Ella’s 2nd birthday is this Saturday. For every birthday that my children have celebrated (3 for Carson, 1 for Ella), I’ve always made their birthday cake. Hours were devoted to planning the cake, baking a moist cake, tinting homemade buttercream icing, and meticulously decorating the cakes.
After 12 hours (a wee exaggeration) of decorating, my kitchen counters, walls, cupboards, my hair, and my clothes would all be covered in icing. There would be about 37 bowls, spatulas, spoons, and measuring cups to be washed (NOT an exaggeration). I’d have eaten my weight in icing by the completion of the cake (possible exaggeration).
Though all of my cakes were truly the most delicious cakes I’ve ever had, they never really looked that good. Instead of the perfect cake I’d imagined, amazingly decorated with smooth as silk icing, they always look sort of like a they were made by a 5th grader. With all the hours invested in making these cakes, I would have expected a little more out of my performance.
(I had help from a professional cake decorator friend for the Blue’s Clues cake. “Help” as in, she did most of the work while I ate icing.) (I cannot find a photo of Carson’s second birthday baseball cupcakes. They ended up being just white cupcakes because I was completely unable to make red baseball laces with red icing, a seemingly simple task that involved me having to remove icing from several botched attempts and start over. “Remove” as in, I ate the icing off of several botched cupcakes.)
As I started thinking about Ella’s upcoming birthday, the feeling the dread set in as I thought about “having” to make her cake. I’ve made ALL their cakes, 3 for Carson, (ONLY) 1 for Ella, so I was going to HAVE TO make the cake for Ella’s 2nd birthday. It would be the only fair thing to do. It’s what a GOOD MOTHER does for her child*. (*Please for the love of GOD, I’m kidding.)
Last Saturday, I did the unthinkable and ordered Ella an Elmo’s World birthday cake from Kroger. I also set up a therapy fund for her. Poor, poor deprived child.
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It was around this time last year when I started reading your blog… I remember your beautiful kitchen and your uber fun cake.
However, as a nomad who moved last year as well – I can totally appreciate ordering a cake. New place, new rules!
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After living through as many birthdays as we have, we find a place to have a party outside the house that provides a cake. It’s just not worth the mental anquish.
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I caved last summer for both the kids’ cakes – and it was WONDERFUL! The cake was yummy and I had far less stress. It was a lot of pressure to make their cakes – and I think I peaked at my daughter’s Barbie cake.
Until they can clean the house themselves to prepare for their parties, I’m buying their cakes at the store.
Heh, you said ‘moist’.
I’m in the same boat. I meticulously planned elaborate themes for my boys’ birthdays for year. Then when I ran out of ideas (and didn’t feel like hunting down elusive decoartions and rare shaped cake pans) I skipped them for bright icing, lots of sprinkles and balloons galore.
The boys loved it either way! I’m sure Ella will too!
I hear ya. I made Dean’s first birthday cake, a monkey with a dome-head and sugar cookie ears. It took me HOURS and I was COVERED in icing (and also full of it!) and my kitchen was a disaster. See, what adds insult to injury is I’ll bet you, like me, also host the birthday party in your home. Yeah. Gotta clean up the icing. I don’t blame you for buying the cake. I bet it’ll be precious. Happy early birthday to Ella!
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Oh geez. We’ve always made our kids cakes. For Quinn’s first birthday, it was fun, the two of us up late, trying to find the perfect shade for Pooh Bear. Liam’s birthday is coming up and I keep eyeing the cakes at Costco. Of course, we’ve already got an Elmo shaped pan… and Elmo was easy. Ahhh. We’ll see.
And – oh my gosh – she’s two! TWO. 2. two years old. Wow.
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your cakes look awesome! but at least you’ll have your sanity for her birthday.
and i’m about the BEST mom ever. i never dreamed of making a fancy cake. it’ll probably be rectangular. with canned frosting. either chocolate or vanilla. that’s the extent of my cake-making know-how. and it’ll be her first.
someone needs to teach me how to be a mom.
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My kids have never had a birthday cake. I make cupcakes. Less mess & no fighting over who gets the piece with all the icing or who’s piece is bigger. Cuz I’m lazy like that.
We always have ice cream cakes from Carvel for our birthday cakes. They used to put any picture on that you wanted – I’m not sure if they still do or not, since we now go for straight cakes – we are adults after all:) But, ice cream and cake all in one – it doesn’t get better than that!
I bought an elmo pan for drew’s 1st birthday and thought that was kind of cheating. I did make one heck of a fire engine cake in February with Fondant…..which can make anything look like a masterpiece ( I still had the tornado going through the kitchen look, though)
Just think of the ‘ordered’ cake as an investment in time that you will now be able to spend with her, instead of tied to the kitchen in labor. Laboring. Not ‘in labor’. Oh. You know what I mean.
