Confessions of a (Former) Cake Anxietist

A few months ago I confessed to you all my extreme anxiety about what sort of cake to make for Sophie’s first birthday. While the resulting cake and cupcakes turned out well, the distress and mess they caused me took a toll! Last year for Joshua’s 3rd birthday I made this over-the-top train cake and it was also a huge stressfest. So this year, as his fourth birthday loomed, I decided I was not going to sweat it, for two reasons: 1) We were having two parties – so twice the stress and 2) He’s four years old and generally thinks any cake with icing is fantastic! He decided on a Veggie Tales birthday party theme, so I found a really easy Bob & Larry Cake to make. But in order to make it even easier, I decided to – gasp! – use store-bought frosting. I know, I know, I should be ashamed of myself. But I’m not, because you know what? I wasn’t making that frosting for Joshua, I was making it for ME. I absolutely LOVE that stuff! But it’s not my darn birthday and Joshua thinks all frosting is fabulous, so, I decided to give it up. Besides, I eat way too much of it while I am making it, and it creates a HUGE mess in my small kitchen, which adds to the STRESS. SO – no homemade frosting this time. I am glad I made that decision in hindsight, cause it took me FOR-EV-AH to mix the red-orange icing for Bob the Tomato from Veggie Tales. I knew this would be a challenge so I bought the fancy Wilton food coloring. And here’s how Bob & Larry turned out:

Not too bad eh? I thought it was cute and Joshua pronounced it “cool”. I was going to repeat it for his second party that we had for his buddies (Bobby and I both have big families, so we just can’t have everyone over at once!), but the night before the party he informed me that he didn’t want another Veggie cake, he wanted a Thomas cake for this party! Now the old me would have flown into a cake-makin’ tizzy, but I just calmly said “ok”! I’d done a Thomas cake for his 2nd birthday and still had the cake topper. I didn’t want to make the exact same cake that I had made then, and I only had a few hours notice for this switch, so I did the EASIEST thing I could think of! Here it is in all its glory:

Nothing fabulous, but it did the job! Joshua had a great birthday and I was not a nervous, icing-and-powdered-sugar-covered wreck the night before either party!

So, I am officially pronouncing myself “recovered” from cake-makin’ anxiety! And I’ve discovered it’s a whole lot nicer here on the sane side of the kitchen counter!