Let's Face It

I may not be the first to jump into something new but ultimately I do believe it's a good idea to try out a new skill (within reason - I mean I'm not going to jump out of an airplane). Well - as you know I have this precious little daughter. She turned six on Monday and I wanted to make her a special cake. Flashback to when she turned three. I attempted to make a butterfly cake for her before giving up and placing cupcakes in the shape of the number three. (Incredibly creative I know.) But as any good mom would do I decided to try again. After all it's been three years. I was sure I'd magically gained some cake decorating talent in the interim. I looked on the Internet and decided to attempt a castle cake. Seemed easy enough. I was going to do a two layered strawberry cake (because it's pink), frost it white and use pink frosting for the piping. The turrets would be ice cream cones dipped in white baking chocolate (aka almond bark) and topped with some marshmallows to finish off the effect. Ahhh! It was so simple in my mind. I had visions of a perfectly cute princess castle. And then I started.

UURRCH! (Crash noise.)

What happens when the cake does not cooperate? Yes...I blame the cake. First, I couldn't get the cake out of the pan. The bottom layer was somewhat mangled. That's okay...I'll just fill in the holes with frosting and other goop. Second layer on. Now we're going somewhere. Or maybe not. I cut out some corner notches so the turret cones could fit notched into the cake while resting on the bottom layer. More crumbling. Would frosting be my saving grace? It's a magic cover up isn't it? UURRCH!! Frosting became my nightmare. The cake crumbled at every move of my knife. I even chilled the cake like I read to do. Didn't help. To make matters worse my magic cover up was almost all gone. I still had over half a naked cake. OH....the PAIN. My poor little girl. What would she do when she saw IT? Scream in fear? Wouldn't you? It's time to face it....a cake decorator I'm not. I'm actually okay with that. I mean I feel bad for Kaylin but there are worse things in life than not having a shaped cake. So...how did I recover from this disaster? I went to the store and bought another cake mix. This time I left it in the pan. I put the turrets in the corners to give it some semblance of being a castle (which, by the way, she recognized right away), frosted the cake and added some sprinkles. TA-DA!!!!

It may not have been a thing of beauty but she loved the turrets and she loved the cake. Well - let's be honest she was really more interested in the presents anyway.

So - to make a long story even longer - I think I vindicated myself somewhat the next day. I took treats to Kaylin's kindergarten class. They were Rice Krispy treats cut into the shape of butterflies. Layered on top was some more of the white chocolate, licorice strings for the antennae, and more sprinkles to decorate the wings. Even though they looked a little messy they came out really cute. One little girl even told me that I was the "bestest decorator ever". Gotta love 5 year olds!!! And Kaylin thanked me over and over again for her butterflies.

I think the moral of the story, at least for me, is to stick with what I know....or....practice weeks in advance!!