Two birthday cakes

My little boy is 12! I can hardly believe he is that old and I hate that he is growing up so fast. Funny, with my daughter the first child, I could hardly wait for her to do most things and experience all life has to offer. Now, I know it’s the baby and their isn’t another to follow so excitement turns to preservation of all the milestones. He just lost his last baby tooth last month, and the tooth fairy sadly paid a large sum of money to help solidify the happy memory of loosing baby teeth and wishing on fairies. As this birthday has come and gone, I find that I’m remembering more about my daughter’s past birthdays and wishing I felt as melancholy with her at the time, but I was too busy it seemed keeping up with a 5 year younger child. Although, turning 12 hasn’t changed him overnight, I know it’s only a matter of time before singing before bedtime will disappear, along with Legos, Pokemon, Yug-io and other such child like toys will find more dust than use in his room. Asking mom and dad to play with him will be replaced with friends. I can’t help but remember when our daughter began giving up all her childhood toys for an iPod  then cell phone. People say childhood is a fleeting moment, and it really is now that I see it disappearing before my eyes. I  wonder how my parents felt as I met all those milestones since I am one of two children also. As soon as I hit 14 I was off and running to young adulthood. If I only knew what I know now, I would have slowed my pace. Childhood should be enjoyed with vigor and memories preserved for a lifetime. I now wish we had more than two children but that is what we were blessed with. Reflections like these help me put things into perspective but have me wishing for re-do’s on so many things. Since I can’t go back in time and change how I acted or reacted all I can do is make today count and everyday after.

I absolutely love the picture above of our son and his cake because it totally captures his personality. He is full of life. His party was a success, we had a Survivor party that was a blast for the kids and us.  If you are interested in doing a cake like the one I did you need to check out pinterest where I found the idea.  I basically just winged it and did it all free hand using writing tips for the outlining #4, 5.  I also used star tip #16 for the yellow squiggly lines at the top, and leaf tip #70 for the bottom border and blue lines of frosting at the top and bottom. The mouth is small marshmallows cut in half, and the nose is made from tootsie rolls just molded by hand.   I find lots of mistakes in the cakes I decorate and things I would do different, but the kids thought it was fantastic and that is all that counts.  I also found ideas online for how to throw a party like the  show Survivor and fun games that a scout pack put together that I used.

Another Birthday cake just a week later but (secretly) more fun for me to do because I used to love “Hello Kitty” as kid. Our foreign exchange student from Germany turned 17 and requested that I make her a “Hello Kitty” cake.  I made a chocolate cake frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream (recipe found at Martha Stewart), it was so delicious. We didn’t have a party for Michelle, she decide she wanted to go out with her girl friends for dinner. It was great to be able to celebrate with Michelle by baking her cake for her birthday.  Michelle has been in our home since August and we get to have her until June.  We really enjoy her and learning more about her German culture, and her learning about our American culture.  It’s interesting to learn that some things about our cultures are the same like singing “happy birthday” in English.

If you are interested in making the “Hello Kitty” cake I just pinned a few photos on pinterest and then drew a picture of Hello Kitty’s face, cut it out, outlined the top of the cake with a tooth pick then filled it in with frosting.  I used small star tip #16, for the white face and bow and writing tips #4, 5, for the outlining and whiskers.  The eyes, nose and dots on the cake are a large circle tips #10,12 then smoothed out with the back of a small spatula.   For the bottom border around both cakes I used a leaf tip #70. I also wanted to announce the winner of the cookie cookbook and decorating supplies giveaway~ it was Adrienne! Thank you to all who read my recipes and those that participated in the giveaway.

Tagged as: birthday cake, cake, frosting