Tailgate Time! - Football Celebration Cake

Today I woke up to chilly temperatures and a definite Fall-like feel to the morning. While the days still feel like summer, the mornings and evenings are beginning to take a turn toward Autumn. In the US, nothing says Fall more clearly than the start of football season. 

This past weekend was the opening of regular season football. Last week I created a few recipes for your tailgating party, today I bring you something to get you ready for the end of the season! It's time to think big for your team and plan your playoff celebration cake!  Being a Buffalo girl I find it a little difficult to even think about calling this a playoff celebration cake, but you can always dream!

I made this cake to celebrate the Buffalo Bills. The layering of colors in this cake is reminiscent of the team logo, with a red stripe slashing across a blue buffalo. If you call yourself a fan of another football team, just swap out the colors for your own team colors! I made a custom blend of red, white and blue sprinkles from three bottles of single colors that I bought at a local cake supply shop. You can pick up your team colors at Michaels Arts & Crafts or online at Amazon.

The cake toppers are also super easy to make! I found a clipart image of a football and traced it onto wax paper. Melting some chocolate chips and transferring them to a zip-top bag with a small piping tip, I was able to draw out the chocolate football and endzone upright.

To keep the local spirit going, you should pair your celebration cake with a local brand of ice cream! Perry's is the local brand of choice in Western New York and I have paired my celebration cake with the "Sundae at the Ralph" flavor. The red and blue sprinkles in the ice cream go right along with my team color theme!

Go ahead and plan for the best, buy your sprinkles and food coloring and get ready to celebrate!  Or just enjoy practicing your layer cake skills and eating the delicious results.

One Year Ago: Pumpkin Mallomars
Two Years Ago: S'mores Cupcakes
Three Years Ago: Cookies Dough Stuffed French Toast
Four Years Ago: Southwest Chicken Burger
Five Years Ago: Baked Pears & Salad
Six Years Ago: White Chicken Chili

Happy 6th Anniversary WITK!

It's that time of year to celebrate here at WITK! It's been six years since I first opened up a blogger account and put my fingers to the keyboard to write. Over the years I've gone through pounds and pounds of sugar, butter and flour. I've tested out recipes from Thailand, Spain, Italy, China, Vietnam and countless other countries. I've deep fried, sauteed, crystallized, baked, but most of all, I've had so much fun.

The best part of blogging over the years is being inspired by the other bloggers out there in the world. I'm constantly amazed at the creativity of the bakers and home cooks living in the blogosphere. Reading through my Bloglovin' feed tempts me to try new things and motivates me to up my game.

However, recently I've been feeling decidedly uncreative. My time has been taken up by work, travel and life and I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like here at WITK. This is the reason why my anniversary cake for 2016 is more than a little inspired by Sweetapolita. This cake is directly pulled from her 2015 cookbook. The colors were so cheerful and vibrant, the sprinkles so happy and bright, I decided not to deviate from the original design.

Thankfully, I have a few life changes planned in the next few months. These upcoming changes will hopefully bring me more time for creativity and baking! I have a massive desire to finish my 2015 and 2016 challenges and bring you all more candy than your teeth can handle. Until that time, please enjoy this beautiful cake. It is not only stunning, it is super delicious. Major kudos go to Rosie from Sweetapolita. She is such a talented baker and businesswoman. I want to buy all of her sprinkles!

Thank you all for coming along on this journey with me!

One Year Ago: Strawberry Cake
Two Years Ago: Neapolitan Cake
Three Years Ago: Milky Way Cake
Four Years Ago: Buffalo Sponge Candy Cake
Five Years Ago: Banana Coconut Muffins
Six Years Ago: Chocolate Cupcakes (with high altitude recipe)

Yum, Sprinkles!

Cookie Dough Layer Cake

Happy Birthday Boyfriend!