Hip, hip, hoor-oh-no!
You know I am lousy at making his birthday special. I have, as usual, been trying it pick up clues and figure out the perfect gift but I am just so bad at this. I finally settled on two sweaters (because he did say he needed new sweaters for work), a Packers jersey (sure he wanted that for the game he went to, but I am sure he might still wear it?), and some Packers slippers. Respectable enough, but nothing creative or meaningful. Sigh!
But after all of your compliments on Alex's b-day cake, I decided that I could at least try to design a cake for Seth. He knows planning parties is something I love to do, so maybe a cake would help him to know how much I wanted his b-day to be special?
I usually use cake mixes when I am trying to decorate, because they are super easy to work with BUT I don't like boxed cake mixes. I prefer home made so I decided to make one of my yummy recipes this time. BAD idea! They wouldn't come out of the pans. They refused to be carved or flattened and they crumbled everywhere. Big chunks were missing all over the place. I had to do a lot of patch work with icing and a good thick crumb coat to even try to salvage the cakes. Then, since I couldn't get the crumbly cakes to carve and I needed to carve a cheesehead, I decided to use rice krispie treats for the cheesehead. Only problem was that I didn't have any rice krispies, so I smashed together 6 of the packaged ready made treats that I put in the kids' lunches and then carved them into a triangle. A little harder to work with than warm treats, but thankfully it worked. However, the cake issues took so much of my time that I then had to cut corners on the decorations, including free handing everything. I was so nervous because I am not artistic at all, but in the end I am pretty happy with how the cake turned out. Is it what I had in mind when I started? No, not exactly, but I ran into a lot of obstacles and I just said a prayer and kept trudging through and I am very happy just to have a cake at all.
Poor Chloe spent the day in a swimsuit, eating Doritos, while I sold my soul to this dang cake.
I should also mention that I am officially no longer listening to my sister. After that last cake she had built me up so high that I thought I was invincible and I was opening cake shops in my mind. I remembered today that I am NOT a cake decorator.
I do hope that Seth will know though that I was so happy to be making this for him. I may still suck at b-day shopping in a retail store but I wanted him to have something that he knew I put my heart and soul into.
Happy Birthday Cheesehead! I love you!
* Seth's still at work so hopefully he doesn't read this from work and spoil all his b-day surprises.
Post Edit: He liked his cake. As soon as he came in he took a picture and texted it to his boss, a born and raised Wisconsin boy. He says he liked his presents, too. Yay! Unfortunately Alex got sick (turned out to be just a hunger pang that went away after dinner) so we didn't get to go out but we will have to go somewhere fun tomorrow.
Here is the birthday boy, at 34!
When I said say cheese, Alyssa had to point to the cheese.
So we tried again and Alex pointed to it so enthusiastically that his hand vanished.
Here is the birthday boy, at 34!
When I said say cheese, Alyssa had to point to the cheese.
So we tried again and Alex pointed to it so enthusiastically that his hand vanished.
7 comments:
I SO could not even tell you struggled on that cake! It looks AMAZING! I think you better open up the cake shop after all :)
I say open a cake shop! As my dad would say " you are highly creative" love the cake! I have yet to make my hubby's bday fantastic...goal next year for sure! Happy 34 Seth. Didn't remember your bdays were so close together. Are you baking a cake for yourself as well?
Um...I dont know what your talking about-the cake looks fabulous! I had the same problem though, the last couple of birthdays, I made homeade cakes and they wouldnt come out of the pans and crumbled as well, so I totally relate there. But, yours still looked all put together, not like a gaping hole like mine ended up! Great job! Your hired!
Happy Birthday, S-Man! It looks like your family pampered you quite well.
Julie, I think you did a fabulous job on the cake. I could tell right away what you were going for. It's definitely worthy of Cake Boss. You even were smart enough to do what they do for most of their shapes and use Rice Krispie treats to most the cheese. Love the pictures of Daddy with his kiddos. I can't believe how long Chloe's hair is getting. No fair, since Violet is sporting a really awesome mullet (or even a rat tail).
Cake turned out wonderful. I have heard, however, that if you freeze the cake before cutting/decorating it that can help prevent it from falling apart during the decorating. I've never tried doing that myself, however, so take the hint for what it's worth. I have had similar experiences and totally empathize. One pathetic one just kind of flowed apart with the top layer totally sliding off the bottom trailing a layer of crumbs into infinity. Yours turned out really adorable.
Happy Birthday, Seth! With that family of yours it had to be wonderful.
Julie, I did freeze the cakes. Usually that works like a charm but this cake was dense and gooey and freezing it almost made it worse. It got sticky and then instead of just crumbs falling, huge chunks were falling off. Thank goodness for lots of frosting because it filled in many gaping holes. The cake was yummy though after we scraped off a layer or two of frosting.
The cake looks great! I'm always impressed with what people can do! Don't sell yourself short - you have some serious skills!!
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