June 26th, 2010 will stand out as one of the more memorable birthdays in our family. Saturday birthdays are pretty exciting for my kids, especially since I work most of the other days of the week. The day started off well enough - Isaac woke up a 9-year-old, and opened his "morning" present. It was a box of Lucky Charms cereal, which he kindly shared with his sisters. This is typical for Isaac, my thoughtful boy. Once I dragged myself out of bed, I headed to the store to get some more items for Isaac's cake. I am in no way a cake decorator, but I am incredibly stubborn. Once I have an idea I try my hardest (even when it clearly beyond my skill level - when will I learn?). Since no one was offering to help me make Isaac's cake, and since I had promised him a special cake, I had to make an effort. I was online for almost two hours the night before Isaac's birthday looking through images of creative cakes. I finally settled on a roller coaster cake idea. It didn't seem all that complicated from the pictures.
Well, how very wrong I was.
The first problem occurred while I was at the store. I got a frantic phone call from Olivia, who informed me between heavy sobs that her pet rat was dead. Sweet little Tabitha, who had been a little under the weather recently, was suddenly gone. I rushed back home as quickly as possible, arriving just as my parents (who Olivia had called as well) were pulling in the driveway. It was true - Tabitha was no longer alive.
Meanwhile, I had promised Isaac strawberry pancakes for lunch, and I still needed to get the birthday cakes baked so I would have plenty of time to cool them and decorate them. With all of the chaos over Tabitha's death, and after making lovely berry pancakes, the birthday cakes finally got baked. Isaac's party was to begin at 4:00 at Liberty Park. The cakes were done baking after 2:00, leaving no time to freeze them as I had hoped. I let them cool for about 20 minutes, and then I had to get building - the roller coaster that is. I felt confident as I carefully removed the cakes from the pans. The round cake was cut into two uneven parts, which made the two roller coaster hills. Laffy Taffy was stretched to make tracks, and Starbursts were used as cars. The people were made by stretching out fruity Tootsie Rolls. Thinking back on all that sugar and food coloring makes my stomach churn.
As I began to frost the hills on top of the rectangular cake base, I began to sense disaster. The more I frosted, the more stressed I became. The big hill would not stand up on its own. "How could this be?" I thought out loud. The descriptions of other women who had made similar cakes and displayed perfect photos online had no problems with the structure - and I'm pretty sure both of them had to travel for hours with their cakes in the car. My cake hadn't even moved from the table, and it was already falling apart. I frantically frosted, hoping it would work like glue. I'm pretty sure it had the opposite effect - it added weight to the cakes, making them less stable. Olivia and Grace tried to help me by stretching taffy and Tootsie Rolls, which did make the whole thing look a little more interesting. My new tubes of frosting with fancy tips for squeezing designs? Well, they were like trying to squeeze dry toothpaste out of a 10-year-old tube. The frosting was clogged in the tips and I could barely get any to squeeze out into writing. I'm pretty sure nobody could read it. By 3:50 we were cutting up fruit leather and making it into little flags as a final gesture to make the cake look a little better. By 3:55 we allowed Isaac to view the final product.
Just don't look too closely. And it's a good thing you can't see the back!
By some miracle, he loved it! Either that, or he felt really bad for me for trying so hard and was totally faking it. Either way, he acted super impressed. I took a picture of it at home, knowing it would only deteriorate from there. And I was right, of course. The Tootsie Roll people seemed to melt with the slightest heat, falling onto their weak backs. The Laffy Taffy track slid off the cake hills, and the hills both fell down (needing to be supported by the cake box wrapped in tinfoil, and a plastic cup from the party). It was sort of like watching a Tim Burton movie gone horribly bad.
Once we got to Liberty Park, and everyone else (just family this year) had arrived, everything seemed to go pretty smoothly. I give most of the credit to my mom, who brought the rest of the food and most of the supplies. I am also indebted to Olivia, who had (previous to Tabitha's sudden death) wrapped all of Isaac's gifts and labeled them. Isaac loved playing with his cousins and siblings, opening his awesome gifts (I think he loved them all), and riding on the rides at Liberty Park.
At least one person was daring enough to actually eat some of the crazy cake, and apparently it tasted much better than it looked. I would have become suddenly ill had I attempted eating even one bite. I was already wasted (mostly from attempting to make the cake) and could hardly function throughout the party. I am just glad that Isaac got to do everything he wanted on his day, and that he is such a great kid. What more could I ask for than a boy who is kind to his mother and sisters, does well in school, loves art, has a sense of humor, is liked by his peers, and does all of his chores without complaining? One who is wild about contact sports? Somehow I don't think I'll be too sad if he never gets into football. One who is eager to extend his diet beyond pizza, pancakes, and cereal? Okay . . . maybe that would be nice.
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