The day ended? started? at about 1 am, when I inverted cake 2 of 2 out of the batter bowl to cool on the counter. I made sure dog and cat were accounted for and chauffeured them to our bedroom lest a cake disappear over night. Then I got up a few hours later, at about 7am, to get this cake decorated!
This cake is a cinch to prepare. The CAKE part. I used my tempered glass Pampered Chef batter bowl, and used a Pampered Chef doll cake recipe to make the cakes. (you have to make two).
Assembling the damn thing is a totally different ballgame. First of all, there was a huge hollow inside both cakes. While this may be a good thing for shoving a Barbie into the cake, it does not bode well for stability. By slicing horizontally through both cakes, I was able to build it up high enough, vertically, to accommodate Barbie's ridiculously long, out-of-proportion-don't-get-me-started legs. It took an enormous amount of frosting to get all of the layers stacked, but in the end it turned out pretty well. I wrapped Barbie's torso with some tulle and pinned it in the back, and then I wrapped her legs in plastic wrap so that she wouldn't get ruined by the cake and frosting. Then I made several cuts (holding the knife vertically) into the cake and then jammed her in there. That was a mistake. Her out-of-proportion-don't-get-me-started hips broke apart the top layer. So I had to jam left-over pieces of cake into the cracks and smother the whole thing with frosting to cover up the mess. And then cover that with a ton of fabric flowers. Because nothing hides cake mistakes better than fabric flowers. Especially when you suck at icing.
My friend Cheryl loaned me her decorating cake pedestal, and that was a life-saver. I'm gonna get me one of those. I like how the hem turned out - those large candy pearl nonpareils gave it a nice touch. I'm kind of wishing I'd done the whole cake that way, but I was out of time. And also, since I have never made a doll cake before, I think this qualifies as a 40 Things ... This is #3 on the list of official accomplishments. I had better get crackin'!! So what did the birthday girl think of her cake? Rylan 'liked' it, but confessed that the picture she had of the cake in her head was different. This one wasn't 'purple enough'. whatever
This was Rylan's first 'friend' party. We chose to do a gymnastics party at a local gym. Rylan and Jordan took a homeschool gymnastics class here last year, and Rylan has been asking repeatedly when she can go back. So she was excited to hear that we would have her party there. Rylan invited her Daisy troop pals, and Jordan was able to invite along a friend as well.
Dean was on the floor taking pictures (only one parent is allowed to do so, so I stayed up in the party room and finished decorating and gabbed with the other moms), so he took lots of video, and like, two pictures. So here is one of them. Jordan is hopping along a trampoline with Colin. The group got one hour of gym time, and Colin ran and jumped for the entire time. Owen was finally ready to join the group in the last ten minutes of their time slot. Before that he stayed upstairs with me, watching the crowd below and playing with the balloons. He often hangs back like that.
Then the girls came up to the party room and we did cake, lemonade and presents. (I'd show these pictures - but getting iPhone pictures to show up on Blogger never works. You companies are lame - and I am so frustrated that I can't figure this issue out...)
So here is finished version of the cake - taken earlier in the day. The candles will go in the icing swirls in front.
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| Sorry for the fuzziness of the photo, but Rylan is holding up a skirt. The little girl who gave it to her is standing behind Rylan, grinning. She MADE the skirt. She sewed it herself! I just can't get over how awesome that is!!! |
Rylan had a great time and really enjoyed doing gymnastics with all of her friends. I was very happy with the way the party turned out, and it fit all of my criteria...
1. Not at my house
2. I did not have to cook. (Cake doesn't count)
3. It was long enough to get the fun accomplished, but not overly long where bickering can begin
Next year? Cupcakes.
