BESSY (A Cake You Can Milk?)

Cake is GOOD. Cake with a glass of cold milk is BETTER. Cake that serves you the milk is BEST! That's why I designed BESSY, an adorable cow cake that you can milk! Sure, we all try to "milk" our birthdays for as long as we can, but how many of us can say we LITERALLY milked our birthday? If you want to have a jaw dropping birthday cake, that is simple to make, & doesn't require professional cake decorating techniques, give BESSY a go!

BESSY is constructed with 4 basic structures : 
The milk bag
The stand
The cake 
The paper decorations

I designed it in separate structures so that: A. the cake could be easily stored. B. the milk bag could be removed to be refrigerated or refilled. C. the cake portion is kept simple & requires minimal skills. 


THE MILK BAG = I assembled a functional milk bag using 4 small pull cap bottles & a cool whip size container (Mine was actually a McDonalds spooky pail ). I first spray painted the container pink, then drilled 4 equally spaced holes in the bottom. Next I pushed the EMPTY bottles up through the holes. Then I Filled them with milk,  and screwed back on the caps, then stored it in the fridge until it was time to assemble everything.

THE STAND = The stand will hold the milk bag & support the cake. To make the stand I took a length of heavy duty cardboard and cut a hole in it big enough to hold the milk bag. Then I add 4 tall glass jars for legs. (I recycled some candle jars) I wrapped the jars in white duct tape with a piece of black duct tape at the bottom to resemble the hoof. I then taped the jars securely to the bottom of the cardboard with the white duct tape. Once the stand was completed, I tested the fit of the milk bag in it. The rim of the container should sit flush with the cardboard.

THE CAKE = BESSY's body is composed entirely of cake. Before you start baking though, first you will need to construct a platform for the cake. The platform will support the cake as well as conceal your cake stand & bottle ends. I made a simple cardboard flat using CAKE BOARD (or a waxed cardboard) that fit over the top of the stand yet could be easily removed. NOW you can bake 3-4 "cow print" cakes that are 13X9. The amount of cake needed will depend on the size you made your platform, because you want your cake to be flush with the platform edges & be about 3 layers high. Once your cakes are cooled assemble them as you would any simple 3 layer cake. (leveled, & with frosting between layers) Finally frost the outside of your cake with some white butter cream & add some black patches with food coloring. EASY PEASY!

THE PAPER DECORATIONS = I'm all about keeping things simple and since the cake itself is fairly large (sugar overload), I opted for a poster board cow head & tail. I threw them together using white poster board, & black duct tape. Then I used markers to color the eyes &  nose. I did a 3D shaped head but if you're not the "artsy type" you could simply print off a 2 dimensional head if you wish. I taped 2 hard plastic straws to the inside of the head in order to attach the head to the cake later. 

ASSEMBLY = When it is time to assemble everything. You can retrieve your cake & milk bag from the fridge. Set your stand in place & drop the milk bag in. Then stack the cake over the top of the stand. Add the tail and head as finishing touches & then party until the cows come home! 

MOOOOOO-VE OVER ORDINARY CAKES, HERE COMES BESSY!!!

NOTE: To milk BESSY pull down on one of the caps to open it. Only work with ONE open cap at a time until the bottle is empty. Place your cup underneath the open cap then gentle squeeze near the top of the bag. The milk will be pushed out into your cup. You can leave the same cap open (it shouldn't leak unless being squeezed) until you are ready to empty the next. If BESSY's bag is emptied before all the guests have had their fill, you can lift the cake off of the stand, remove the bag, refill the bottles as before, then reassemble for more entertainment. 



TIP: If you want to play along with the theme you can add:
`a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE SQUIRT" sign
`some flavored milk straws as party favors
`some mini milk pails with treats in them 
`some hay stack snacks etc. 

I hope you'll have as much fun with it as we did! HAPPY CREATING!