Hetalia America Cake

Like the past three years, we had a lovely family BBQ and fireworks show at our house for Independence Day.

But not to forget all my friends who were braving the crowds at Anime Expo in LA - I thought an APH America cake was in order!

"Watashi wa HERO!"

So for those of you who don't watch anime - Axis Powers Hetalia is a short (5 min episodes) show that portrays countries as different characters. Mainly WWII countries.  It's irreverent, funny and definitely cute. I think it's on Netflix and Hulu?

Anyway, America is my favorite, obviously.

He's so cute! And he has a hamburger! Alfred Jones!

I made him with whip cream and chocolate (for lines) using the same method as V-Day's Keroro cake (using Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi's tutorial).  Since this was my second time, it came out a lot better - I made sure to make the cream even, so there weren't as many holes when I peeled it off onto the cake base.  However, I used a different box cake mix, a "moist pudding" type cake mix, and it was almost too soft.  Next time I will stick to a standard cake mix as it holds shape better.

You don't know how long it took me to mix red, green, blue and yellow food color into BROWN and KHAKI. Ugh. A lot of trial and error. But still, he's pretty cool!

Aside from cake, we also had BBQ and lots of other tasty food for the 4th.  Unfortunately our grill broke that day =_= so we ended up ordering BBQ from Armadillo Willy's. Kinda lame, haha. But it was still good so all's good.

At night, fireworks in Foster City.  We watched from our deck, with patriotic tunes blaring on Dad's ipod.

The 92 San Mateo Bridge in the background

Mom got some good shots this year!

'Murica!