Here is Liam’s 2nd birthday cake 🙂 So cute! And not too difficult to make. It’s just a chocolate layer cake with buttercream frosting dyed blue. In this post I will tell you how to do it so you can make it, too! We had so much fun celebrating with family and friends this weekend. Having kids is so much fun around this age. Seeing his eyes light up when he opens a present is priceless. I’m glad Christmas is right around the corner 😉 Well, onto baking a birthday cake…

What you will need:

Two 9 inch round cake pans sprayed with non-stick spray and then round parchment paper placed on the bottoms

For the cake:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup warm water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the frosting, eyeballs, and mouth:

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Blue food coloring
Piping bag
Wilton specialty tip #233
2 Oreos
2 brown M&M’s
1 1/2 ounces white chocolate
A few cookies (I used Chips Ahoy but you can really use whatever cookie you want, or even bake your own if you have time)

To make the cake: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together eggs, water, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until combined. The batter will be thin. Divide evenly between the prepared pans and bake for 26-30 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes on wire rack before inverting to cool completely.

To make the eyeballs:

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the white chocolate. First for 30 seconds, stir, then 10 second intervals until melted completely. Dip the tops of each Oreo in the white chocolate and then place an M&M on top. Place in fridge to harden.

To make the frosting:

In a large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), beat butter until smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar until smooth and creamy. Beat in vanilla. Add in blue food coloring until you get desired color. I used 25 drops of liquid food coloring. Beat until frosting is nice and smooth.

You can frost the cakes however you like, really. To get the hairy look, I used a Wilton #233 tip. My hands were killing me by the time the top of the cake was done. So the sides were not “hairy.” I need cake decorating skills, for sure 🙂

Fo the mouth, I just broke up Chips Ahoy cookies. Super easy and tasty. Enjoy and have fun with it!