Monday, December 29, 2008

I bake my cake and eat it too

I like to bake and decorate cakes. I'm no Martha Stewart by any means, but I'm loving baking cakes for the kids' birthdays. I did NOT bake the cake for Meg's first birthday and got a tongue lashing from my sister-in-law because of it. But look at the gorgeous cake she got for that party:

Yep, I'm not that good. I buy my cake pans thru Wilton and I love them. It's a labor of love let me tell you. So, Elmo was the first cake we made that we decorated ourselves. I have this photo from Drew's 2nd birthday (Meg's 2nd birthday was before my love of the digital camera):
The red is a tough color to get right. Trust me.

This is the first cake I made sans pan for Drew's first birthday. Not my best work, but like I said, I'm no Martha:

For Meg's 3rd birthday, we went with Cinderella, but again, that was before my love of the digital camera so if you REALLY want to see it, I can scan it and post it another time. However, for her 4th birthday, I caved and ordered a cake from the local grocery store with Ariel on it. Drew was one month old people. It was a gorgeous cake. For her 5th birthday, which was a little girlie fairy party, I made a cake with a design I stole from the mittens she was wearing that year:
For Drew's 3rd birthday, I went on a limb and made Bob the Builder. It took me 45 minutes just to tint the 7 frosting colors, and about 2 hours to decorate it. But it was AWESOME:

Meg's 6th and 7th birthday cakes were fun to make. For her 6th I made Hello Kitty from a template I Googled, and her 7th is this great flower pan that will last a long time and I can make so many different ways:



Annie and Izzie got their first cakes last year. Their party was a massive event, combined with a surprise 70th birthday party for my mother-in-law. The color schemes I used reflected how we dressed them at the time:
This weekend I tackled another cake for Drew's birthday. I made Spiderman. Spiderman had me cursing and threatening not to finish decorating him. The red didn't work right; it was too pinky. Did I mention I do all my decorating with frosting shoved into plastic bags? Yep. I'm insane. But, Spiderman rocked the house yesterday:
Since I have 3 more cakes to make in the next month, I made a little trip to Williams Sonoma today and purchased their cake decorating set, complete with a funky plunger tube thingy for the frosting and ten metal tips. Because guess what I'm making in 2 1/2 weeks? Elmo. Oh, he's easy after making him twice before. I'm also making Abby Cadabby. You know, the cute little pink and purple fairy from Sesame Street? I promise pictures when she's done. I'm also making Meg a butterfly or a fairy with the butterfly pan I just bought.

So there you have it. All the cakes I've baked in the last 8 years. It's fun, even if it causes me to swear like a sailor and throw bags of frosting in the sink.

5 comments:

Cass. Just Curious said...

Would it be okay if I just delegated all Lexi's cake making to you? It's in July...the 29th. Sound good?

creative kerfuffle said...

holy crap. first of all i can't remember the cakes for each of my kids bdays, and i only have the two kids. i've made some of them or the hubs has but not one looked like your gorgeous creations : ) srsly impressed over here. srsly. we usually give the kids a choice, store cake or homemade. depends on their mood which they'll go for. you should totally take that up as a side gig and sell them. for real. ace of cakes (my hero) should watch out! : )

Anonymous said...

Your cakes are great. You should start your own cake business in your area. Rest assured they will never end up on www.cakewrecks.com

Robyn said...

Before I got to the end of your post, I was SCREAMING "buy real decorating bags Kristin!"

Glad to see that you did --
you deserve them.

Your kids are going to have the best memories of their birthdays.

Anonymous said...

Sooo....what would I have to do to get you to make Morgan's 3rd birthday cake?

Your cakes look amazing!! I would love to be able to do that, but I have zero talent when it comes to anything in the kitchen!!