Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

Do You Know…How Loved You Are? 

- Malar 

A Star Is Born

For the whole year…I was kind of envisioning my future precious moment with my kid — our family fun time, celebrating Diwali, Christmas…New Year and Birthday. Yes, today is my little girl’s birthday. We settled on “Star Theme“ a year ago! She enjoys “Star Gazing” just like Mamma. So it was an obvious choice! And, something…I knew would be fairly easy to execute in terms of Birthday party decor!

I am definitely not one of those big-party person! And, I personally do not like extravagant kids parties! But, I genuinely wanted to make her day special! I organized a humble private party…it took some work and little helping hands to get everything done on time. Every effort worth a gazillion times…when I see the joy on her happy lil face.

“Only from the heart…Can you touch the sky”

                                                       -Rumi

The sky always reflects whats within you. The sky is the endless source of inspiration. The night sky could take away all the misery that you’re carrying from your previous lives! The sky could answer all your questions! The sky could stir up new questions of its own! The sky could be everything! The sky could be nothing! Everyone I know, wants to be Sun…full of energy…a bright life! But, you know what?…Sometimes the distant “Flickering Star” could shine on one’s darkest hour! If you are longing for your connections / feeling hollow…under the star-lit sky…you’re safe at home.

To my amazement, my little Thara keeps pointing at all the stars squealing with sheer excitement…whenever I spoke to her about Galaxy, Milky Way…Black holes (Yea, my latest addiction).

If you are a fellow Star Gazer, I don’t have to rant much!! The whole thing makes me philosophical…poetic! I suppose looking at the sky will do that! And, my artistic brain in chalked up! We are all different particles from the same dust — why not? Sounds crazy, right? Yet, another side effect of the star-gazing. As is this cake.

The Night Sky Cake

If life is a cake…

live in those layers…

devour it slowly…

and the taste, unravels itself beautifully.

- Malar Gandhi

This cake is all about the sky, stars…and happiness. Scroll down to check out how I made the cake!

How I Made The Cake

How I made The Night Sky Cake? I suppose, looked up at the sky for inspiration.

For the cake, I made four layers of chocolate cake and for the frosting…its completely – off the hook! I mixed 3 basic colors to achieve what I hoped for! Baked all the cakes (layers…I mean) at one go! Well, each popped in at the same time…but, took them off carefully according to their near perfect done-timing! Once cooled, the cake was ready to be smothered!

After assembling the cake with whipped cream…did a quick crumb coat, and made it sit in the refrigerator for couple of hours.

To get started with icing — I bought few basic colors and mixed them liberally! Yeah…did a freestyle glazing work.

Then, for nuance final finish…I really played with my colors!

The Night Sky – Icing 
I used three basic colors (Black, Blue and Purple) and mixed them differently to achieve many shades of the night sky.

• Jet Black
• Grey
• Royal Blue
• Teal
• Purple
• Pink
• and, hint of Yellow here and there

For The Stars
I used ice cream sprinkles for the star studded effect! Of course…caution and patience…was exercised during the whole process! Few teeny tiniest white sprinkles could do so much magic to the cake.

The Center Piece – Star
After done with countless of mounting (in my mind)…I arrived at butter cookie topping! Thinking about the size and strength to go on the top…I disregarded the idea of chocolates, cake toppers…etc(too fragile to withstand on the top).

I prepared only one butter cookie. I used a cookie cutter to chisel it out into a star. Baked it &  glazed it with sugar syrup. And dusted it with extra large granulated white sugar. Voila. The center piece is ready. Used a toothpick to mount it on the top. A true sense of achievement.