More Cake!
Tonight we had some friend over for dinner and we celebrated Leda's birthday. Not the blow-out we had for her first birthday, but a fun time none-the-less.
This morning started off with me attempting to make a cake from scratch. I decided a yellow cake with creamy butter frosting. Should be easy enough, right? Brock decided we could "kick it up a notch" by throwing some blackberry sauce into the mix - a little "marbling" if you will. I probably should have told him to back off! ;-)
I made the cake, poured it into the pans and Brock mixed in the blackberries. I put the cakes in the oven and turned to clean up and make the icing, but not before I let Leda try a little cake batter off the mixing beater. She moved it around in her mouth for a second or two, thought about it and said, "Yum Mommy, More Cake!" I let her have a few more licks and then back to making the icing.
Leda helped by trying to get every last granule of powered sugar out of the bottom of the bowl after I had added it into the mixing bowl. I figured there was no way this child was going down for a nap now, so after I finished making the icing, I let her lick the spatula. I mean, what good is being a kid if you can't lick the spatula or the bowl? (Mommy got the bowl!)
Once the cake cooled off, I began to assemble. The cakes got a little dome on them, so trying to figure out which one to put top side down was a little difficult. Both left a bit of a gap between the plate and the side of the cake. Brock suggested we use a little of the blackberry sauce in the middle between the two layers, and I thought the only way that the layers would stick to one another is if I put a little icing in there two. Bad move - should have left the blackberry sauce out of the mix altogether!
It squished out the sides. It made the top layer very slippery on top - trying to ice this thing was like trying to walk across an icy pond in shoes - ones without grip! I had to stick toothpicks through the cake layers just so I could ice the darn thing.
And the icing, well it turned purple on the sides from the blackberry sauce. I thought this thing was gonna look awful - white on top, blackberry purple on the sides, with purple tube frosting for lettering - two different color purples, mind you! Leda yelled, "Purple!" as if she didn't expect anything less!
An hour in the refrigerator, I was able to ice the rest of the cake, put the decorations on top and it didn't look too bad - a little lopsided, but as it turns out, only I knew how horrible it actually looked!
Not the icing fest that last year was - Leda bearly needed to be cleaned up! Good thing I let her eat the icing off the spatula so I had an icing shot this year!
And, turns out, the cake wasn't bad at all - the blackberry sauce didn't do much but turn the cake blue in places. I've been told I will be making all the cakes from now on. I will have to see about that! I certainly won't be using blackberry sauce anytime soon! ;-)
It was a good evening. Leda had fun with Paige and the Gabb and Shier kids and she got more Dora and Diego stuff! Throw in a little Finding Nemo on the TV, an excellent prime rib dinner by Brock and good friends to share it with, it was an excellent Two Year Old birthday party!
Can't wait to see what we get to do for her third birthday party!
This morning started off with me attempting to make a cake from scratch. I decided a yellow cake with creamy butter frosting. Should be easy enough, right? Brock decided we could "kick it up a notch" by throwing some blackberry sauce into the mix - a little "marbling" if you will. I probably should have told him to back off! ;-)
I made the cake, poured it into the pans and Brock mixed in the blackberries. I put the cakes in the oven and turned to clean up and make the icing, but not before I let Leda try a little cake batter off the mixing beater. She moved it around in her mouth for a second or two, thought about it and said, "Yum Mommy, More Cake!" I let her have a few more licks and then back to making the icing.
Leda helped by trying to get every last granule of powered sugar out of the bottom of the bowl after I had added it into the mixing bowl. I figured there was no way this child was going down for a nap now, so after I finished making the icing, I let her lick the spatula. I mean, what good is being a kid if you can't lick the spatula or the bowl? (Mommy got the bowl!)
Once the cake cooled off, I began to assemble. The cakes got a little dome on them, so trying to figure out which one to put top side down was a little difficult. Both left a bit of a gap between the plate and the side of the cake. Brock suggested we use a little of the blackberry sauce in the middle between the two layers, and I thought the only way that the layers would stick to one another is if I put a little icing in there two. Bad move - should have left the blackberry sauce out of the mix altogether!
It squished out the sides. It made the top layer very slippery on top - trying to ice this thing was like trying to walk across an icy pond in shoes - ones without grip! I had to stick toothpicks through the cake layers just so I could ice the darn thing.
And the icing, well it turned purple on the sides from the blackberry sauce. I thought this thing was gonna look awful - white on top, blackberry purple on the sides, with purple tube frosting for lettering - two different color purples, mind you! Leda yelled, "Purple!" as if she didn't expect anything less!
An hour in the refrigerator, I was able to ice the rest of the cake, put the decorations on top and it didn't look too bad - a little lopsided, but as it turns out, only I knew how horrible it actually looked!
Not the icing fest that last year was - Leda bearly needed to be cleaned up! Good thing I let her eat the icing off the spatula so I had an icing shot this year!
And, turns out, the cake wasn't bad at all - the blackberry sauce didn't do much but turn the cake blue in places. I've been told I will be making all the cakes from now on. I will have to see about that! I certainly won't be using blackberry sauce anytime soon! ;-)
It was a good evening. Leda had fun with Paige and the Gabb and Shier kids and she got more Dora and Diego stuff! Throw in a little Finding Nemo on the TV, an excellent prime rib dinner by Brock and good friends to share it with, it was an excellent Two Year Old birthday party!
Can't wait to see what we get to do for her third birthday party!
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