Birthday breakdown: Like a (cake) boss

Yesterday my baby became a toddler.

Such a big girl.

We took tons of videos of her walking and as I was watching them over and over again, I completely burst into tears.  "She's going to grow up and leave me!!"  All day yesterday, I alternated between being elated that she was walking and that she's healthy and happy, and being so very sad that this is happening so fast.

However, there are lots of birthday stories to tell and it was a great birthday indeed!  We all worked so ridiculously hard to make it a great day and we totally pulled it off!  

Sort of.  Allow me to explain.

Let's start with the cake.

Thank the baby Jesus I had lots of sweets.  For some reason, I was paranoid about not having enough sweets to go around, so I ordered 24 petit fours, I made 24 cupcakes and I attempted two cakes.  And we bought several packages of little cookies from World Market just so we were covered in the sweets department.

I was not giving up on my pink cake and I would make it if it was the last thing I did!  Once again, I made my cakes.  Once again, I played with the food coloring, adding red to the pink to really make it stand out.  And with them cooling in my neighbor's fridge, I turned to the strawberry cake.

Because I didn't have enough to do, why not make two cakes, one of them from scratch!

Baking is a precise thing, not like cooking.  There is no improvising in baking, which is why I prefer it.  Measurements are exact, cooking times don't vary that much and there's no 'pinch of this, dab of that' nonsense.

So why did I ignore the very precise instructions calling for a specific pan to bake this cake?  

I don't own a springform pan and it made four layers, so I thought I could get away with putting the cake in four round pans and call it a day.

I even used my fancy new (to me) mixer that my mommy gave me!

She had it but never really used it so she gave it to me!

Four layers, four pans.  Who needs a springform pan anyway?

Apparently, I do.

The cakes that weren't burnt were hard like cookies!  I had run an errand and asked my mom to take them out when they were done and when she met me at the door, I knew something was wrong.  "I don't want you to be upset about your cakes."  Which meant I was totally upset.  It was the day before the party and my visions of a sweets-laden cake table were vanishing.

Which is why my husband is my hero. 

He got up at 5:30 the morning of the party and made the cakes again, this time with the right pan.  I asked around and a couple of my mom friends had springform pans that I borrowed and Drew did it right this time.  He totally saved the day!

Except I didn't get to serve the strawberry cake at the party because I ran out of time.  I finished it the next day and now that I've made it, I know there was no way I would have been able to do both.  It's a very labor-intensive cake and the cream cheese frosting definitely made it runny.  There's no way it would have stood up to the heat of an outdoor party.

I placed all those strawberries by hand.

Even in the air-conditioned house, it was already starting to run.

Oh well, we get an E for effort and it did taste good, 

thanks to the 50,000 pounds of sugar in it.

Now, the other cake?  My pink cake that caused me woe and heartache?

I did it!!

I don't quite know what happened to the bottom layer, but I am more than pleased with how it turned out.  It got devoured and everyone said it was delicious!  It didn't fall apart, the colors were great and I was soo happy with it!

Amy Barry will have all the professional pictures and I'm sure her pictures will make it look even better but I couldn't wait to share these.  These are more behind the scenes, if you will.

What's even better, in a stroke of genius (if I do say so myself), I saved the extra parts I cut off for Sofia's smash cake.  I bought a small round cake pan, took all the pieces I cut and smashed them into the mold.  Then I turned it over onto a plate, iced it with the cool whip and voila, smash cake that was already ready to fall apart.

She was so excited for her cake!

This is an Amy Barry picture - you can tell because it's not crappy.

Figuring out what to do with it.

Photo courtesy Amy Barry

Smash cake success.  Hands down, my most favorite part of the party!

Amy Barry

Now that I think about it, there were things that 'went wrong' with every part of the party from the cake to the decorations, even with my outfit.  But it turned out to be such a great day that I don't think anyone noticed.

At least I hope not.

Next up, my sewing success and failure and why DIY isn't always the best route.