anthropoid

The third cake!

P's birthday is the same as O's, but her party was scheduled for one week later. She decided she wanted to go the monkey route, so she and I sat down to discuss what her cake would look like by browsing Pinterest. This decision happened almost immediately, to my surprise, and so then I set about planning how I would execute the idea.

The birthday girl wanted two cakes--one was essentially a smash cake, though I made it bigger than that. And, of course, chocolate. I used leftover frosting from T's cake for the middle of the mini cake and chocolate for the big monkey.

Then I finished up the small cake first. This took longer than I wanted, partly due to trying to keep the monkey 'smooth' and getting the ears attached.

I tackled the bigger cake shortly after getting the eyes on the little one, and decided to go with a fuzzy monkey. This one went much faster!

The ears were tricky on this one, too, but having to be less picky about smoothness helped.Plus, I added the cake before adding the main frosting layer, which also helped.

Once finished, I gave a sneak peek on Instagram and then had to figure out how to store them until the next day.

P wanted to do candles in 'her' cake--the little one--so we let her add them and then it was time to sing and eat cake!

We had lots of kids, so we did small slices. If anyone wanted seconds, they could have them, as it turned out we had plenty of cake.

venery

Next cake!

T's favorite movie of the past year was Cars, so I browsed Pinterest for ideas, as I knew that's what I wanted to do for his theme. I didn't want to make a car cake (I have the Wilton pan, thanks to a friend cleaning out her cupboards), as that one makes a lot of cake, so I tried to see what else was out there.

Then, while just scrolling through my feed, a John Deere cake popped up and a light bulb went off. The Frank scene turned into one of T's favorites, so I decided to adapt a farm scene, especially once I found a small sized toy that would fit on a 9" cake!

Because O requested chocolate, and P requested chocolate, I didn't let T have a choice* and went with yellow.

Then time to lay everything out and start piping wheat!

This cake was a complete surprise, so I was glad my SiL could take T for a while--I wanted a big reveal at dinner. And it worked! He said 'that's Frank!' in a Mater voice (sort of) and immediately wanted to take the toys off and play with them. We made him wait for us to do candles, though**.

Then we dove in. T only ate the jelly bean rocks, but for the rest of the week, he enjoyed a slice at breakfast every day!

This is pretty true to the colors.

*It would be chocolate.
**The singing freaked him out. As in, he left the room...

ninjutsu

Get ready for a cake barrage! Several birthdays in a row means several cakes to show you!

It was spring break for MN family, so they came down for part of the week and that happened to coincide with O's birthday. His request was a Kai cake (from Ninjago), so I did a little searching for ideas on Pinterest.

He also asked for chocolate.

I found one that I really liked and then set about planning how I would actually do it. I had hoped to find yellow sugar sheets, but the stores I had time to visit only had packs of colors, which I did not want to have sitting around. So I got white and color mist to be able to make the face!

Then a pile of red food coloring (which dried to the perfect red) and I started layering.

Adding folds of 'material' to the mask.

I decided to make the edges his 'hair' and this simplified the process (I could make it wavy instead of smooth). A quick circle of dots completed the whole thing. O got to watch me make his cake, as I assembled it on his actual birthday. By the end, he approved.

I sent most of the leftover home with them, as I had another cake to make in two days for T's birthday!

larruping

Birthday time again*!

We went for a similar theme again this year and kept things autumnal for activities and decorations. The cake, however, was all about the inside this year.

M came up to me in church about a month before her birthday and said she wanted a cookie dough cake. I said ok, I'll do some research**.

After I found a few ideas, I got together with her again to discuss details. She requested chocolate, chocolate, chocolate (surprise!). Then, after thinking a bit, she decided she actually would enjoy a little color, so we talked how to spruce up the design.

Per usual, I split things up a bit and baked the cakes first, as well as made the cookie dough filling a couple days beforehand. Then I had Sandra take T for a morning to so I could make all the frostings. Then I assembled and frosted the day before the party.

I was quite glad to have lots of time to get everything sorted out--I feel like I rushed her cake last year. This one turned out just like she requested:

Then it was the nerve-wracking drive to her house for the party!

Then because not everyone likes cookie dough (ahem, that would be me), I actually made a second cake. Turns out three of the party goers were glad of a second option. Also, it was really fun to do what I wanted with the design!

*Funny how that happens every year, right?
**Man, I love Pinterest. Yeah, it has flaws, but it is my kind of bookmarking system!

vaulting

Her birthday is two days before T's, so now Sandra and I have to factor in when the parties will be when planning! This year, we decided to go after, especially because of Easter being the weekend right after their birthdays.

P decided on a gymnastics theme, and we prayed the weather would cooperate so we could do some games outside.

Alas...

P and I browsed Pinterest for cake ideas, and she found a few she really liked, but kept coming back to what she eventually settled on. It's completely fondant (sheesh), so I immediately began to plan how to make smooth buttercream frosting and substitute toys on top of the cake. She wanted the same colors, too.

First came the base, which I did in an 9" pan to make sure it would be wide enough. This got covered in white and edged with pink.

Next was the main part of the cake, which I stacked with chocolate frosting in between layers. I filled all three of my 6" pans, but ended up only using two sections of that size cake. This got covered in teal frosting.

Last was adding decorations. I bought gumpaste, hoping this would work to make the ribbon. M had a medal I could borrow to attach to the ribbon, which was a bit of a relief I wouldn't have to make one.

Unfortunately, the frosting was rather soft, so trying to wrap the ribbon around was a bit frustrating. My stack was also a bit short for getting this all to fit, so I couldn't figure out how to get everything to lay right. Then T fell off the bench in the dining room and that was that for the ribbon.

Fortunately, I had my present for P as part of my decoration, and once we added candles, the cake looked complete.

Notice all that color coordination?

Normally, this is where I show you a picture of the cut cake. Alas, we devoured the whole thing this time:

I did manage to snap a pic of a slice, though.

liǎng nián

He's officially two!

He's no longer referred to by months, charging into the stage of desired independence and physically turning into a small person.

We celebrated with family on Saturday, capping the party with cupcakes.

I pinned the idea a while ago (have you seen my party board? I need to have more parties...), and when trying to decide what to make for T's birthday, I knew this would be quick, he would recognize the character and it would be easy for a party.

I baked small cookies last week* to get that part done. Danielle took T for a morning so I could bake the cupcakes, and then my parents came over early on Saturday so I could decorate. First I cut out each mouth--thankfully it's been chilly, so I could keep the cupcakes in the garage and they were cold, making this part easy. I then whipped out the grass tip (#233 Wilton), blue buttercream and candy eyes.

The other beauty of cupcakes is I had plenty to share (easily!), so many others got to try them out, too.

He suddenly got very shy when we started singing to him.

*And they still weren't small enough... goodness they need to be tiny!