Beach Cake

I made this cake for the last day of school party for Jack's preschool class. I think it would be a fun cake for lots of summer events. It's actually quite easy!

I used a sheet cake because it needed to feed 16 children and some siblings and parents. I found the recipe here: http://www.recipezaar.com/13554. It's really a delicous cake; sometime I'll try it with the frosting. In this case, I used buttercream frosting tinted blue and white for the water. The sand is graham cracker crumbs, and I used gummy candies and jelly beans to add more to the beach scene. Jack's Little People finished it off.

Beach Cake

1 cup butter, melted
1 cup water
4 tablespoons cocoa
2 cups white sugar
2 cups white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Put butter, water and cocoa in a large pan and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and add the rest of the batter ingredients.
Mix with electric mixer until smooth.
Pour into an 11 x 16 x 1.5-inch jelly roll pan.
Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

Cool. Frost cake with a thin layer of blue icing. Over 2/3 of the cake, frost with a thicker layer of icing and use an off-set spatula to create waves. On the peaks of the waves, use a small dot of white icing for a whitecap. Decorate with gummy sharks and life preservers, as well as speckled jelly beans for rocks.

Buttercream Frosting (I use about 1 1/2 recipes for this cake)

4 cups confectioner's sugar

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 t. vanilla

2 T. milk

pinch salt

Beat the softened butter with 3 cups of sugar. Gradually add the last cup of sugar, using a bit more or a bit less depending on preference. Add the vanilla and salt. Beat in enough milk to bring the frosting to spreading consistency.