Cake

I didn't blog last night. I have a valid excuse. I was up to my elbows in green frosting. And it's my mother's fault.

You see, when I was a small child, my mother would ask what kind of cake I wanted. Then magically, the night before my birthday party, the cake would be created.



Here I am with my teddy bear cake.



This cake was fashioned after my favorite stuffed animal, a pink elephant called "Elly."

This was such a good childhood memory that I decided to continue the tradition with my own children. I spent half a day creating my son's first birthday cake, and he grabbed fistfulls of it and demolished it within 30 seconds.

Since then, I have made more than 20 cakes for my kids' birthdays. They are always allowed to choose the cakes, and I have made everything from butterflies to lily pads to Winnie the Pooh.

This year, my younger son ordered a tractor.

I tried to convince him that it would be much better to have a flat field and decorate it with one of his diecast tractors. No dice. He produced his John Deere brochure with the articulated tractors and ordered a particular model. He chose the model because he liked the fact that it had five headlights, one for each year of his life. I was expected to recreate the tractor, headlights and all, from cake and frosting.

This is what he expected.



This is what he got.

He was okay with that.

What have I learned in my 10 years of making birthday cakes?

Don't spend half a day on something that will be demolished in minutes.

As long as it resembles the object it's supposed to be, the kids will be happy.

If all else fails, cover it in chocolate and serve it with quality ice cream.

And, most importantly, hide some extra cake pieces so that if the party goes badly, I can sneak away into the bathroom and eat cake. Makes me feel better every time.