For Abby's second birthday we bought a cake from the grocery store bakery. It was a $40.oo cake that was dry and over iced, for an extra $10 they jammed a plastic Shrek and Donkey figure on it. Well that was the first and last time for that I figured. No way was I going to be ripped off again. Or allow my mother to be ripped off she since actually purchased said Shrek cake. Wilton was still in busness pumping out cake pans shaped like whatever the kids found popular these days. There was no way it would cost $50.oo to make our own cake. We thought anyway. Then we had to buy the cake pan. Dora of course. All the little girls are crazy about Dora aren't they. So Mom got the pans and she would work that magic I remember so fondly from my childhood. I don't even want to guesstimate what the total bill was for this cake. Or should I say cakes.... my Mom has a hard time with portion control, so she actually sculpted three identical Dora cakes.
Here's two of the set. She did an great job didn't she? Just like I remembered.
A few weeks ago out of the blue Abby started talking about her birthday. More specifically that she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake for her birthday. This love of Strawberry Shortcake was news to me. She doesn't have or ask for Strawberry Shortcake toys. Not like Dora or My Little Pony. I was baffled, but if that's what she wanted well I'd do my best to deliver. There are two styles of Strawberry Shortcake pans, the vintage one from when I was a little girl in the 80's and the current model. I liked the vintage one better, but Abby liked them both so it would be whatever Ebay could get me the best deal on. I eventually scored the newer version at about half what you'd pay in store. Yeah me.
Mom called this morning to suggest we do a practice cake today. She had the day off so she would come out and decorate the cake I was going to bake in the pan before she got here. At least that's what I thought was going to happen. I may have changed my mind if I had only known she was going to make me do all the work. The pan I bought didn't come with the decorating instructions, but Wilton makes them available online so I printed them out and we were good to go. We were about half way in when we agreed that the Wilton instructions made no logical sense if you were making your cake at home. If you were working in a commercial kitchen with countless piping bags, tips and mixing bowls at your disposal then it would probably be fine. So in a bold move we decided to forget the instructions and figure it out ourselves.
That led us to this stage. It was starting to come together, but I was still concerned about the outcome. Mom was an excellent teacher, but then I seemed to have a remarkable natural talent so that must have made it easier for her.
This is what we declared the finished product. Not bad for my first half assed attempt. There's some things we'd like to change for the big day. Like making her shirt a colour instead of it being white.
Abby loved it and that was the most important thing. I loved having my Mom teach me to do something for my kids that I loved her doing for me. What a great way to spend the day.
Having all that cake in the house, I knew, wouldn't be a good thing so we invited Papa and Grandma Linda over to help us eat some of it. It was a practice birthday party for Abby. She actually made us sing to her and everything. Everybody's trying to eat healthier so they all had these tiny slices of cake so there's still way too much in the fridge. Anybody want to come over for cake and coffee? Just let me know.
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