Hoppy Birthday Cake

Well, sewing is still not in full swing as I get settled into our new house. The craft room has yet to be painted and put together and there are several other items on the to do list in front of it. It seems to take forever to get anything done, and now my husband has had to travel for work for two weeks and will be gone for another two, which means nothing will get done. One day soon I hope to be able to show you my completed, decorated rooms. Although my sewing isn't in full swing, I was able to break out some craft supplies to make a beer cake for my husband's birthday. He isn't in to sweets much but he is in to beer. He is a home brewer and you may have seen the beer flight paddles I created for him for Father's Day. For this birthday I thought I would try a new cake for him...a Hoppy Birthday Cake. He loves hoppy flavored beer. So I went to the store and gathered 24 cans of IPA style beer. My choices were somewhat limited since I needed cans, but luckily Colorado has lots of craft breweries so there were enough to choose from.

Then I began trying different layouts to get the cans to fit together in 3 tiers. I tried cutting out a cardboard circle to put each layer of cans on, but it wasn't strong enough, so I started scavenging my kitchen and decided on the "defrost" plate from my microwave for the base, a turntable for the middle, and a lid from one of my Pampered Chef bowls for the top.

After arranging the beer cans on each tier, I stacked them on top of one another and tied some orange ribbon around the cans on each layer. I also curled some green ribbon and added it to the top.

Finally, I used my Cricut to cut out the cake topper and added two straws to the back with tape. I stuck the straws in the top layer between the cans and it was done. I put it out on the table in the morning to surprise my husband...he liked it, and I am sure this cake won't have wasted left overs that get tossed like ones in the past :)

If you know a beer lover, I would highly recommend this easy and quick cake idea :)

Cheers, Shannon