Birthday Cake Parade

In our house, as soon as the Christmas decorations are all taken down and stored away, we turn our thoughts to the kids' birthdays. All three of my children were born in the winter, which is great because it means that I didn't have to be 8 months pregnant in August! Two of the birthdays always fall during Lent, but that doesn't stop us from having a party!

Each year, for the past few years we have been creating their cakes based on what their requests and interests (and our abilities!) are. So, when Princess turned two, I went to the craft store and bought the Blue's Clues cake pan because that's what she was into at the time. I didn't think I could make it, but I wanted to try. I had done one Wilton cake many years ago for a friend when she turned 18, and I remember what a disaster it was (does it have anything to do with the fact that the cake was Ziggy? Remember how nothing ever went right for that poor guy?)

Well, anyway. I was motivated by the fact that this cake was for my little Princess and it just had to be perfect. It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it! I not only made the Blue's Clues cake, but it turned out better than I could have imagined, and it wasn't quite as difficult as I thought either. I did have hand cramps from holding the decorator bag so tightly but that's minor. Here is the finished cake:

Isn't it just so cute? I was really proud of my first Wilton work of art! This cake took me 5 hours to decorate, and about less than one hour for everyone to eat!

This is the cake we made after the Blue's Clues cake, for a school auction. It won first place! The picture/idea came from a magazine (Ladies Home Journal?) It was so cute and a fun family project. Do you see the bikini on the teddy bear? My Busy Woodshop Detail Oriented OCD Hubby made that! The tiles are chiclets, the diving board is Fruit Stripe gum, the water is blue jello!

The next year my 8 year old son wanted a Spongebob cake. I was feeling ambitious, so I made this:

Doesn't that make you want to vacation at Bikini Bottom? The kids loved this cake! It took me only 3 1/2 hours, even though it had a lot more detail than the Blue's Clues cake.

I was feeling so confident that the next month when my princess turned 3, I made the Dora cake in honor of her love of everything Dora. Everything Dora. We had all the books, all the dolls, all the movies, you name it, our house for a time was a virtual Dora museum, so why not the cake too? (just forget the fact that the black frosting does weird things to the kids's poop, is that TMI?)

I was really proud of this cake. This one only took three hours, despite the fact there are about 8 different colors. And I expertly camoflauged the hole in the side made when aforementioned three year old wanted to help and accidently caved in the side of the cake. No problem! Anything can be fixed in cake land!

Then, the next year the boys wanted a guitar cake, and an ipod cake. We went out on a limb and improvised:

Ta da! A flying V! My hubby did all the decorations for this cake, and enjoyed every minute. Sorry for the poor picture staging! This is one of my son's all-time favorite cakes.

The ipod cake pictures seem to be hiding somewhere on my hard drive. It was as cool as the guitar cake, though you'll have to take my word for it.

This year, we will try our talents at cake decorating yet again. It's becoming something of a tradition.