Ordinary People: Happy Birthday, River!

He's 2!

Let me start off by stating the oft heard comment that I can't believe my first born is 2 already. Unreal how fast that went, although I know 2 years is really a very short time, all things considered.
Anyway, the problem with birthdays is that from now until doomsday (probably a little exaggerated but you get my drift), I will be in charge of making birthday cakes. I like to make cakes. I like to make frosting. I like parties. But I don't really know that I love to make birthday cakes. They just look so tacky most of the time.
But to be perfectly honest, I feel some pressure, being a pastry chef and all, to make this fabulous birthday cake for my offspring, even though River didn't ask for it and probably wouldn't care if he got a cake at all. I caved to the pressure. And oh, it was painful!
River is really into tractors so I felt the need to make him a tractor cake. Not that I was looking forward to it.
The extent of my cake decorating knowledge is 1) frozen cakes frost better and 2) do crumb coats on the cake. And I padded that info with a quick web search of tractor cakes and floundered ahead.
My first problem was that cake thaws very quickly, especially when the cake is cut in small pieces. Also decorators frosting doesn't stick to cut portion of cake, frozen or not. So the crumb coat was pretty much a coat of crumbs in frosting that stuck on in blobs.
I was working myself into a lather with the cake, shoving it back into the frig to somehow pull itself together while I tried to work up enthusiasm to keep working on it. I'd tell you how I put the cake together but it clearly wasn't the best way so you might as well get tips from someone else. I would just tell you to use buttercream frosting. Or even canned frosting if you like. Just as long as it sticks to the cake.
I also made the mistake of bringing home one of my nephews as a treat for River (again, seriously, it's not like he asked me to do that so I'm not sure why I thought he'd really care. In fact, it was more for my benefit since I thought they'd play together and I could slave over in the cake in peace. Ha! As if that were possible!) Since Simon was at our house, River didn't want to nap.
The second mistake I made was scheduling River's 2 year check up for that afternoon. I fought with him to take his nap for a while til I realized I'd be leaving before too long to take him to the dr. so I just let him go. He was a ball of energy at the dr's office.
He finally went to sleep when we got home, so I resumed fussing with the cake. I was kinda wishing I could heave it into the trash except I wasn't going to pull off another cake with more icing by the time his party rolled around that night so I kept working at it.
About this time, my perky nephew bounded into the kitchen and started watching me. And bless his sweet little heart, he told me, "That is an awesome twactor!"
Well, this lowered my blood pressure. At least it looked like a tractor which was something. Simon thought it was cute. It tasted good. And hopefully it wouldn't fall over until River blew out the candles and I could quickly carve it up in which case, the fact that it was ugly wouldn't matter anyway.
I'm not sure exactly what I learned from this experience as far as whether birthday cake making is worth it or not. Someone was aghast at hearing that I was maybe just going to buy River's cake next year. I figured having a mother who wasn't a shrill witch on one's birthday was worth more than a lopsided tractor cake.
On the other hand, seeing Simon's obvious delight at the cake pleased me immensely. He didn't care if it was ugly. It was cake! And it was for a birthday party!
I will probably be making River another cake next year. Hopefully he'll be into owls or something fun like that though! :) I live in hope.
And one more thing - don't ask me for advice on cake making! Unless you want to know what not to do!