Birthday Beer “Cake”

I wanted to help my boyfriend celebrate his 30th birthday in a big way. I decided to throw him a surprise birthday party, but also wanted to give him a gift that he would enjoy rather than something he needs. We both love craft beer, so I thought it would be a cool idea to present him with 31 beers that he had never tried before for each year – the extra one is for good luck! While searching online, I came across a great idea for a Birthday Beer Cake on Back to Her Roots. As soon as I saw it, I knew this was the perfect gift! Obviously this is not an actual cake, but rather assorted beers assembled in a kick-ass that doubles as a party decoration!

Materials:

• Craft Beer (I used 34 individual beers total, but you can use 31 for a stable cake.)
• 3 12-inch cake rounds (My local crafts store was sold out of this size, so I bought the 14-inch cake rounds instead.)
• 2 rolls of wired ribbon (If you choose ribbon with a design, make sure the design is on both sides of the ribbon.)
• Glittery flower picks (You can find these in any art and crafts store in the floral department.)
• Black glitter foam paper
• Silver glitter foam paper

Preparation: The most important part of this “cake” is the beer. When purchasing your beer, make sure that all of your bottles for each layer are the same height. All 12 oz. beer bottles are not created equal! Some are slightly taller than others, so I would recommend measuring. I scoured all my favorite beer spots in Northern NJ to get the right beers for this cake. I had the most luck at Liquor Outlet and Wine Cellars in Boonton,  Heights Beer and Wine Emporium in Hasbrouck Heights and Wine and Beverage Depot in Totowa. I visited a number of other liquor stores, but had to pass up on a lot of great beers because my boyfriend had already tried a lot of them. The original cake design has a bottom later of bottles, a middle layer of cans and a top layer of assorted bottles. I had a hard time finding cans for sale individually, so I ended up going with three layers of bottles. Assembly (Note: beer bottles are not adhered to the cake rounds. You will need to assemble your cake wherever you plan to display it):

1. First, put down one of your cake rounds. (As I mentioned, the store was out of 12-inch. I decided to purchase the 14-inch cake rounds instead and add a 1.5 inch border around each cake round. Then, I covered the borders with glue and sprinkled with gold and silver glitter. In my opinion, I think this looked way better than any of the patterned cake rounds available at the store.)
2. Next, arrange 16 beers on the first cake round. I would recommend putting the bottles close to one another to build a good layer of support.
3. Place your second cake round on top of the bottles.
4. Then, arrange 11 beers on the cake round.
5. Place your final cake round on top of the second layer.
6. Arrange the rest of your beers on the final layer. (The original design only used 4 different-sized beers for the top layer, but I used all seven beers I had left.)
7. Tie ribbon around each layer of your cake.
8. Cut a “30” sign out of your glitter foam paper, attach to a skewer and stick in center of top layer.
9. Insert assorted flower picks in each layer, focusing on the top layer.