S and I are complete idiots sometimes. We have the best of intentions, but when it comes down to it, we're like Barney Fife.
It all started when I was thinking about what kind of cake I wanted for Julia's birthday party. If you know me, you know that I focus on the food FIRST! Birthday = cake to me. And this is the first birthday party where I've actually picked out a cake. My mom usually made me a cake, but it was a 9 x 13 cake that she didn't even write on or decorate. I looooove cake, and I loooooove that I have a little girl, and I missed out on really cool cakes when I was younger. Put all that together, and I start lusting after a princess castle cake. I even went to an upscale bakery's website and found the magical cake!
Then I commiserate with Leigh Ann, who is doing a Cat in the Hat theme for Waylon's party. She was talking about making it and searching for cake pans. And in her search for Cat in the Hat stuff, she sees a romantic princess castle cake set. And it says on the box that everything needed is in the box. There is lots of Georgian encouragement that we as parents can make this cake.
I tell S about this castle set, and - due to watching one too many Food Network cake challenges and his slight craziness intermixed with being a design minor in college - he is stoked about making a princess castle cake.
We buy the princess castle cake set and immediately find out that we need a ton of stuff that's not included in the box. The box contains plastic turrets. That's it. We have to get specific icing tips, cake sparkles, specific cake pans, dowels, cake boards, decorating bags, icing dye, and I'm forgetting a whole bunch of other stuff. All told, all of this costs close to $200. And we're not even sure we can pull it off.
One of my friends suggests that we do a sample. After all, we'll learn from our first attempt. And if it turns out REALLY horrible, we just ditch the whole stupid idea and buy it from a bakery.
Last weekend we did a sample. It turned out pretty bad. We scaled back the castle quite a bit. So much so that the door is twice as high as the cake. The turrets wouldn't stay upright. The frosting is supposed to be WHITE, but with the vanilla it turns slightly yellow. What princess would want a slightly yellow castle? S did okay with the flowers, but it was his first attempt ever to make flowers with icing. And the cake itself was kinda uneven.
We did learn a few things, and I think it's a go to try to make the 'big' version for her party. I'm leery about this working, though, and we may end up getting a bakery cake at the last minute.
Know that we're making it out of love, Miss J. Let's just hope it doesn't fall over before we cut into it. That would make an exceptionally funny story though!
1 comment:
What fun that you're doing it together. I was never much of a party person until I started planning my little ones' friend parties. Now I try to be as creative as possible, even when it means I'm spending tons of time on something that probably would have been cheaper to purchase. I guess as we get older there is less to be creative about, so we have to grab at creative moments when we can.
Good luck!
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