See that? Way down at the bottom of the post? There’s a giveaway for a Dairy Queen gift certificate! Don’t miss it!
I’m pretty proud of myself.
You see, I have never called myself a baker of cakes.
Sure, I can bake cookies and muffins. I can follow recipes. I can cook a really nice dinner. I can even roast an awesome turkey. But I never know how a cake is going to turn out when I make it. And if by some miracle I have managed to bake a cake to perfection, I am likely to ruin it all when I assemble and ice it. Due to my stellar track record and the stress involved, I make an average of one cake a year.
I don’t even usually bake cakes for my own children’s birthdays. A couple of years ago, I realized that throwing a kid’s birthday party is just an incredibly stressful thing to do and so I gave myself permission to delegate the cake task. I had an incredibly talented friend offer to make the cake one year for Cameron’s birthday. And yes, I’ve even purchased grocery store cakes for the occasion. There’s a reason you haven’t found my blog by jumping over to it from a Pinterest cake recipe or birthday party pin.
But every year I make a cake during the first week of February for my husband’s birthday.
I admit, he’s not really a cake-guy so it doesn’t really matter if the cake flops. But one year, when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, he told me he wanted a cake the the kids had helped make. So now, that’s kind of our tradition.
The boys and I went grocery shopping. They chose the cake mix and the icing (because yes, with three kids including a newborn and a mandate to bake with these small humans, I am entitled to make things as easy as possible – and that means boxed cake and pre-made icing). The cake was to be red velvet with chocolate icing. After choosing the cake, we got the toppings. While I don’t do Pinterest-worthy cakes, I did have an idea.
Gavin, (my only child who was willing and able to help,) and I made the “red” cake together. By some strange witchcraft, it came out of the oven perfectly cooked. I must have let it cool long enough because when I iced it, the icing wasn’t completely littered with cake crumbs (there’s a first for everything!). And then, I took a pretty regular red velvet cake with chocolate icing and made it awesome (or weird).
I cut Kit Kats in half and put them around the outside of the cake, alternating between regular Kit Kats and white chocolate Kit Kats. Then, I put Sour Cherry Blasters and Sour Kids links around the perimeter of the top of the cake. Yup, it sounds completely gross to me too, but my husband really likes sour candy. And, when I asked him this year what kind of cake he wanted, his answer, without any clarification, was “candy bar”. I didn’t know if he just wanted a candy bar for his birthday or if he wanted a full candy bar like one would find at a wedding reception. So I just made him a candy cake.
I had very low expectations.
Somehow, everyone loved this weird cacophony of flavours cake. I admit that I’m still not quite sure what “red velvet” flavour tastes like, but the cake was very soft and velvety, so I’ll give it that. And Cameron jumped around the kitchen each time he got a jolt of a sour candy after eating all the sweetness from the rest of the cake. The cake has been completely devoured by my family, which never ever happens. Yes, we are a family who can leave cake to go to waste, but not this one.
So I’m proud of myself.
And I kind of want more cake.
Thankfully, I don’t have to wait long, because my birthday is on Saturday. My husband will absolutely not be making me a cake because for as iffy as my cake baking skills are, my husband’s are infinitely worse. Dan doesn’t believe in following recipes and that has led to a few kitchen disasters.
When my birthday rolls around, we get ice cream cake. And trust me, even if my husband was a master-baker, I’d probably still choose a DQ ice cream cake for my birthday. Even as a kid, I was never a huge fan of traditional birthday cake, but I loved ice cream cake.
I’m thinking that this February might be the year of the red velvet birthday cake because Dairy Queen has this Red Velvet Blizzard Cupid Cake on for Valentine’s Day that I have been salivating over. And when your birthday is on Valentine’s Day, it makes sense to get a red heart shaped ice cream cake on your birthday (or maybe two. The cakes are small. So I can get one for myself and one for the rest of my family…).
Because it is my birthday week and because I will be eating ice cream cake on my birthday, I am giving away a $20 Dairy Queen gift card for your very own Valentine’s Day cake. This is going to be a super speedy giveaway, ending on Friday, February 13th right before midnight, so don’t miss out. And be sure to check out the DQ Red Velvet Blizzard Cupid Cake for you and your Valentine or get a 6 pack of Red Velvet Blizzard cupcakes for your little Valentines.
Use the giveaway app below to enter. Giveaway open to Canadian residents.
I was compensated for this giveaway with a DQ gift card.
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