Yesterday evening, the kids I and trekked down to Barcelona (via train and metro) with a cake in hand for the Concurs de Pastissos de Fantasia that I wrote about earlier.
Malena and Lautaro with their "Dirt Cake."
Yes, I decided that we would bake a cake to enter into the contest (thanks to Mom and Robyn for the encouragement). The kids were so proud to display and share their cake. Unfortunately, our cake took "digging into" and was difficult to serve without forks/spoons and plates. Luckily, that didn't stop one American couple who were so happy to get some "homestyle" frosting on their fingers to lick.
The Winning Cake.
Yesterday morning, I was feeling really guilty about showing up without a cake to share if my kids would be decorating cakes at the free workshop. I wanted to keep it simple, and involve my children in the work so I decided on a "dirt in a bucket" cake.
Even simpler but not healthier (nor greener considering the plastic bucket - eeek), I forgot all about my search for "harina para repostería" and bought a cake mix.
Patio at the Convent of Sant Agustí
:: My Favorite Cake Entries ::
A few Michael Jackson tributes, a paella, the infamous twitter system down whale and blocks set to name a few...
** Don't be surprised if you see a rendition of the blocks cake at a my son's next birthday party.
:: To Make a "Dirt in a Bucket" Cake ::
Not only can your kids help you make the cake; they can even help assemble and decorate it!
1. Bake a chocolate-flavored cake (if you make a yellow cake, you could make a bucket of sand).
2. Once cake has cooled, cut cake into small pieces and place into clean bucket to make a small layer. You may smash down the cake a bit to make a more even layer.
3. Add a layer of filling or frosting.
4. Keep alternating between a layer of cake and a layer of frosting/filling until cake reaches near the top of the bucket. End with a layer of frosting.
5. Crush some brown cookies into coarse crumbs (we used Oreos) and sprinkle on the top layer of frosting. The color of the cookie determines the color of your "dirt." If you are making a sand cake, you can use lighter brown color cookies.
6. Put a small shovel into the "dirt" and add a few gummy worms. We found these gummy spaghetti candies that I thought looked more realistic than gummy worms.
7. Dig in!
