Timeline Birthday Cake

So I actually made this awhile ago, for my Mom's 50th birthday last year but I wanted to share it with you all! This post is going to be more about the decorating techniques than the recipe itself, so stay tuned if you are interested.

You can use any kind of cake, but my Mom is a chocoholic so I made a devils food cake with a rich chocolate buttercream.  But for the purpose of this experiment lets say use your favorite cake and frosting. 

I wanted this cake to be really special so I got photos from all different times in my Mom's life: childhood, teenage years, marriage, each of my siblings being born, and present day.  

From left to right: her and her siblings when they were little, my grandpa with my mom and aunt, and my gorgeous mother at her engagement party. 

From left to right: my parents wedding day, me and my mom, and my brother and my mom.

From left to right: my sister and my mom, and our family with my dogs puppies!

If you decide to make this cake for someone, just try to think of defining moments in their life and/or people who are very important to them.  

What you will need:

- cake/frosting

- log cookies for the circumference of the cake

- toothpicks

- tape

- pictures or printed photos

- sprinkles (I used these light pink pearl candies)

- ribbon

- a birthday boy/girl!

Procedure (sounds like a science experiment?):

1.  Frost the cake with a thick layer of your frosting of choice and put it the fridge to set for 20-30 minutes.  

2.  Place the log cookies along the edge of the cake vertically until you cover all sides.  These cookies can be bought at any grocery store but I honestly cannot remember the name! They come in a big tin and shouldn't be too hard to locate.  They also come in vanilla and chocolate filled versions.  I broke them up into varying sizes for effect but that is your decorative call.

3.  To prepare the pictures, I printed them out from my color printer and attached them to a toothpick by taping the toothpick to the backside of the picture.  If I had more time I probably would have made the pictures double-sided so that the toothpick was not visible but I was in a crunch.

4.  Evenly place the toothpicks around the cake (with photos pre-attached) as seen above.

5.  Optional: Some sort of decorative feature in the center.  I put a big heart of pink pearl candies but you can do writing, sprinkles, etc.

6.  Tie a big bow around the cake to make it look like a present! 

Hope you try this out! It meant a lot to my Mom and I'm sure it will have an impact on whoever you want to make it for!  If you have any questions as always, let me know.

Happy baking!