Monday, June 2nd @ 11pm: Tomorrow Sophie turns seven, and I am staying up way too late to bake her a cake. Not just a cake: a pink, 2 layered, confetti strewn, TIARA TOPPED, very PINK, cake.
Of course, like anything I’ve attempted lately, it’s not cooperating and being straightforward. Or, maybe it is and I’m just the one with the difficult temper. The first strike against me came with pan sizes. Now, until I uncovered this fucking gluten problem, I was an awesome baker. My cookies — you want them. Cake? I rocked it. Mini cupcakes, pie crust, biscuits — I was your girl. But I am a little sour grapes over the whole no flour thing still and haven’t done very much gluten free baking. Apparently, I’d rather stomp and pout. Anyway, that all said, do you have a 6" cake pan? I needed an 8" and a 6" to make the layered cake. I’ve got a few 9" and some niiiiiice 8", but 6"? No. I did scrounge up a (probably) 7" springform pan, so I’m using that. Also, since I don’t bake much anymore, my baking powder is past the Best By date. I don’t have cornstarch, so I have to use the old stuff instead of making more.
Okay, the challenge of live blogging baking is that no actual baking gets done. I’m going to get this in the oven and come back.
11:15 ish: w00t
Cake is in the oven, and it’s so cute and pink. I’m worried that there wasn’t much batter to go between the two pans, and that my baking powder is not activating on the liquid side. Hopefully the heat side will kick in and I won’t end up with pink hockey pucks. But, seriously, so long as the frosting is good, the cake part can be less than stellar.
11:40: The cake rose! It smells really quite good and is almost done. I think that frosting will have to wait until tomorrow. I’ll be back at 5:15 with coffee, butter, powdered sugar, and more pink food coloring.
June 3rd, 5:39 am: ugh. Happy Birthday Sophie!
The sun is coming up. My kitchen windows face east and I can see the pretty orange and pink sky through gaps in the tree branches. I’m going to get more coffee and find the butter and make pink frosting.
5:45: How does a person LOSE a set of measuring cups, exactly?
5:48: By using them the night before; washing and drying them, and then putting them away in the fridge.
6:03: Remember to not turn the Kitchen Aid on too high right after adding powdered sugar to the bowl. It takes awhile to clean that shit up.
6:10: Feel good and sorry for yourself because you can’t eat any of the butter/powdered sugar/milk/vanilla/pink! frosting. Turn on some music and realize you need to haul ass to get the kids up and out on time. Thank Maude that there isn’t too much work email to take care of and be careful to not get butter on the MacBook. Wonder why the shift away from first person and get over that.
6:18: Time to frost the cake. Crossing legs for good luck, because fingers are busy.
6:20: I am saying VERY BAD WORDS because last night I put the cakes on plates and wrapped them up and left them on top of the washer and now the cakes are fucking STUCK to the plates. I’m going to see if I can use a big knife to get them off in one piece.
6:23: The cakes look like shit! But I have a magic little Martha icing spatula thing and I will camouflage and use extra sprinkles.
6:27: Birthday Girl is up and opening cards. Heh!
6:29: It sucks to frost a cake with a messed up top. Crumbs get in the frosting and I might be about to cry. More coffee!
7:00 The cake is done and the end result looks like Sophie helped me much more than she actually did. She DID help, though, with the confetti and the TIARA placement. She was way too excited to wait to open her present, so I gave it to her, straight out of my closet all unwrapped. I made her close her eyes. She got a Nintendo DS, a black one which is supercool. And, now that we are totally late, I have to light a fire under a few tiny asses.
7:13: Nathan is pissed off at me for not waking him up at 5:30. Today one of the video games we’ve got on reserve comes out, and even though the store won’t open for hours, I suck for not waking him up at the crack of crack. He will not be reasoned with, and is hiding under a quilt on his bed. I am having some good luck though, with my hair. I took a shower after yoga last night and skipped both product and blow dryer. This morning I woke up, and while I’m not at all one to brag, my hair was looking kinda fabulous. I’m sure that by lunch it will be all flat and crappy looking, but so far I haven’t even had to brush it. Also? I found five freshly laundered bux in my pocket. Lunch money!
7:36: Nathan is not mad anymore, but my hair already looks like hell.
7:48: Birthday girl still in PJs, Lex already walked to school, but other three are huddled around Soph watching her play BrainAge. Sophie has a tummy ache. Uh huh.
8:06: Headed out the door to take the kids to school, which starts in 9 minutes.
8:29: John is back from work, which means I can leave and go drop off the cooking oil I forgot to send to school with the rest of the ingredients for Sophie’s class to bake birthday muffins (her dad is taking off work to come and help) and also VOTE!
/liveblogging
that’s a cake marathon! liveblogging = sanity , no? Happy Birthday, Sophie!!
nice job on the cake, seriously
fantastic cake! happy birthday sophie!
HeatherK ~ YES, blogging saves! most definitely
furiousBall ~thanks, seriously!
mamadaisy ~ thanks! Sophie had a really fun day. 🙂
CUTE! Suzi’s birthday was last week and we had a tiara cake for her. But we got a professional to bake it, which would explain why it looked so good. I shudder to think what might have happened if I’d tried to do it myself. Lots of crying.
Quite possibly the cutest cake (and post) ever.
Clicked over from citymama because I thought you were at a Cake concert. Was a little disappointed until I saw that fantabulously awesome cake. way to go! It looks great.
Mike
Awww I loved this post. You’re such a good Mama.
Here’s being a good mama: I let my kids bake their own cakes! This takes a heroic effort on my part.
Why?
Because when they’re done, the kitchen looks like Hurricane Andrew sped through it. Crap all over the counters and floor, sink full of dishes, and everything is covered in frosting.
But, the kids are happy. And every now and then, I can take the extra ten minutes to clean up, just so I can see those sticky grins on their faces!
Katrin
co-author, Mothers Need Time Outs, Too
http://www.momstimeouts.com