Taco Cake

My grandma on my mom's side has a problem letting go.  I guess that's where I got it from.  I have yet to go through my knick-knacks and things that were on my dresser because I don't want to get rid of the stuff I've had forever.  It all has sentimental value.  And everything else from hats to books I feel like I'm going to use someday.


   My grandma has problems getting rid of everything.  Like Everything...Literally.  Ok not literally.  She just doesn't like to get rid of newspapers and things for some reason.  What helps her to let go is sending it to my mom.  So occasionally we'll get a random package in the mail packed to the gills (that's where my mom got her packing skills) with organic food, letters, and random newspaper clippings and magazines.  Well, mom got a letter from my grandparents in the mail and as usual it has other things in it besides a long letter.  There was a peanuts newspaper cartoon and a clipping of instructions to make a taco cake.  Helen saw this and asked that I make it for her birthday.  One of our birthday traditions is that you never make your own birthday cake, unless your name is Eliza.  They probably would do it if I asked them but so far I've always wanted to make it.  I enjoy baking.
   Anyway, I made her the taco cake.  They came out pretty awesome if I do say so myself:

 This little one I made with a very small pan we have.  It's used for birthdays a lot.  It's a personal cake.

It kind of looks like a hamburger.

   Now for how I made it.  Bake two round cakes (and a teenie cake).  Take swedish fish and cut off the top fin, tail, and head,  then cut the remaining body into three cubes.  They are the tomatoes. Then take circus peanuts (or citrus gummies if your sister Helen doesn't like circus peanuts) and cut into little rectangles that look like shredded cheese.  Heat up a little bit of frosting in the microwave and add green food coloring.  Mix with frosted flakes.  Lay out the frosted flakes on wax paper in little clusters that look like lettuce.  Keep the clusters fairly small.
   When the cakes cool, take them out of the pans.  Trim off the top.  Cut them not in half but a little uneven to the side.  Then sandwich them together.  Cut a wedge off the top to hold the toppings.  Take the rest of the frosting container you used earlier and another container and put them in a bowl and color them yellow.  You will want to color all the frosting you will use for this at once because if you don't you might not color the second batch the right shade.  It might be a little off.  Unsandwich the cakes and cover them with frosting, then put them back together.  Take some vanilla wafers and put them in a ziplock bag and smash them until they are dust.  Take the vanilla dust and sprinkle and pat it onto the tacos.  You will probably have to move it to a different plate when you are done because this part can be messy.  Fill with meat (chocolate covered peanut clusters),  lettuce (green colored frosted flakes), shredded cheese (circus peanuts or citrus gummies), and tomatoes (swedish fish).  Then take pictures before poking in the candles and singing happy birthday.

   Here is the Ingredients List:
Yellow Cake Mix
2 Frostings
Green and Yellow Food Coloring
Chocolate Covered Peanut Clusters
Frosted Flakes
Circus Peanuts (Or Citrus Gummies)
Swedish Fish
Vanilla Wafers

By the way, they were delicious.
   Oooohhh and also by the way, if you have a lot of leftover frosting and and a lot of leftover cake trimmings and you decide to make cake pops.  Find a recipe don't just try to cover them in chocolate and then fail because just melting chocolate chips is too thick and then try adding milk which actually does help.  And don't microwave those chocolate chips forever and burn them in the microwave because you don't know that they aren't going to go in a heap when they are melted.  They will still keep their shape until stirred.  And whatever you do, do NOT put the leftover gummy pieces in the cake pops!  Chocolate and gummies do not mix!  Especially because whenever you find one it is unexpected.