So, every year I try to convince my kids that cupcakes would be nice for their birthdays. Cupcakes are so easy to decorate. So… easy. It never works. My now 5 year old and 9 year old have their birthdays 3 days apart and they love to plan elaborate detailed designs for their cakes. It has been stress to me before. Last year pinterest saved my butt and I made some deceptively easy designs. But this year, I could feel myself weaken to their extravagant pleas.
After assimilating a bazillion youtube videos on fondant and cake carving and frosting techniques, I did even more google searches on every little question that came to mind on the subject. I found highly rated recipes. I took many deep breaths and began. I was very sure to not do any of the things that I heard not to do. And I made everything else up along the way.
Three days later, my house was in shambles about me as I baked and crumb coated and allowed time for cooling and chilling and drying and warming and such things. There was frosting on the floor. My kids pulled chairs over and knocked my elbows at most delicate moments. “Mom, are you working on my cake? Work on my cake, Mom! I wanna help! Can I eat some fondant? Can I play with it?” They cried because I did not feed them on demand. I had sticky fondant on my hands and did they want to eat or did they want beautiful perfect cakes to eat in a few days?! Kids are so funny. So unreasonable. Fondant (my greatest fear of this endeavor) ended up not being so terrifying after all. Who would have ever thought those years of playing with play doh would be worth something after all?
Israel wanted a Cardinals baseball cake. He said he’d be a fan even if they didn’t win the World Series and he kept his word. Actually he acted like he was insulted to even be doubted like that but I had to make sure before I started.
No step by step pictures because I had icing on my hands. Come on, people, be reasonable now. But I will share the basics. I started with a ten inch circle base and put two 8 inch circle layers centered on top of that. Then I carved the top two layers into a semi-spherical shape and cut notches into the bottom layer for between the fingers of the glove. I frosted the bottom later with chocolate frosting and used some fondant for the glove’s stitching. The top, I frosted with vanilla frosting, cut up pull and peel licorice for the stitching, and made the cardinal from fondant. It was a little dicey at times, but it worked out. I didn’t use fondant to cover the whole thing… because I was scared of fondant. I figured I would do fondant for one cake this year. And we’d see how it went.
Drew wanted a cat cake. And I made some cat related cupcakes too because I wanted to spend more time making things that would be completely devoured soon. I was actually having fun at that time. I used two 8 inch circles to carve the head, body, and tail from. My plan looked about like this: Excuse the pencil smudges please. 🙂
Marshmallow fondant was really easy to make and work with after all my dread. The whole cat was covered in it and the eyes, nose, and collar were made of fondant too. I found some glitter black icing at Target for the rest of the details.
One time I dropped all the cupcakes on their newly decorated faces. True story. Oh the drama. One time I messed up the cats tail. I left it. See the last picture above? It was going to be eaten. And it was. All eaten. I have to say it was a strange relief to cut up and serve these creations. They were so temporal. I was so happy that they couldn’t be messed up anymore. I’m not so sure I was thrilled to take 3 days to make these masterpieces then have them eaten. But the kids smiled. I do like it when they smile. I don’t mind being a sucker for blessing them.
But, I did just realized that they are never ever again going to go for that cupcake idea now. Not gonna lie. I’m a little scared of next year’s requests already.