If desired, pipe Happy Birthday or the boy s name inside the baseball half-diamond with in .NET

Encoder Code 128 Code Set C in .NET If desired, pipe Happy Birthday or the boy s name inside the baseball half-diamond with

the #5 tip If you mess up, gently scrape off the piped frosting, sprinkle more graham cracker crumbs, and try again

cake, pipe a giant L, moving the tip in a circular motion as you pipe Pipe a smaller L inside the first L, and repeat the process until you ve filled in that side of the baseball diamond Repeat on the right-hand side of the V

top, and around the base of the cake (See 11 for tips on piping dots and ball shapes)

arrange them on the cake to create a winning scene like the one shown in Figure 13-3

Trains, rockets, pirate ships, bugs, and dinosaurs are just a few other theme possibilities for cakes guaranteed to please boys Don t worry you don t have to create a 3-D masterpiece You can start out simply Use miniature loaf pans to create the perfect size cakes for train cars, and affix cookies to the bottom edge of each miniature cake to look like wheels If you re going for a bug theme, cover the top of a cake with crushed chocolate cookies to look like dirt, and scatter gummi bugs and worms for the full effect You can even stick the worms into the cake so that they look like they re crawling out!

Boys in particular always seem to appreciate a car that zooms I ve found this race car cake to be a favorite of boys from 5 to 15 years old and piping the boy s age on the cake as the car s number makes it even more memorable! Before kids dive in, they re sure to linger and appreciate all the different treats that make up the wheels, spoiler, steering wheel, tailpipe, and headlights This cake is shown on the second page of the color section Tools: Two 9-x-13-inch cake pans, #5 icing tip, #7 icing tip, 8 toothpicks, 10-inch bamboo skewer, long serrated knife, ruler Preparation time: 30 minutes Baking time: 30 minutes plus 2 hours for cooling Decoration time: 90 minutes plus 2 hours for refrigeration Yield: 32 servings

For the cake: 2 batches Delicious Yellow Cake batter (see 6) For the frosting: 2 batches Buttercream Frosting (see 8) For the decorations: Royal blue food coloring gel Electric blue food coloring gel Red food coloring gel 7 strips striped sour fruit tape 4 chocolate doughnuts 5 small, vanilla yogurt covered pretzels 4 chocolate kiss candies, wrapped 3 teaspoons honey Lengthwise half of a 7-ounce chocolate bar 5 gumdrop candies (two yellow, two red, one green) 2 red licorice whips 12 miniature marshmallows

are completely cool, level them (see 7) Apply a crumb coat (thin layer) of frosting to one of the cakes, and refrigerate it for 1 hour

2 Place the second cake squarely on top of the first cake 3 Create the raised area for the spoiler and the slanted top of the race car On one of the

short sides of the cake, measure 31 2 inches in from the edge, and lightly score the top of the cake with a toothpick at that measurement Measure 1 2 inch down from that point on each side of the cake, and insert a toothpick on each side of the cake at that measurement With another toothpick, lightly score the cake diagonally from the first toothpick to the bottom of the top layer of cake Repeat on the other side of the cake Using the

lines and toothpicks as your guide, use a serrated knife to cut away the top part of the cake Discard the cake that comes off with the diagonal cut