crack open an arnold palmer

Once upon a time, there was a golfer by the name of Arnold Palmer. While his swinging skills place him at the top of the game with golfers like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, he also joins the exclusive ranks of celebrities with their very own beverage lines - Donald Trump's Trump Super Premium Vodka, Dr. Dre's Aftermath Cognac, Marilyn Manson's Mansinthe. (Does Charlie Sheen's Tiger Blood count?) And, of course, Arnold Palmer's Arnold Palmer Tee. (did you see what they did there?)

My brother has been known to enjoy (read: stock up on) the occasional Arnold Palmer, so it was the perfect birthday cake concept - besides the fact that I would be shipping the cake to him. Which put a significant damper on the decorating ideas because I realized the United States Postal Service probably didn't care as much as I did about the cake arriving upright and intact. So I decided to go with an Arnold-Palmer-flavor (half lemonade, half iced tea) by replacing the water with lemon iced tea in the cake mixture:

Round cake (soaked in iced tea), lemon-flavored frosting, round cake (also soaked). A modest appearance but definitely shippable:

Throw in some Arnold Palmer Cake Toppers, decorated cakeboards, layers of Saran Wrap, and it's a DIY birthday cake in a perfectly-sized box:

Apparently it arrived in Rhode Island in fairly decent and edible shape:

Happy Birthday Aaron!

- Arnold Palmer cake -
1 white (or lemon) cake mix
1 cup Arnold Palmer or lemon iced tea (substituted for water)
Oil per box instructions
Eggs per box instructions

- pour additional iced tea/lemon drink onto baked cakes - 

- Lemon frosting - 

1 cup Crisco or similar

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2+ packet Crystal Light (lemon)

1 tsp butter-flavored extract

2 tbsp iced tea/lemon drink