Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?

Seriously...where the heck were they? They certainly didn't show up for the game.

I bet their fans are about as blue as this cake.

Well, the good news is that I can now take my Christmas Tree down. Yep...it's still up. What's the connection? You see...I don't call my husband Sir Sportsalot for no reason. He's a HUGE Dallas Cowboy fan. I think it's something he inherited from his mom. And well....it came to his attention (Thank you very much Natalie) that the Cowboys hadn't lost since I put the tree up.

I was worried for a while that I'd have to leave it up until the Super Bowl.

Btw...this wasn't intended as a celebration cake (it would've been cool if it worked out that way). I made it last Saturday. I bought all the fun stuff that morning and decided I'd better wait to see if they won that game before I made it. They did, and I got to play. I was going to post this earlier in the week but other things got in the way. And now.....well.....I s'pose it's a "See Ya Around Cowboys" cake. (I don't think Sir Sportsalot wants to see it anymore now anyway).

But do you know what I discovered? Fondant keeps cake really moist.

Ok...let's get on with this Blue Velvet Cake.

How cool is that?! Seriously....way fun to make (even though my tongue and fingers turned blue too). I found all the recipes as follows:

Blue Velvet Cake was found on PaulaDeen.com
Buttercream Icing was found at AllRecipes.com
Marshmallow Fondant was found at DDpiesSlices.blogspot.com

First comes the cake and I made a couple minor alterations. I added more cocoa powder and I decreased the vinegar. I didn't have enough blue food dye on hand. Do you know that the grocery store only sells red, yellow and green food dye separately? Why not blue? Why not the primary colors...red, yellow and blue? The rest we can mix on our own. That really irritated me. And the boxes of food dye with all the colors has the tiny little bottles that aren't even 1/2 an oz. Do you know how many sets I'd have to buy? A ton! So I went to Michael's Crafts and looked in their cake decorating area (and found some cool 'star' things to use)...and picked up some blue icing color. I have a feeling those are VERY concentrated. Cuz I only used 1 oz. and that may have even been too much.

aaaaaaaanyways.....

Blue Velvet Cake:
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter (1/2 lb) at room temp
2 eggs at room temp
2 oz. blue food coloring (or less than half if using blue icing coloring)
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vinegar

Buttercream Icing:
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter at room temp (I don't remember exactly but I think I omitted the shortening and doubled the butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Marshmallow Fondant
16 oz. White mini marshmallows
3 tbsp water
2 lbs powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Vegetable Shortening (for kneading)

Now...before we move on, I'm not going to give you the step by step instructions for making the icing or the fondant. I highly advise that you visit the links for that. I'm here mainly for the Blue Velvet cake and for the fun of putting everything together :)

Oh and check out this awesome super duper huge ceramic mixing bowl that I got for my birthday!!

Preheat your oven to 350'. Grease and flour your pans. I used 2 8" round pans and 1 really cool star shaped silicone cupcake pan. (the silicone pan doesn't require the flouring).

Tip: It may not be a good idea to drink while baking. One tends to forget to flour the pan. Thus having to remove batter from said pan and wash it out, drying thoroughly so that the pan can be prepared properly. Only to discover that once again one has forgotten to flour the pan. And the cycle begins again. 


In a large mixing bowl, cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. One at a time, add your eggs and mix together thoroughly after each egg. Add the cocoa powder....mix well. Then add in the dye.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together and add to the creamed cocoa mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Blend in the vanilla and vinegar.

Pour your batter in the properly prepared pans

Can you say BLUE! hmm...maybe I should've saved this for the Dodgers.

Bake for about 25 minutes...doing the toothpick testing thing. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before decorating

Prepare your favorite buttercream icing

This will be used as a "glue". (pretty damn good tasting glue if you ask me) You will need to ice the cake first and then place the fondant on the cake. The icing will hold the fondant in place.

Cover the icing with plastic wrap if you're not going to use it right away. It does harden and get kinda crunchy.

Prepare your fondant according to DD's instructions (link can be found above). Break off a bit and add some dye to it until you get the desired color

Roll the fondant out onto a greased surface and cut out your decorations

First I decorated the cupcakes

Well...all but one. There was a casualty :(

But for the most part....everyone else survived

Ok...now that I'm warmed up a little...it's time to tackle the big boy....

I have a hard time getting this stuff all even when I roll it out. It ends up sticking and getting messy and then I start getting worried that I've used too much vegetable shortening cuz it's like I have this greasy ball. But you know what? By the next day, all that grease had soaked in or something cuz the cake didn't look greasy. I dunno....I just hope I'm doing this right

Well crap! I worked so hard to get that sheet nice and even and the damn thing stuck to itself when I placed it over the cake.

Huge mess!! Had to toss that into the trash. Oh, and speaking of trash...a big ole wad of my blue fondant rolled off the counter and under the dishwasher. What I found was what looked like a dead ball of fuzz that looked like it had been holding it's breath. Man was I pissed! Good thing this batch makes a lot! I had plenty left to make more blue fondant and then more to cover the cake with

Now I'm getting excited!! Time for the fun! (btw....this whole process ended up taking me 3 days. When the cake was cooked, I froze it until I was ready to ice and decorate)

Well...I have to say that this is so much fun to do! It's like playdough for cooks. I had printed the logo off the computer so I could get the cowboy font right and the star the right size. I cut out the "pattern" and wiped the backsides of the paper with shortening, placed the pattern on the fondant and used an exact-o knife to cut the decorations out.

And you know what? If the tops of the decorations aren't real smooth....don't bother trying to use a toothpick as a rolling pin, cuz it doesn't really work that great. (it kinda feels like you're playing Barbie). Just wet the tip of your finger with water and gently run it over the top....smooths out real nicely.

Like I said earlier....the cake is very moist. The only problem I had, is totally my fault. I think I can taste the dye. But thats because I probably added too much of it.

And....I'm sorry to see the Cowboy's go. Better luck next year. After all, Super Bowl XLV will be in their own stadium.