Birthday Slime Cake

I have always made the birthday cake for my kids, which usually meant two cakes, one for their Birthday Party, the other for school on their birthday.  I must say I am not a baker but have had fun with the creative side of making a cake.  I have made Batman, Oscar the Grouch, Tigger, Big 'Yellow' Bird, Cookie Monster, Barbie Doll, ET to list a few.. The cakes were usually baked in a circular pan for the head  and a rectangle pan for the body.  I have come across some of my sketches for the cakes. The cakes were covered in Buttercream Icing.  The cakes were baked ahead and frozen to make them easier to frost.  The cakes were always a surprise and decorated a day before and stored on the top of the china cabinet! 
The Birthday Cakes became Trifle cakes when my kids were teenagers and I was called the "Trifle Queen" by one of my son's friends.  

This year, my Grandchild who was turning seven asked me to make the cake with certain conditions. The cake had to be pink, with strawberries and a puddle on top!  She drew out her cake as we chatted.   Now this was a challenge as not sure about a puddle on top.. I did find ideas for the puddle but they were mostly mud puddles held together with chocolate wafers or bars. Some had pigs in the mud!  Since the birthday craft was making Slime, I thought a Slime Cake would fit the bill better.   

The only problem was to figure out how to have the slime pour out when the cake was cut!   

I had seen Strawberry Jello cakes and decided that this would be the pink and adding fresh chopped strawberries would be perfect.

Vibrant Pink Strawberry Jello Cake

• 1 White Cake Mix 
• 3 oz strawberry Jello 
• 4 Large Eggs
• 1/2c Flour
• 1 c oil
• 1/2 c  milk 
• 1 c freshly chopped strawberries

Mix together
Pour into 3 - 8in lined circular pans
Bake for 20 minutes at 325 degrees*
*350 is too high as the  cake browned too quickly 

Strawberries Butter Cream 

 3/4 c Shortening
 4 - 5 c icing sugar 
1/2 - 3/4 c freshly chopped strawberries
4 -5 T milk

Beat butter until fluffy, added the strawberries, gradually add the icing sugar and milk until you have the right consistency.

The original buttercream recipe with this much of fat calls for 3 c of icing sugar, but with the amount of strawberries, I did add milk and more icing sugar.. I just played around with it until I had enough butter cream for 3 layers of cake and the right consistency for spreading on the cake.  This amount just covered the layers and all of the cake. 

Green Slime
Mix vanilla instant pudding as directed on package, add green food colour 
Chill, and don't panic like I did if it seems liquidy.. it needs to chill!

Assembling the cake
First place strips of wax paper under the cake to protect the serving dish a
These strips are pulled out after the cake is decorated. 
Apply a thin layer of butter cream to top of a cake, cover with fresh sliced strawberries, apply a thin layer on the strawberries so the second layer sticks
Cut a 5 inches circle in the middle of the second layer

Fill the centre with 2/3 of the green pudding mixture
Spread buttercream and strawberries on the outside ring

Add the top layer  
Cover with Buttercream

The cake had to be transported to the party, so I used skewers to hold it in place