Kid Scoop
Cake Wrecks: Batman Edition
Even though Anders’ birthday was on Tuesday it will be a couple of weeks before we celebrate with a party. We always do a little something on the actual day, usually with just the four of us, but we wait to host a bigger party until January.
This is in part because most people are out of town two days after Christmas, but also because I want there to be a clear separation between the holidays and Anders’ big day. I feel bad for him when he gets combination gifts or birthday presents wrapped in Christmas paper or, worse, when he is forgotten all together in the chaos of the holidays and I think this causes me to over-compensate.
Well, it causes me to try to over-compensate.
Take last year when I decided I wanted to be the type of mom who lovingly bakes their child’s birthday cake from scratch and then intricately decorates it with whatever they happen to be into at the time. For Anders, of course, that was Batman (for the third year in a row). It sounded simple enough. Anyone can paint a bat signal in icing, right?
Wrong.
I spent an hour the morning of the party weeping over the birthday cake disaster and then another hour driving around town trying to buy a replacement cake with no success. My face was still puffy from crying halfway through the party when it was finally time to light the candles on what was, to me, the tangible evidence of my failure as a mother and sing happy birthday. Only, a funny thing happened when the song had been sung and the candles were blown out.
As I began cutting the cake, I heard Anders turn to his cousin and say “My mom made this cake. Isn’t it cool?” An entire table of 4- and 5-year-olds nodded their heads in agreement.
While I think my birthday cake baking days are over, I did learn a lesson that day about what what really matters most to Anders. Lucky for me it isn’t a person’s ability to perfectly write his name in icing.
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2 Comments
AmyRyb commented on Dec 31 11 at 4:55 pmI feel your pain. You pretty much described verbatim my son’s third birthday. I had big plans for his cake, but I made it egg free (my nephew was allergic–thankfully those days appear to be coming to an end) and the cake FELL APART when I started frosting it. I was freaking out. My husband went out and got a store-bought cake, but when I went to put his name on it (I had him leave it blank in case I could salvage the decorating I had planned for the other cake), the condensation on the frosting made it run. Horrific, let me tell you. Miserable for a good half of the party, until I started drinking. Ha! Mom FAIL all around.
Marcia commented on Mar 26 12 at 9:43 amI just finished laughing over the ridiculous b-day cake fails – the elephants had tears rolling down my cheeks! then I clicked on your earlier post.
I think your Batman cake is quite lovely! You are being much too hard on yourself. It has personality and love – that’s what counts! The kids recognized that immediately and really appreciated it. I’ve made a pink pony cake, a school bus cake and my favorite, a guinea pig princess cake which comprised replicas of our two guinea pigs atop a crown. It was pretty funny looking but it was a blast to concoct and my daughter loved it. Your son’s memories will be “Mom makes me the best cakes!” Did I mention the year my husband had to pull out his mini blow torch to repair the Dora candle that broke before the big moment…. Enjoy!
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