Cake Makin’ with a Manic Mama

It has recently hit me that in less than two months my baby girl will be ONE YEAR OLD! Aaah!! All the recent birthday hoopla has gotten me thinking about that milestone for her, but I’ll be honest, I’ve mostly been obsessing thinking about the birthday cake. I am one of those mothers who feels that I must personally make my children’s birthday cakes or my Mom’s Club membership card will be revoked. Now, I don’t feel that all mothers should do this, just me. Why? I can’t answer that question! But I’ve already started to get b-day cake anxiety about Sophie’s big day. First of all, I have no idea what kind of cake I should make. I mean, she’s gonna be one, so she’s not really into anything yet. For Joshua’s first birthday, I made him this sailboat cake, because his daddy races sailboats.

sailboat-cake.jpg

Not too shabby, huh? It was easy – just a rectangle cake cut into pieces to form the sailboat. The hardest part was the icing. Although I do make a very tasty buttercream icing, I’m not much of a decorator. Still, it doesn’t help me with what to make Sophie. I mean, the only thing I’m really into is reading and blogging, and I am not gonna make a book or laptop-shaped cake for a one-year-old-girl.

By Joshua’s second birthday, he was into Thomas the Tank Engine, so I borrowed a cake topper from my sister-in-law and copied a picture of one she had done before, which resulted in this cake:

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Nothing too fancy, but again the icing was really good!

Then for his third birthday, even though I had a three-month-old baby as well, I for some reason attempted birthday cake suicide. Joshua was (and is) still really into trains, and my mom had gotten a train cake pan for Christmas from a friend. So, I decided to try the train cake. The problem with this is I had never actually seen the cake pan until the day before the party, and I was planning on making it that night. When I saw the pan and the accompanying picture, I nearly passed out. There were NINE train cars, decorated with all sorts of confections – gumdrops, licorice, jelly beans, etc. And there was like zero icing, so I wouldn’t be able to get away with my “mmm isn’t the icing good” trick.

Crap! I had no backup plan so I ran off to the store to get candy to decorate with. I didn’t know what to get so I got a little bit of everything. M&M’s, jelly beans, licorice, gummy life savers, mini Reese cups – I practically bought out the whole aisle. Then I got home and sent my hubby and kids to a family movie night at my church so I could get to work on this monster. My hubby, sensing my anxiety, sent my friend Luanne, who was at the church movie night also, to come check on me.

What she found was a mess.

I had already made the cake in the pan, carefully filling each train car well according to the directions, but they all overflowed significantly. So I had a bunch of scraped-off train cake muffin-tops in a bowl on the oven, but unfortunately I had also spilled said bowl due to anxiety-induced clumsiness, so there were cake particles all over the floor. Of course I had started the icing while the cake was baking, but my previously mentioned clumsiness had come into play there as well, and I had spilled a bunch of the bag of powdered sugar on myself and the floor. There were dishes and measuring cups and ingredients everywhere – and I hadn’t even begun the decorating yet!

Luanne was a bit stunned by what she had walked into. “Oh my gosh!” she said, “You’re that person.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You’re that person, like on tv and in the movies that makes a huge mess when they cook, only you really do.”

She was cracking up. Apparently I’m a rather impressive mess-maker.

Thank God Luanne was there, ‘cause she really calmed me down. I got the train cars out of the pan successfully and began intricately decorating, using the frosting to hold the candy on. Lu sat with me and talked with me and gave me suggestions the whole time. By the time I got to the third train car, however, I knew there was no way in hell I was making all nine. It was taking for-ev-er. So, I ended up doing five, and here is the final result:

the-cake2.jpg

I was pleased though exhausted, and Joshua really loved it. There is no way I am doing it again this year though, even though he is still really into trains.

So, now a poll – I still have no idea what kind of cake to make for Sophie, and I’m already being neurotic about it. Emily maintains that I don’t have to make the cake myself, but I say I must make it myself because I made Joshua’s and it just wouldn’t be right not to make hers too. So, what do you think?












My Ballot Box


Should Jenny make Sophia’s birthday cake herself?


Yes, of course, she made Joshua’s first three!!

No, it doesn’t really matter




View Results

For those of you who think I should make her cake (because I am going to), I’d love to hear some ideas for a cute, easy to make and decorate design! After all, this little one keeps me busy enough, I am sure I will not have time for a three-hour cake-decorating session come November 16th!

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Hello, this is Emily. I had to jump in on Jenny’s post, seeing as we have already discussed this dilemma in detail.

As she mentioned, my humble opinion is “buy the damn thing.” I certainly have my own list of issues, but feeling the pressure to make fancy birthday cakes is not one of them. In fact, all of Kate’s birthday cakes have come from the friendly bakery around the corner. They have been lovely and tasted far better than anything I could have made. I have offered to order one up for Sophie, but since Jenny thinks this wouldn’t suffice, I thought I would give her a few ideas.

Jen, here’s the first one I think you should consider, in honor of the Olan Mills picture of you and me in our Strawberry Shortcake outfits.

cake2.jpg

I think you could whip that up with no problem.

But, if that’s not fancy enough, you could go with this one.

cake3.jpg

I’m thinking you should be able to turn that out in about 30 minutes.

However, if you really love Sophie and you’re a really good mom, you could make this.

cake1.gif

Sophie is quite the princess after all.

