Friday, January 30, 2009

Birthday Castle

Last week, Ada turned two. Two! Already! She got a Mylar balloon to mark the big day. Naturally, she chose one with Dora the Explorer. I clipped it to her coat, since she was determined to have it with her at all times on her birthday (in fact, it's now a week later and she is still carrying it around the house). The balloon made her birthday obvious to everyone we encountered, and they each asked Ada how old she was. She'd look at the questioner somewhat slyly and say, "I three," then wait to see if they'd buy it. Too cute. She's since agreed to admit that she's just turned two.

Anyway, she wanted a cake - as well as presents, fireworks, and a party hat. I'll let you guess which one she didn't get. The cake should be a castle. Chocolate. And blue. With sprinkles. This presented a little challenge. My MIL gave me a great Bundt cake mold in the shape of a castle, and that's a lot of fun, but I felt like it would sort of be cheating. And I wouldn't use a kit, or anything inedible on the cake. That would be cheating, too.

So we made two 9" square cakes and some cupcakes, froze them, iced them in chocolate, froze them again, then iced them in vanilla icing tinted blue with food coloring. (There are ice cream cones on top of the cupcake turrets.) My first pass looked rather sophomoric and I was working on solutions for the rough edges when I decided that it should look sophomoric. It's a second birthday cake! So I tossed on some candy and left it at that. In the end, I'm happy with the way it turned out, and so was Ada!

Ada wanted to go to Chevy's for lunch (!) but she chose homemade mac & cheese for her birthday dinner:


The cake:


Ada did not want a princess ponytail for her party. She looked at me like I was nuts when I offered, and explained, "Party hat!" Of course! Fancy up-dos are incompatible with fashionable head gear.

9 comments:

Rob Monroe said...

Adorable! I'm a little shocked that she wanted presents.... oh wait! No I'm not! :o)

Did our present arrive this week? I know Anny used the slow boat.

Orange said...

You have cake issues, don't you? You know, nobody went to hell because they used a shaped cake pan. But hey, if you're looking for ways to spend more of your time doing something domestic, who am I to interfere? :-)

Actually, I hope you milled the flour and sugar yourself, because using store-bought ingredients is totally cheating.

(I'm more inclined to buy a cake, personally.)

RAK said...

I think the cake is amazing. When I have kids in my home, will you come to DC to make their cakes?

selzach said...

I love the cake!

I chuckled over Ada's "I three." Smart girl.

Mary P Jones (MPJ) said...

Absolutely adorable! And I love that cake. It's amazing!

Tracey said...

How dare you call your cake sophomoric??? That would be beyond MY wildest dreams of accomplishing!

Happy birthday to Ada, and happy birthing day anniversary to you!

Jennifer said...

I love the cake!

Jennifer said...

I made a snowman cake for my baby's first birthday. check it out on my blog! It wasn't perfect, but fun!

Sarahlynn said...

Rob, yeah, Christmas was just an appetizer for Ada! (And we love the puppet stage! It arrived quite on time for the big day of present opening.)

Orange, I used a boxed mix because I am a hypocrite. I also surf the internet for decorating ideas. Perhaps I think that making my kids creative birthday cakes makes up for not being as good a mother as I'd like to be the other 363 days a year?

Thanks, RAK! Also, absolutely! You don't mind a huge mess and lots of crumbs, do you?

Thanks, Selzach!

Thank you, MPJ!

Tracey, well, I did chose relatively flattering photos. ;) And THANK YOU for the birthing day anniversary thoughts. I spent part of the day remembering my anesthesiologist very fondly.

Jennifer, that's amazing!