I’m gearing up for my daughters’ birthday party this upcoming weekend and I thought I’d share a funny story. Nevermind the fact that I have virtually nothing planned. I’m hoping writing this will spark my creativity, or in doing so, I will at the very least talk myself out of the ridiculous notion that I should make their birthday cake. Because, year after year, I decide not to splurge on a decorated theme cake (because is it really a birthday without a theme cake?), and troll Pinterest for some totally doable DIY inspiration. Here’s the problem: I’m not a cake decorator. Shocker, I know. Despite the fact that Kids’ Baking Championship makes me feel completely inadequate, most of the time I’m able to pull off a halfway decent looking cake. In fact, the boys are still talking about their Toy Story cake circa 2013. But without fail, it takes ALL.DA*N. DAY. And truth be told, I just dug up a picture, and halfway decent is being pretty generous:
In fact, a few years ago I splurged on a superhero cake, and while I know the time invested totally justified the $50 price tag, sometimes my mama pride just gets the better of me. I’ve even had my sister-in-law do a couple for me, but it still just doesn’t seem the same. Anybody with me? Here’s a look into my stream of consciousness as I scrolled through Pinterest last year looking for inspiration for their unicorn themed party. I can totally do this. That doesn’t look too hard. Oh, this one has a step by step, and so cute! Sure, I can do a fondant horn. The mane with some sort of tip, yeah, no problem.
So long story short, I decided to DIY the unicorn cake. And true to form, it took me at least 3X longer than I’d anticipated. I was elbows deep in chocolate batter, and like any good DIYer, following the step by step tutorial on my phone. Now, because I also learned from Kids’ Baking Championship that you should always keep a clean workstation, I decided to wipe off my stand mixer between the cake and the frosting portion of the day. I had the top unlocked, in the more upright position and as I was wiping the flour from the base, I knocked the center of gravity off kilter and the whole mixer slipped out of my hands. And smashed right onto my iPhone. Spoiler alert: it shattered. Thankfully, I had just added insurance to my service plan and had forgotten to cancel it after replacing the defective battery. So it only cost me $150 to replace my phone. Only $150. To save $50 on a cake. And that my friends, is how you end up with a $150 DIY birthday cake. But you know I always try to look on the bright side – I think I still ended up with a halfway decent cake! And my mama pride, unlike my phone, was left in tact.
Once again, this time more adamantly, I vowed to order a cake next time. But here I am a year later, contemplating the same nonsense. Thankfully, I have found a really easy dog bone cake for the girls’ Puppy Pawty, and I’m totally confident it will go off without a hitch. Stay tuned…
