This year for my nephew’s birthday, he requested a really cool mashup – Idle Miner + Nailed It! Not ones to run from challenge, my MIL, SIL, and I created an epic party that was the perfect combination of both.

It probably comes as no surprise that we were on our own for this one – no internet inspiration to be found! For the cake, I decided to use a tried and true method, and piped the birthday boy’s favorite character onto the cake using a star tip. Often I’ll use coloring book pages as a template, but Idle Miner Tycoon hasn’t quite reached that level of prominence, so instead I used the pen tool in Photoshop to trace a basic character shape and then enlarge it. Once I had that, I printed it, cut it out, and traced outlines of the cutouts onto the cake.

From there, I traced the lines in black icing with a small round tip, and filled the rest in by dropping icing with a small star tip!

For the Idle Miner Tycoon part of the theme, my MIL did an amazing job setting up an Idle Miner inspired hunt for treasure.

For the Nailed It portion, the kiddos were given aprons and chef’s hats, then asked to complete a Nailed It challenge – recreating the birthday cake!

Kiddos also enjoyed making their own pizzas. What a fun day!

Idle Miner Cake
Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup salted butter
  • 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
  • 4 eggs large
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp lemon extract
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp lemon zest
Instructions
  1. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Using a stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add eggs and extracts and beat until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Add milk, lemon juice, and zest, until combined. Do not overmix.

    Pour into a greased and lined 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with only fine crumbs.

    Allow to cool completely before decorating.

Recipe Notes

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction.

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