Boiling macaroni, photo credit: vectētiņš |
Monday, May 13, 2013
A barn cake
You know that feeling of “how am I going to beat this next
year?” when it comes to kids birthdays?
Last year Lauris was in love with cranes and trains, and for
his birthday I made him a train cake (because I couldn’t quite figure out how
to put together a construction crane cake). This year we were discussing cake,
and when he drew a blank I threw out a few examples, just to get him thinking.
The first thing that came to mind was a farmyard, and he grabbed that and ran
with it, describing a barn cake with some animals, trees and a fence. I thought
to myself “how hard can it be?” and started planning (i.e. logged into
pinterest). Note to self – the barn cake was significantly harder than the
train cake, but just as fun to design and make. The red frosting was the trickiest
part; I started with a pink strawberry frosting, added quite a bit of red gel
food coloring and the final product was difficult to work with and stained
badly. For animals I luckily had some cute little barnyard animal and tree candles
that had been presents at some point, and for the fence we used pretzels with
melted white chocolate “glue,” which I had made to pipe the doors and windows
on the barn as normal white frosting would have disappeared into the red mess.
My parents are visiting so I had quite a bit of help, especially with child-care
while I made my fourth trip to the store after running out of cream cheese and
confectioner’s sugar for the second batch of chocolate frosting. My mother gets
credit for the beautiful weather vane. (For the strawberries and cream cake recipe click here, chocolate frosting here)
But enough about the cake (even though I’m very proud of the
end result), back to why it will be tough to beat this birthday. As I
mentioned, my parents are visiting, and this alone boosts the fun-level for
this celebration. They know how to spoil their grandchildren; endless reading,
pushing of swings, art activities and of course presents! Lauris unwrapped two
giant presents this year, the first from mom & dad (a train set to go with
the train table he got for Christmas), and a kitchen from the grandparents! As he loves to help me in the kitchen, this
is a perfect gift as it gives him and little brother something to do while I’m
preparing food. We’ve gotten over the unfairness of not being able to use real
water in the sink, and moved on to “boiling” goldfish crackers, washing dishes
(with pretend water) and hanging the utensils neatly on the hooks every evening
before going to bed.
We celebrated for three days straight, mostly because the
grandparents are visiting, but also because I wanted to have a small party for
him with a few of his friends. Going by the years=guests rule we had a nice
lunch yesterday, and the kids ate up the pigs-in-a-blanket, the animal
crackers, the hot dogs and farmyard mac and cheese. The weather was perfect for
some time in the sandbox and backyard, and everyone enjoyed the uninhibited
happiness of the birthday boy who just couldn’t believe it was all for him, and
that almost everything he asked for was granted.
I really couldn’t have pulled it together without the help
of my parents, but it hasn’t been all work either. We discovered Falls Park and
attended the local art fair “Artisphere” on Friday, the boys saw the sights up
in the mountains on Saturday and we still have downtown to explore today; I can’t
wait to share some more pictures. It’s nice to have an extra couple pairs of
hands helping around the house, and although I feel pangs of sadness now and again
that our time in France ended so quickly, it is nice to have a reminder that
being back in the US has its benefits – mainly proximity to family.
And so the birthday boy got his cake. Do I need to start
planning for next year’s 2 and 4 année birthdays?
Labels:
baking,
children's activities,
parenting,
parties,
visitors
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What a wonderful cake you made! I did a barn cake for my oldest's 2nd birthday... and it was a bit of a wonky barn I have to say! When in doubt I just smother the cake with lollies (candy), which acts as a good distraction for the kids.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely lot of birthday loot/ gifts he was given too... hope you had a nice quiet time after all that baking/ partying while he played with his new things xx
Oh, wow! What a cake! Nice work, Liene, and happy birthday to your sweet little one.
ReplyDeleteOh what a wonderful Cake! Great job on the cake AND the party. And yay to Grandparents who love to visit and help out. Happy Birthday to your gorgeous Boy. Love his name by the way, is it French or Latvian? Mel xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! I really have fun making these cakes, and so it's nice when they turn out resembling the intended finished product! And Mel, Mikus is a Latvian name, pronounced Mih-kuhs (lighter than "me" and rounder than "cuss").
ReplyDeleteWauuu, you made such a nice, colourful and tasty looking cake!:) That is wonderful work! Masterpiece!:)
ReplyDeleteI am awed by the cake. Impressive! And daunting. ;)
ReplyDeleteTaran's birthday is coming up and I can't even imagine doing something half as cool.
Really guys, thanks for your kind comments. When it comes to the pinterest/child crafts craziness these days I can't really compete, so it's nice when something turns out. Your comments make my day :)
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