Boston Bruins Birthday Baking Bonaza

I couldn't help myself with the alliterative title.  Sorry for the nerd moment, but it was just begging to be done. 

Any ways, this weekend was my godson's birthday party.  His birthday's not until the end of the month, but if you have ever tried to rent a sheet of ice during hockey season (not the NHL type, since apparently that won't be happening), you will know that you take what you can get.

My godson is a huge hockey fan and a rather talented goalie in his own right.  For his 10th birthday, his mom (my bff) and I rented a sheet of ice for the boys (young and old), and planned a hockey themed party.  My godson's favourite NHL team is the Boston Bruins (despite living just outside of Toronto, he steadfastly refuses to cheer for the "Maple Laughs" as he calls them, but a big factor is that his uncle plays for Boston).

I offered to bake for the party and gave my godson a choice of the cake design he wanted.  He could pick either (a) a goalie pad designed sheet cake; (b) a hockey net, stick and puck; or (c) a round cake with a Boston Bruins design.  He picked the Bruins design (somewhat to my chagrin, since my piping skills need some work). 

Since I had so much fun making the Tye-Dyed Cupcakes a few weeks ago, I decided to make the Bruins logo cake and also cupcakes with swirl icing using the Boston Bruins' black and gold colours for icing.

As usual, when I'm making decorative cakes and cupcakes, I stuck to boxed mixes for simplicity and used Betty Crocker mixes (Devil's Food Cake and Chocolate Fudge) and frosting (Vanilla and Milk Chocolate) and Wilton food colouring and decorating tools.  Here's the pictures of the works in progress:

Boston Bruin Swirl Cupcakes:

 Boston Bruin Logo Cake:

Packed up and ready to go to the party:

Here are some pictures of the NHL themed decorations - honestly, its amazing what's available these days for planning partys.  Party City is a very dangerous store to be in for extended periods of time.

Here's the cake and cupcakes at the party.  I guess, based on the last picture, the cake went over well and maybe the sugar gave the boys some extra energy for when they went skating afterwards.  All in all, while the cake is not as clean as I would like, it was fun to make and it was a fun day overall (plus, I didn't fall on the ice!!!!).

Tie-Dyed Cupcakes

 For a neighbourhood party, where there were lots of kids, I decided to try Betty Crocker's Tie-Dye Cupcakes.  They turned out great and sort of inspired me to start this blog and are fittingly my first entry.

Basic ingredients are the following:

White cake mix
Water, Oil and Egg Whites (per instructions on the box)
2 Containers Fluffy White Icing
Food colouring
Cupcake liners
Cupcake pan
Multiple mixing bowls

The batter is easy enough to make.  Simply follow the instructions on the box.  The original Betty Crocker recipe calls for six colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple).  However, the fun of this recipe is that you can pick how ever many colours you wish or the colours that work for a particular theme.  For the party, I pared the colours down to just the primary colours (red, yellow and blue).

Once your batter is made according to the instructions on the box, divide the batter evenly amongst three bowls or large measuring cups.  I prefer using food colour gels or pastes and only used 1/2 teaspoon to get the colours as strong as I wanted (I only use Wilton colouring products and for this recipe, I used Christmas Red, Sky Blue and Lemon Yellow).
 

Layer the colours in the paper liners.  You can switch up the order or make all cupcakes the same.  Fill to no more than 2/3 full.  I used two tablespoons of each colour.  Bake according to the instructions on the box.

The icing is coloured using the same shades.  I divided the icing evenly and used only one container other than the tubes the icing came in.  Again, I used less than 1/2 teaspoon to get the intensity I wanted to achieve.

Once the cupcakes are down, let them cool thoroughly, so as not to melt the icing.  They already look fun when they come out of the oven.

Icing is the most fun!  Spoon each of the colours into an icing bag and try to line them up side by side.  The bag definitely looks tie-dyed.  I suggest piping some out into a bowl until all of the colours are coming out at the same time, then ice away!

The cupcake and icing combination are a big hit with kids (and those who are kids at heart).  Apparently they went like hotcakes at the party, I think they were gone within the first hour.

I'm actually looking forward to the next kids party I have to attend just so I have an excuse to make these again!