout the cake, and it is this that has made cake like gingerbread so very popular and has given them such a high place in traditional baking. This stickiness is achieved by increasing the proportion of sweetening agents to ether ingredients in the cake.

\"Cake Recipes\"

To handle the extra volume of sweetener, a special method is used. With this method the fat is melted with the sweetener before the flour is added. Before cooking the cake mixture has a good texture and a consistency similar to a thick batter, rather than the soft topping consistency of cake mixtures made by the all-in-one or creaming methods.

Melting Method Cakes

Like all cakes, the amount and the choice of ingredients depend on the method you are using, the flavor and the texture you wish to achieve and/or the recipe you have chosen. Average proportions for cakes made by the melting method are one-third fat to the total amount of flour; one-third sugar to the total amount of flour; and one to two-thirds of sweetener to the total amount of flour. However, these proportions can vary considerably with individual recipes.

One extremely important factor when making cakes by this method is the exact weighing of the ingredients for the individual recipes. As long as there is a correct balance of ingredients to start with, perfect results will follow.

There are no hard and fast rules about the type of flour to use. As a basic guide, plain flour is best used, because then you can control the amount of raising agent which is important to the mixture. Self-raising flour may be used for certain recipes, but as you have no control over the raising agent you can never be sure whether it is too much or too little for the purpose of making cakes by this method. Certain brown flours can be used depending on your taste. Never use a strong plain flour (the type recommended for bread making), because this will produce a tough and heavy-textured cake. You should never substitute one flour for another in a given recipe, because this could upset the overall balance.

Bicarbonate of soda is the raising agent most often used in this method of cake making as it combines successfully with plain flour. When this chemical raising agent is heated, it gives off a carbon dioxide which produces the rise. Baking powder, another chemical raising agent, is used where self-raising flour is included. The quantities are usually small because of the amounts already in a self-raising flour. Baking powder is added, nevertheless to boost the rising. If you are using a brown flour, you must use baking powder in larger quantities than with self-raising flour. Brown flour is so much heavier than white flour and needs the extra rise that a larger quantity of baking powder will give.

Melting Method Cakes

If you want to know more about how to make angel cake, please visit our website for free cooking recipes.