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.