How to Build a Skylanders Portal of Power Birthday Cake

For my son's 7th birthday this year, we threw him a Skylanders Birthday Party and what took center stage was the Portal of Power Birthday Cake!

Portal of Power Cake

I was completely inspired by the cake from Amy's Party Ideas and when my son saw the picture of her cake, he knew he wanted the same.

This post is to describe the approach I took to assemble this cake.  It was much easier than anticipated.  I was hesitant to go down the path of fondant again after last year's Power Rangers Samurai Birthday Cake, but I knew I needed to overcome this fear. 

One the day I started, my son brought the real Portal of Power and said "Here is a resource for you, Mommy" - he's awesome!

The cake itself was a straightforward, store bought, milk chocolate cake.  After baking and cooling, I took a serrated bread knife to even out the tops of each cake.  I placed the first cake, bottom side down on the cake plate and gave it a basic crumb coat.  Oh - and I was using store bought frosting too!  I am a fan of the Betty Crocker Whipped products.  I also added (what I thought was) a lot of frosting to the top of the first cake, which would eventually become the middle.  But - it could have definitely used more.

The next cake went right on top, but this time, the bottom of the cake was on top.  I wanted to have the entire cake indent in the middle to give it more of the look of the Portal of Power.  A crumb coat topped that cake as well.  This sat overnight, sealed, and waiting for fondant.

I learned last year that I will never make a large quantity of fondant again and I found this relatively decent buttercream fondant from Duff.  It's easy to use, colors easily (if needed), and tastes pretty good.  I purchased white and before using a small amount of black gel coloring from Wilton to achieve the grey color I needed for the stones.  Before doing that, I rolled out a thin circle of plain white to put on top of the cake.  I took the reserves from that circle and handed it over to my girlfriend.  She used the Portal of Power resource to free hand cut out the various images that are around the Portal. 

Once that was complete, I rolled out a massive sheet of the grey fondant.  With the help of my bestie who was in town for the celebration, we started to create grey rectangles that would go around the entire cake.  I measured the length I would need and started cutting the rectangles.  These were transferred to a piece of parchment paper where she took the smallest square cutter to make light indentations in the stone.  Once we had a large batch, we lightly sprayed them with black Color Mist Food Spray.

At this point, I probably should have added more frosting to the cake, just based upon feedback from the guests.  Instead of using that as the "glue", I simply dabbed on a bit of water to the back of each rectangle and begin going around the cake until it was complete. 

Next I made 8 thicker rectangles to go over the base and slightly further onto the top of the cake.

Lastly, we took our 8 images from the Portal and again using a little bit of water, applied them to the cake.

Three Birthday Cakes In One Weekend

My BFF and I have a lot in common when it comes to our children.  With the oldest ones, it took us both a long time to get pregnant in the first place.  Once we were both pregnant, our due dates were a mere 2 weeks apart.  She delivered her oldest daughter a couple of weeks early and mine was a couple of weeks late.  Both via C-section.

A couple of years later we conceived again - and oddly enough within days of each other.  So, our due dates were once again very close.  Ironically, the due date for my boys was exactly the same - just three years apart.  The older one arrived 10 days late and the little one arrived over 8 weeks early.  So thankfully their birthdays are spaced out a little bit!

With her second pregnancy she hit the jackpot of twins - a boy and a girl!  Just a few weeks before her due date (and 2 1/2 weeks after my little one arrived) they were celebrating her daughter's birthday and all of the excitement sent her into labor.  The older daughter's birthday and the twins' birthday are one day apart.  They were almost all on the same day as the twins were born just before midnight!

So being the awesome mom that she is - she bakes them EACH a cake for their birthdays every year.  When the twins turned 1, they had one big cake.  But for the past 3 years, she has made 3 cakes all for one weekend party.  Yes - she has been able to keep it to one party at least!

Each year she continues to impress me and I wanted to share her talents this year.  Her older daughter wanted a hippo cake, her twin boy wanted a "snake/golfing" cake.  Snakes and golfing are his two favorite things!  Lastly, her twin daughter wanted Minnie Mouse cupcakes.  She has wanted a Minnie Mouse cake every year since she was two - this year she changed it up with cupcakes.

This year the twins celebrated their birthday with a party at their neighborhood pool and the older daughter chose to go to LEGOLAND instead of inviting her friends to the party too.  My friend used fondant to create the snake and even made those cute little bows for the Minnie Mouse cupcakes out of fondant! 

I can't wait to see what she makes next year! Hope this inspires you to get baking for your child's next birthday party!



Hippo Cake





Snake On A Golf Course Cake
 

Minnie Mouse Cupcakes

A Cherry and Vanilla Poke Cake

Have you ever made one of these?  If not, you should!  What fun!  The hubby requested one for his birthday this year (yep - squeezed that one in before the little one's birthday party) and it turned out beautifully.

It was a total copy/paste from the Kraft website - but what a great idea for a cake!  Bake the cake, poke a bunch of holes in it, fill it full of Jello, let set and serve - what could be easier?

2 baked 9-inch round white cake layers, cooled

1 package JELL-O Cherry Flavor Gelatin

2 tubs Betty Crocker Vanilla Whipped Frosting

Maraschino Cherries

 

Place cakes, top sides up, in clean 9-inch round pans. Pierce with a large fork at 1/2-inch intervals.

 

Make JELL-O according to package directions.

 

Pour over cakes, refrigerate for 3 hours.

 

Dip bottoms of pans in warm water for 10 seconds; remove cakes from pans.  Stack on a plate, fill the middle with frosting and frost the outside of the cake.

Garnish with Maraschino Cherries