A Piggie Birthday Cake!

My beloved Cindy’s birthday falls on 9/11! Cindy has always gone out of her way to make each of my birthdays better than the last, planning out every last detail of the festivities and creating beautiful, handmade cards for the occasion. This year to return the gesture, I decided to make something back for her in addition to the gift I bought her.

Aren’t pigs just adorable??? Well, it was only logical that I designed a piggie cake for this pig-loving girl!

Ingredients

1 Betty Crocker French Vanilla Mix
1/2 cup of Vegetable Oil
3/4 cup Buttermilk
1/4 cup Pureed Strawberries
3 eggs
1 Oreo Cakester / any small round waffle biscuits
4 chocolate chips
6 pieces of crushed oreo cookies
1 Sour Key
Red Dye
1 can Betty Crocker frosting

2 9 inch round pans

Start off with dicing the strawberries into tiny pieces and if you have a blender, throw the strawberry in. If you’re like me and have limited kitchen utilities, you can use a fork to puree it further followed by using the electric mixer.

Add vegetable oil, buttermilk, eggs and the package mix. Blend well. To increase the pink, add more red dye

Divide the amount into 2 separate 9-inch baking pans

Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes on 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, I made Cindy her card and prepared the cake board. I honestly think it’s a waste of money to spend $3 for a cake board when you can very easily make one from any cardboard.

For the cake board, I cut out some cardboard then wrapped it first with pretty purple tissue, then with transparent plastic wrapper over. The plastic wrapper was just a lovely addition and it also acts as a safeguard, since its easy to clean and waterproof.

When the cakes are done baking, leave it to cool for at least 20 minutes. Refrigerate the cakes for about 20 minutes to reduce the number of crumbs later. Ensure that the top is soft enough to torte. Shave off all the cake domes so that both cakes are levelled.

Flip one cake over. Using parchment paper or normal paper, cut out a 6 or 7 inch circle template. Place the template on top of your cake and use a serrated knife to cut it out. This will be your top cake layer. DO NOT THROW AWAY THE PIECES AFTER CUTTING IT OFF! Use a piece where it is thickest to cut out a small rectangle. This will be its nose!

As for the bottom cake layer, flip it upside down as well. This is because the bottom is always smoother than the top. (Optional: Torte the cake and add a layer of cream and some crushed Oreos in between. If you choose to do this you will need more Oreo cookies than stated in the recipe. I torted both top and bottom layers but I would not recommend it if you choose to make this cake, because the cake ended up a bit too sweet. Think of the calories you’d be saving anyway)

Frost the entire bottom layer cake with pink frosting

Remove any crumbs from the top layer, then lay it on and frost as well. As the top layer has cut edges, frosting may not be as smooth as the bottom layer. I definitely need to also work on my frosting!

Take a sour key and cut a side off as shown. This will be its curly tail!

Now it’s time to add a face to the piggie!

Ears: Oreo cakester and red icing
Eyes: Chocolate chips
Cheeks: Red icing
Nose: Cut part of the cake from the top layer and add chocolate chips

Voila!! You have your pig cake!

This is what the cake looks inside….

The more you torte, the more layers there will be. It looked pretty but I thought it was too sweet. If I could redo this cake, I would not torte either layer. A layer of filling in between both would suffice.

Now for surprising Cindy… Our “surprise” was compromised because Cindy picked us up as usual and I was pretty sure she knew there was a cake inside my “mysterious” rectangular box that I handled with care…. but she didn’t know it was a piggie!

We went to Red Robin’s for her dinner! I admit that it was quite an unexpected choice since we were initially thinking of “some place nice”. (Nice as in expensive) But somehow Cindy decided on Red Robin’s which I thought was a practical choice. Besides I haven’t had the chance to dine there in a while. It was also great because Cindy received a free burger for her birthday!

I’m sure Cindy also picked RR because she knew she would be made to stand on her chair while the RR crew sang her a happy birthday song

So glad to be able to spend another lovely year with you!!! <3