Caz
Look to the right... over on the sidebar, see that picture?  That is my hunny (I'm sure you guessed that, who else would I be lovied up to right?)  and today was his birthday :D   He turned 36 today.  Yesterday I had to pick up a few groceries  & antibiotics for him (he is going on week 2 with a chest infection, poor guy) so I slipped a cake mix (no I didn't do it homemade, sue me :P) into the cart and hid it in the pantry when I got home.  Can't have him figuring out what I'm up to or anything.

So this morning we took Mr. Merry to kindy for the day, and Frodo, Sam & I came home to bake a cake.  The boys had a ball getting to use the mixer & crack the eggs (ok, I had them crack them individually into bowls so we could inspect for shell before it went into the cake mix lol) And while the cake was in the oven they looked through the window to 'check on it' in shifts lol.   I did tell them the cake wasn't going to GO anywhere, but I guess they needed to make sure ;)   DH had the unmitigated gall to show up home for the day at 1130 and catch us in the act of cooling the cake so we could decorate it *sigh*.   Turns out he was very surprised though.. he's the kinda guy that doesn't think about his birthday unless you remind him, so he'd totally not realized it was today lol.   

We sent him off to get Merry so we could frost the cake...the results of which were hilarious.  First, cake mixes here in Aussie land come with these absurdly small foil packets of frosting that, on a good day, are barely big enough to cover the top of the cake (which is apparently what they think one should do)  So we had a cake with a thin layer of chocolate frosting only on top.. this would not do at all.  Online I hopped to find a recipe for an easy frosting... but I have no cocoa powder, so it will be a  two tone cake I guess.   Not an enormous problem I guess... since the cake itself is vanilla chocolate swirl ;)  

This is where the universe showed its' sense of humor.  After I frosted the sides of the cake with vanilla frosting.. I had 'plenty' left (remember that word, plenty, it will haunt me later in the story)  so I thought, hey!  why not colour this and do some fancy decorative ruffles around the top with the oh so cool cake decorating pastry ball I got from Tupperware ages ago, but never used?  Brilliant plan.  So I use the directions on the food colouring box to make a 'dark green'.  What it ACTUALLY created was more of a spew green... I added more and more green in hopes of a less vomitus colour, but alas had little luck.  

Ah well, it's the thought that counts right???  So I set about putting a cute little flourish around the top edge of the cake.. and got about 1/2 way around before I started having to struggle to get anything out of this damn tupperware contraption!  But I had PLENTY of frosting!?!?  At the expense of two sprained thumbs.. I manage to make it 2/3 of the way around the cake, but no more will ooze out.  I have been defeated by frosting.  But wait.. I bought white choccie chips to decorate it with.. and I have this fudge 'writing' icing.  Aha!  I scrawl a scraggly looking 'branch' (yeah that's what we're gonna call it) in the empty space where the spew green ruffle should be and then tell the boys.. it's a cherry blossom branch!  and they commence sprinkling white chocolate 'cherry blossoms' along the 'branch'  (these are all in quotes for a very good reason lol)  

The results are almost too pathetic to share, really.  But as I'm a fanatical fan  of CakeWrecks, so I know how important it is not to keep a horrible thing to ones self :D    With no further adeiu, I give you the birthday cake from hell.

Oh, did I forget to mention the really sad writing attempt on said cake??   Maybe I tried to block it out?  Funny thing is, the cake overall doesn't look as awful here as it really looked.. that's some scary shit.    

And here are the very adorable boys that I helped to make this creation.  They, of course, are sure it is a masterpiece and were VERY proud of it.  But they are small boys, who see past the awful penmanship, nauseating colour frosting and bad decorating.. to the fact that it is FROSTING!  And nothing frosting ever does, could possibly be BAD!!!!!    (and really.. I have to let them off the hook because *I* did most of it, they were too busy licking the beaters to care what the cake looked like!)

 

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5 Responses
  1. Wendy Says:

    Happy Birthday Strider!!!

    The cake looks delicious. I don't do homemade either; the boxes are so tasty and convenient!

    It looks like the boys had fun helping to make the cake. What a great way to include them in dad's birthday preparations!


  2. Awww, it doesn't look that bad! Sounds like it was a fun adventure all the way 'round!


  3. Desiree Says:

    It really doesn't look bad at all! Happy Birthday, Strider!


  4. Caz Says:

    LOL ty all for your kind words.. but really, the colour was far worse in person hehehe. Now what I should have taken a pic of was the homemade pizza we made for dinner *drool* those looked spectacularly gourmet :D


  5. Todd Says:

    That cake looks yummy!

    Happy Day of Birth Strider!