Or, you could always make a cake with Sophie’s likeness on it, similar to this.

cake4.jpg

That one freaks me out a little, to be honest. Can you imagine the discussion surrounding the cutting of that cake? “I want the nose! No, wait, I think the fist has more icing on it.”

Let’s see… by the time my birthday rolls around in May, you’ll have Bobby’s, Sophie’s and Joshua’s birthdays behind you, and much cake-making experience. Since you’ll be an expert by then, will you make me this one?

cake-diet-coke.jpg

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She Drives Me Crazy! Oo! Oo!

Ok, before you read this post please go back and sing the title to the Fine Young Cannibals song from like, 1991 or whenever. Ok, did you do it? Good! Now proceed with your read.

Most of you know that in addition to my three-and-a-half- year-old-son Joshua, I am also the proud mommy of a nine-month-old girl, Sophia.

(It will fit well with the rest of this post to tell you that it’s been 35 minutes since I wrote that last line, because Sophia has been distracting me from my writing by being a total stinkpot.)

What you may not know about Sophie, however, is that girlfriend is crazy. Cra-ZEE. Crizz-azy, some might even say. And she’s driving me crazy. And wearing me the heck out. She’s sassy and funny and fearless and just crazy! She’s so different than her older brother in every way that it just boggles my mind over and over again. He was just too easygoing, and she is so…high maintenance! I mean logically when you have a second child you know they will be different than the first, but I really cannot believe how different her babyhood has been. She exhausts me! Her exuberance is adorable yet draining. She’s playful yet picky, sweet but stormy, and cute but conniving. She won’t let me relax for a second, and I’m constantly saving her from herself. A few seconds ago, she almost took a dive off my lap – I barely caught her in time! I have to dig STUFF out of her mouth every 10 minutes as she’s always on the hunt for foreign objects, and no matter how carefully I vacuum and pick up, she finds something bad to eat. As a matter of fact, I think she has a secret deal with her brother and/or the cats to bring her bits of contraband. Cat hair, pine needles, bits of food Joshua drops off his plate…it matters not! If it looks interesting, she’ll make it hers.

There are things I love about her craziness and things I really, really DON’T. For instance, I love one of her new crazy tricks, which is shaking her head and long hair side to side with a wide open mouth over and over again and making herself dizzy. It’s pretty stinking hilarious! Her other new crazy trick which I don’t love so much, is trying to gouge my eyes out. Any time I am holding her (which is like, you know, all the freaking time basically), she goes for my eyeballs with those stay-sharp fingernails (they are like razors no matter how often I clip them!) and I just have to close my eyes and try and bat her hands away with my free hand, while she tries to pry my eyelids open. When I am finally able to put her down and stop this game, she screams uncontrollably for awhile until some other potential act of mischief catches her eye.

Shew! Just writing about that wears me out.

Her other new favorite activity, which is both hysterical and annoying, is to try and get up on all fours while she’s nursing and latched on. Like she thinks I’m a drinking fountain or something! This does NOT work well when nursing in public. She’s also very into “grab-the nipple” these days – she has to have her hands in and on everything!

She takes short naps, screams when she hears the word “no”, gives me the hardest time about eating baby food, and hates to be confined in any way. And even though she’s been eating solid foods for over three months, she still finds a way, at least once a day, to poop up & out the back of her diaper. Not squirty breastmilk poops, people. Solid food poopie. Which I realized about 30 minutes after changing her one day last week, I still had on my forearm. Ick!

Right now as I write this, she is standing in her pack-n-play, alternately fussing and smiling at me, trying to decide which is the better tactic to secure her release. The smile is working on me. It is truly irresistible (and still toothless at 9 months!) Oh – she is a crazy girl, but I know if, just if I can survive her infancy and toddlerhood, we will have a whole lot of fun together.

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WFMW: Bows2Cute

Swiss Flowers Bows

It’s Works for Me Wednesday and I’ve been dying to do this particular post! So here goes:

My nine-month-old daughter was born with TONS of hair. I was very excited, as I just looove a little baby with hair. But about the time she got to be five or six months old, her bangs got really long, so I needed something to keep them out of her face. No WAY was I ready for her first haircut! However, I’ve never been good at doing hair; my best friend used to do mine for me on the way to school in the morning (thankfully she has three daughters to use her mad hair skillz on.)

Then I happened upon an ad for Bows2Cute and my problems were solved! I discovered Bows2Cute about a month before Emily & I started Mommin’ It Up and I’ve been planning this product review ever since. I can’t keep this to myself! Jamie, the designer and owner, makes amazing creations and sells most of her bows for only $2 (and her shipping rates are extreeeeemely reasonable)! Sophia has about ten of them (including the purple & white flower pictured above), and they stay in really well and don’t bother her at all. She acts like she doesn’t even know they’re there. Jamie has several bow types and dozens of ribbon colors to choose from. She can do simple, flouncy, or in-between, and also has fun animal and fruit styles! You can easily have a bow custom-made just to match your little girl’s birthday or holiday outfit. You’ve seen the bows she’s donated to my Big Birthday Giveaway, now check out all of her styles at her website. They make great gifts as well for any little girl you know, and they’ll stay in fine, thin, and even barely-there hair!

Thanks, Jamie, for providing a great, affordable product that I use literally every day!

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

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