James half birthday is tomorrow (October 16th) and I wanted to make him an awesome half cake for his birthday.  I decided to make him a pumpkin cake with maple syrup icing and chocolate chips and it was to look like half a Death Star (super Star Wars nerd).  Originally it was to be pumpkin cake with butter cream icing that looked like half a Death Star.

First let me just say this cake was the biggest pain, let me start with the icing. It was so hard trying to find a non super sugary icing and a icing without food dye. No website I could find could give me a recipe on how to make black food dye, every other color but black!! Then I found that you could use charcoal tables or squid ink. We went to 5 different stores, no one sells charcoal tablets or squid ink. People stared at me when I asked for charcoal tablets, it’s like what happens if I accidentally drink bleach or something?! It’s a natural way to soak up toxins, you’d think people would sell it, not even Walgreens. So in the end I just used chocolate chips for the black part (not the best idea). Then the icing, that was a big pain, but I ended up making an okay one.

  • 1 Cup Almond Milk
  • 4 Tablespoons Whole Wheat Flour
  • 1 Tablespoon Real Butter
  • 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
  • 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
  • 1 Cup Pure Maple Syrup
  1. Combine milk, butter, flour, butter and cornstarch and put in a pot on high
  2. Keep stirring until it becomes thick, make sure it doesn’t stick to the sides
  3. Once thick pull off of the stove
  4. I put mine in a new bowl and added vanilla and maple syrup
  5. Place in fridge for about 30 minutes, so it can harden to spread

I also made a pumpkin cake, which while baking smelt delicious!!  It was meant for Pumpkin Cupcakes, but I just made a cake out of it, but check it out, click here.  The Gracious Pantry has so many amazing clean eating recipes!!

So after I cooked the cake I sat it in the freezer for about 30 minutes so it could cool quickly and I wouldn’t burn my hands while putting the icing on.  You can just put it on a cooling rack if you want.   When you pull it out of the freezer or it cools down cut it in half.  Then pull your icing out of the fridge and icing the bottom half and then stick the top on and just icing around the cake.   That’s how I did my half cake, no different then two bigger pieces of cake, just one cake cut in half.

Here’s a picture, it isn’t the best but I tried.

1/2 Birthday Cake