I think insanely wonderful homecakes are awesome IF YOU ENJOY MAKING THEM. My daughter asked for pecan pie for her birthday this year. My son wants pudding. Everyone wins! Like the lady over at Small Notebook who decided to turn her never used dining room into a playroom: Throw off the shackles on convention and enjoy yourself!
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I’m impressed with your cakes…but I’ve never made one outside of a 13×9 pan so what do I know?
I doubt anyone will notice or care that you didn’t bake the cake…they might even notice mom seems happier and less stressed out (and less strung out from sugar).
Having not decorated a cake since my 8th grade home ec class, I knew better than to try to tackle Bub’s. I briefly entertained the idea of making it myself this year and then laughed at myself. The biggest decision this year is which store to order it from.
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Eh, she’ll survive. I have no cake decorating skills whatsoever, so when it came time for my daughter’s first bday last year, I bought one. However, I will say that in typical mom fashion, I visited several stores and websites before finally trusting HyVee to do the job. And it turned out beautifully.
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My kids dream of me ordering them a cake. BUt as my oldest has an egg allergy – I have to make the cake. And they always look like a 5th grader’s work.
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LOL, poor child, indeed.
For my daughter’s 2nd bday I through together a last minute playdate at Burger King.
Let me know how to set up a therapy fund.
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No worries, think of all the time and POUNDS you’ll be saving by ordering a cake.
here’s as fancy as I get http://www.flickr.com/photos/c_k_dorn/313270559/
The past two years, I’ve made a duck-shaped cake for Deuce since that’s his favorite animal. I am not exaggerating…it’s 3D and shaped like a duck w/ yellow icing, blue M&M eyes and an orange beak.
Bonus gets a ‘frog-colored’ cake from Kroger.
Tell me who’s the favorite?
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Just think of all the calories that you won’t HAVE to eat.
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See now, I am the EXACT opposite. Every year I pride myself on splurging for a divine bakery cake…one with a moving thomas train or a speaking darth vader head or an ice cream cake from coldstone, or something FAR more fabulous than what I could ever do (even if I WANTED to – which I do not). But this year, my husband was laid off on Jan. 15, so he made the cake himself and “decorated” it (if you want to call it that). And my 5 year could have cared less that his birthdat cake was home made (I affectionately refer to that cake as his “recession cake”!)
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When it came time to eat my son’s last birthday cake, all he wanted the cheap-o plastic construction equipment decorating the top.
Yeah, totally could have cared less about the delicious butter cream chocolate icing or the moist insides…
It’s been a MONTH and he still sleeps with the cement mixer.
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She will survive and you will too! I promise you! You may even be a little less stressed as a bonus!
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Okay, your cakes are BEAUTIFUL… seriously, you should see mine! Ha! I think I’m going to switch to cupcakes from now on though. It’s just so much less pressure.
what took you so long?
I think what she will remember, if they remember anything about those early birthdays, is your smiling face as you place the cake and candles before her!
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I know the feeling. I gave in and bought a cake for my son’s last birthday because I was too tired with my 1 month old to make his cake.
We have a tradition, though, and it ensured that even the store bought cake was decorated a bit at home.
Blueberries were on sale, so we bought a big thing of them and he got to put blueberries all over his birthday cake. We’ve done that for every cake so far. They’re his favorite fruit and rarely at a reasonable price. At $3 for 18 oz of blueberries it gets really hard to resist, and I miss them every time the price goes back up.
That said, I’m going to be making the cake for my oldest daughter’s birthday coming up soon. Thank goodness she wants something I already have a mold for – a butterfly cake. My decorating skills aren’t anything special, but I always have the kids help. Makes it messier but more fun.
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Thanks for the shout out…save some cake for me!
Loved reading this. Mom of three under age 8. I finally have caved on the cake making Made my youngest his 2 year old b-day cake last year. This year ordered him some spiderman cupcakes from SAMS. They were delicious. And I didn’t have to get all scary and swearing in the kitchen for hours, literally before the party. Guess what else I caved on? We had the party at fricking Chuck E. Cheese. It was awesome, Jack was in heaven. And I didn’t have to clean my house and make up games. Why can’t we figure this stuff out with the first kid? WHY?
I have been making my kids for the past few years, not to say I havent ordered one, but it makes for a great memory of moms homemade cakes. Great Cakes by the way
LOL – I’m the opposite. I just made my very first birthday cake from scratch last month after 8 years x 3 kids of store-ordered ones.
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[...] combined with a store-bought cake and the fact that I ONLY invited the kids from across the street rather than have 73 two-year-olds [...]