Fourth Birthday

4th-making-a-life_4I really don’t know where the time went. One day he was a baby and the next he is 4. When I was in the midst of diapers, nap-time, breastfeeding, and spoon feeding I though that the baby days would never end. Days dragged on and I waited not so patiently for my husband to get home so that I could get a few moments to myself. Now with a preschooler and a child in grade 2 life revolves around school drop off and pick-ups. We will however, continue to celebrate each passing year as it marks the growth that we have all achieved and of course take loads of photographs.

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Grass Block Cake

I knew that it was inevitable at some point my kids would be talking about something I knew nothing about. That day has arrived. Minecraft has invaded. I still do not understand it completely, but my oldest loves it. He looks forward to computer class once a week when he gets to play it and the rest of the week he talks about it. 

On his birthday, I made him a grass block cake. In Minecraft, everything is built from blocks, and apparently, grass comes in blocks too. The cake is made from two 8×8 chocolate cakes frosted with chocolate icing, and the top is frosted with green icing. I used the Wilton grass tip (233) to make the green icing look like grass.

Happy 3rd Birthday

At the end of August my youngest turned three just a couple of weeks after I had surgery. We still managed to celebrate multiple times. When my parents were here we had a little family celebration complete with store-bought cupcakes. On his actual birthday we had a store-bought cake. There isn’t anything wrong with buying cakes from the store but I use every occasion as a reason to bake.

The baker in me was having a really hard time but I was not in any state to be baking. I was still recovering from brain surgery. But that didn’t go on forever and when I was feeling better we threw a birthday party/Timmy the tumour eviction party. We asked friends for donations to the Brain Tumour Foundation instead of birthday gifts. That might seem mean but we have so many toys he really doesn’t need anything else. Can you find him in toy mountain?

The theme for the party was robots because now that I have a titanium plate in my head I am part robot. But really it’s what my little boy asked for. In keeping with the theme we made a robot pinata. Unfortunately when I took the robot outside for a photo-shoot one of my assistants closed the front door which locked behind us. Even more unfortunate I had to call my husband at work 45 minutes away to come and let us in the house. It was just before lunch and the kiddies were hungry thankfully my husband rescued us before we needed to smash the robot for lunch.

By the time the party happened I was four weeks post surgery and I figured that I was fine to start baking. Which I would have been if I chose to make a less detailed cake. After completing the robot cake I needed a nap.

The birthday boy said that it was the best day of his life and of course that makes all of the effort worthwhile.

The Big 5

My oldest turned 5 yesterday, and to celebrate I made this cake for gezzert.  It was a little harder than I though it would be.  I printed out the number 5 on regular printer paper and used toothpicks to stick it into the cake.  The frosting was semi-hard at this point so the paper didn’t stick to the cake.  Then I thought I would just shake the sprinkles on and the cake would be done.  Instead I had to spoon them on, and push them into the frosting.  I was wondering if the frosting should still be wet?  But not too wet because the colouring of the sprinkles would run.  If anyone knows a better way please let me know.   Then  I tied water balloons to wooden skewers, stuck them in and voila.  The birthday boy was very concerned that the heat from the candles was going to pop the balloons, rest assured that didn’t happen.  Now who wants cake….