mmm...cake

If you recall my earlier post where I was set to conquer my funk by getting creative in the kitchen, I figured I'd show you the fruits of my labors. After waivering back and forth between a Thomas-themed party and a lots of heavy machinery for Ryan's second birthday, I decided on the latter since I felt more confident that it would be a hit. In fact, I was pretty convinced when Ryan got his hands on a Birthday Express catalog, pointed to the backhoe centerpiece, and announced "dat one!" was his favorite. Good to know, except that it was too late to order from Birthday Express. Yup, Procrastinating Mom strikes again. But who knew that Party City wouldn't have anything in keeping with the theme, not even any lousy Bob the Builder napkins?!

But I digress. While improvisation compensated for my decorating failures, Hershey's Special Dark baker's cocoa produced the richest, fudgiest construction site I could have imagined. As much as I would have loved to spend a few more hours cruising the web for cake recipes to create from scratch, sanity prevailed (for once) and I went with your basic Duncan Hines marble with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. I will say, however, that my time invested in learning about crumb layers did pay off.

Can we talk about the giddy feeling of joy I felt while standing in line at Wegman's at 11:15 on Saturday night and spying containers of chocolate candy rocks stacked on top of the magazine rack? Each piece irregularly shaped and candy-coated with shells that looked like they had been dredged from a canyon near Yellowstone, I couldn't have asked for a better complement for my backhoes and bulldozers.

My first stab at working with rolled fondant. I had delusions of grandeur, with 6 designs for unique construction zone signs to ring the cake. After I learned that edible markers are far less reliable than my trusted Sharpie, I scaled things back a notch and made only 2 detour signs. I do think my Pepperidge Farm French Vanilla Pirouettes are pretty nifty stand-ins for sewer pipes though.

I originally began looking for construction vehicles specifically designed to serve as cake decorations, but the few I encountered looked pretty cheesy and would never hold up to playtime at the dinner table after the cake was served. Instead, I settled on a pack of Matchbox trucks that I found at Target on clearance (thanks, Amber!). More realistic---and durable---for the boy who asks me to repeatedly drive by the backhoe owned by his school's landscaping company.

All in all, a pretty satisfactory endeavor to snap me out of my funk. Maybe next year I can plan far enough in advance to be able to place that Birthday Express order so I don't have to be worrying about napkins when I'm working on that fondant.

Comments

[Lillian Simmons]

From one cake-lover to another...

Bravo!

(any leftovers?)

[Amber Strocel]

Wow! That is a fabulous cake. I stand in awe of your decorating abilities.

[ModernMom]

Oh I love that you did "dat one" Looks perfect:)

[christy]

I'm impressed. I've never tried to use/make/frost with fondant before. I think it looks fabulous!

[Laura]

Thank you everyone for your sweet comments! I really wish I had more time to spend in the kitchen on a regular basis, although maybe it's for the best given my lack of willpower.