Well it’s official. He’s not the baby. He’s TWO WHOLE YEARS OLD. A toddler.
But if you ask him what his name is, he’ll still tell you, “Baby.”
So, anyway, I had to make the toddler a cake. I’ve never really put much effort into birthday cakes before. I figure as long as they have sugar, the kids’ll love ’em, right? And as soon as you start getting all cutesy and creative, they’ll come to expect that kind of service EVERY year, and I might as well just put that off as long as possible.
But this year, Josh really really really really really thought it would be cute if we made Mr. B a kitty cake. Because Mr. B loves kitties. His voice goes up a couple octaves when he sees them and his eyes light up and he just cuddles; them and loves on them…
Plus I’m surrounded by talented friends who put me to shame year after year…
So I caved. And googled “kitty cakes”. Which resulted in page after page of Hello Kitty cakes. So I changed the search to “cat cakes” and had much better luck.
Written instructions along with illustrations… shouldn’t be too difficult, right?
Three and a half hours later…
… I was pretty much promising everyone in the room I was NEVER EVER EVER GOING TO MAKE ANOTHER SHAPED CAKE EVER EVER EVER AGAIN.
And then Olivia requested a butterfly cake.
::sigh::
It’s begun.
At least they don’t care that I can’t center things to save my life. Case in point: There were only supposed to be two stars on the kitty belly – one for each candle. After much practice and concentration, I made two stars that I was really proud of, leaned back to take in the whole picture and screamed when I saw I’d left enough space on the right side for a WHOLE ‘NOTHER STAR.
But, yeah, he didn’t care, obviously:
And look, he blew out the candles all by himself:
This part made me sad:
Three and a half hours of blood, sweat, and tears (okay, so I actually DIDN’T make myself bleed…) only to have the result disappear down everyone digestive tracts…
On to happier subjects… PRESENTS!
He loved this stuffed train from Grandma:
It’s his new favorite cuddle toy:
More legos!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaand now…
I had to keep the children busy in the toy room while The Daddy set up the Big Surprise in the living room.
Wanna see what it is?
Are you ready?
Sure?
A SLIDE!
I wish I could have gotten a picture of Benjamin’s face when he first saw it, but, like I said, I was too busy leading them out of the toyroom. Josh has a great video of it. Maybe he’ll share. 🙂
Olivia was a great sister and caught him at the bottom every time:
Until we told her to stop because it seemed he was doing quite well on his own.
He promptly flew off the bottom of the slide and hit his head on the hard wood floor. He wouldn’t go down the slide the rest of the day.
Then we read the warning label on the top of the slide. You know, the label that says, “Don’t place this slide on hard surfaces.” It even specifically mentioned hard wood floors as a no-no.
Oops.
Oh well. He’s over his fear now, except that he won’t go down unless someone is waiting to catch him at the bottom. And I’m more than fine with that. When it warms up (Hello, it was SNOWING yesterday?!), we’ll move the slide outside. And I’ll get my living room back.
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Butterfly cakes are EASY. You lucked out on that one. Bake a round cake, cut it in half, and flip the halves around for wings. The cat cake turned out awesome, by the way. The only shaped cake I’ve tried was that rocket cake for your husband.
Can’t wait to see these kids tomorrow!
Awww Happy Birthday to big boy Benjamin! Looks like he had a great day.
Oh, and your cake looks great! So cute.
Joanna – does your butterfly cake involve frosting the cut sides of the cake? THAT’S what took forever. Even though I froze it for half an hour like I was supposed to, frosting doesn’t stick to crumb!
Beth- I suppose it would. Hadn’t thought of that problem. Getting the shape will take fewer cuts- that was my difficulty when making the rocket cake- when I tried to move cut pieces, they’d fall apart.
Joanna – Ah, yes. Freezing the cake must have made it easier to cut. Perhaps I should have froze again before frosting? Maybe it got too warm and crumbly?
Great looking cake, Beth! I’m impressed! I’m going to try using a mold (we got some Mickey-Mouse molds when someone moved away) for Jer’s next birthday, but I’m really intimidated by the frosting part! I’m not sure I’ll want to post pics of that when the time comes around…
And Happy Birthday Benjamin!
i want a spider cake…with a web that says, happy birthday.
great cake! and happy bday! what a fun slide.. my almost 3yo would LOVE that!!
Ahh! That cake is awesome! You did a great job. Happy birthday, Benjamin!
I’m totally going to do a fun cake like that someday. I’ll probably cheat a little by using cupcakes along the edges of something or other (like a cat’s tail, maybe? or the edge of a butterfly?).
If you have trouble frosting the crumbly cake edges, maybe you could try just piping the frosting on instead of spreading it. Mmmm…sugar
YAY! the cake looks awesome. I love the part about the slide and not putting it on hardwood floors. HE HE.
I have no advice on how to frost cut sides of a cake. Sorry about that one. I have seen things where you can just use cupcakes to make a cake, we might try that with Lexi’s next birthday. then there is no cutting involved! 🙂
I am so saving these directions – I think I could do a basic one. My 6 y/o dd wanted a butterfly cake for her birthday. I am SO NOT creative, especially cakes. But I did it and it turned out great. Found the directions on bettycrocker.com, using one round cake. Cut in half. Then cut each half into a 2/3 and 1/3 piece. Put round sides of 2/3 pieces together to form top wings, and arrange 1/3 pieces for bottom wings. I then used a sour twist (or licorice) for the body in between the wings and to make the antennae.
I have a butterfly cakepan you can borrow! 🙂
You did an AMAZING job on your cake! 😀
As a child of a mother who gave us shaped cakes for our early birthdays, I can say your kids will look back and remember fondly their fun birthday cakes. If you’re willing to put in the effort, I bet they will remember and love them.
great cake! my SIL is awesome at making cakes, lol so I always just ask her. She actually made a guitar cake for my hubby’s thirtieth birthday party! We did a mardi gras theme this year for my 10 year old and we made King cake. that was fun.