Beer Cake

As I mentioned in an earlier post, 2013 has been a pretty big year in terms of milestone events. It started with a friend from work celebrating his 30th birthday in January. A few of us were trying to figure out the perfect gift for him, other than the customary Thursday night happy hour at a local bar or potential Phils game. So I was tasked with creating SOMEthing for the occasion. By this point I probably dont have to tell you where I went searching...

So if you search 'beer cake' in Pinterest, you will be met with an unbelievable amount of options, along with some ideas which, for me, were a bit too literal...they made the cake in the shape of an actual beer can/mug. But I went with more of the "beer tower" look:

Believe it or not, this was a relatively simple project. Not to mention inexpensive. I'm a big fan of upcycling, so it was really just a matter of purchasing the case of beer. 

Creative Ingredients:

1. Case of beer - choose the recipient's favorite. I also got cans because they're easier to stack and a case of 30 because, well, duh its a 30th birthday gift. 

2. You can use pretty much anything sturdy and round to put in between the tiers. Some have used cardboard cake rounds, which can be found on Amazon or Michaels, some cases of beer come with round discs inside to keep the shape of the box, but I just used extra Amazon boxes I had in the basement and cut them to the right size. 

3. Ribbon/Bow

4. Metal pan or tray for the base - Since it was January, I had left over cookie pans from the holidays. 

Then its just a matter of putting it all together. Since I was transporting the cake from my house, 45 minutes down to work in the back seat of my car, I used hot glue to stick the cans to the tier below it. Then just ribboned it up and stuck a bow on top. I traced a 30 on the box and cut it out. Since it was a promotional case, it had the Eagles logo on it, which I thought was a nice touch so I cut that out and stuck it on there. 

And thats it....not too difficult. I've seen some for fathers day and 21st birthdays where you use less beers and put a tupperware container in the middle of each tier to hold the shape. There are some with lottery tickets, some wrapped in ties....seriously there are an infinite number of ways to put this together. 

Live Zen kids...

xo

Jen