If you've been to one of our kid's parties over the last few years (and Roger, if you are reading this, I promise I'll get you back on the list next year), you know that Matt and Cathy have started asking that I make their cakes rather than buy them. The first time Matt asked, I thought this was a great idea. Cake mix is cheap; frosting is cheap... I'd save a ton of money. What I clearly didn't understand was the time I was going to sink into one of those things, even though my designs, so far, have been pretty simplistic. I needed to mix colors, load frosting into my seemingly cool Pampered Chef tools meant for just such a task, and decorate. Not as easy as it sounds... and it takes a long, long time. For as long as the cake-decorating process seems to take me versus the amount of money I would have spent at the store, I probably averaged $2.00 an hour on the labor. This is why I've scratched this career choice off my list of possibilities!
My cake-decorating history goes back a few years, starting off with a road, a dirt pile, and some construction trucks from the Christmas tree for Matt's 4th birthday. There were also trees from our GeoTrax set in the green 'grass', though apparently not in this picture.
Next up, Dora the Explorer for Cathy's 3rd birthday. I remember making this the morning of her party, sending my brothers Bob and Dan, my husband, and all the kids out of the house so I could focus on this. I was sure it wouldn't get done by the time guests arrived, but it somehow did. I learned an important lesson though: never wait until the last minute to make the cake!
I got off pretty easy in 2010, slapping some frosting on top of a rectangle-shaped cake and then taking the kids to amusement parks to celebrate their birthdays.
But, in 2011, I was back at it. First up: Matt's 6th birthday, with a request for Zhu-Zhu Pets. These cakes are my favorites, at least in terms of how close they came to looking like the actual toys I modeled them after.
And finally, for Cathy's 5th birthday, it was Sally the Porsche (which I clearly should have made as a four-layer, rather than two-layer cake). I am sure the only thing that helped people identify her was the trademark blue coloring (though in too light a shade for Sally) and the Carrera label on her backside.
For the most part, I do enjoy asking the kids what they'd like to see and then trying my best to create it for them. Nobody has asked me at a party what the heck the cake is supposed to be, so I guess I am not terrible at it. BUT...
But, I'd like to be more skillful when I make their cakes and so beginning this week, I am going to take a class, Decorating Basics, in the Wilton line-up (available here in State College through Michaels). The website tells me that I’ll learn to create icing drop flowers, rosettes, shells, pompom flowers, leaves, shaggy mums, and the ribbon rose. I’ll decorate cookies, cupcakes, and cakes. And then I will bring home my work, sit down at the kitchen table and sugar up the kids just in time to send them to bed... brilliant!
So, in addition to reporting in on all those fun kid activities coming up over the last three weeks of summer vacation, I'll also be sharing my adult adventures (and all the fun pictures) with you. If I survive this, there are two more classes in the series that I'd love to take before the year is over. And then come January, I hope to make a knock-out cake for my son's 7th birthday!
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