Birthday Cake and Other Sugar

For Emma's first birthday I put effort into decorating a cake for her.  It turned out pretty cute, not spectacular, but cute.

If you're wondering when I'm going to stop taking pictures of pictures and use a scanner, the answer is--when I get a scanner.  I will get a scanner when my current printer dies so it could be awhile.

I spent a good portion of the day on the cake and largely ignored our children (as much as you can ignore a three year old and a one year old).  They were probably watching Barney while I was carefully placing honeycomb cereal for hair.

We had a bunch of friends over to celebrate.  Braeden ate a lot of cake then ran around like a wild man with his little friends.  The party ended abruptly when he threw up all over the middle of the room.  That clears a room like nothing else.  Everyone left except Mindy and Bill.  Mindy helped me clean up and Bill took the kids in the other room (Adam had had to leave the party early, lucky guy).

So this cake makes me think of two things:  Mindy and Bill = great friends and I should not have wasted so much time on that cake.

Ever since, I've been making ugly birthday cakes.  (Not on purpose, they just turn out that way.)  My kids no longer would watch Barney all day even if I made the option available and I don't spend all day on their birthday cakes.

As a result, the cakes look like this:

I am ashamed.

It did taste really good though.  I am still on my quest for the perfect chocolate cake and this one is in the running.  I got the recipe from the December 2011 Good Housekeeping magazine.

And it was supposed to look like this:

Did I mention I am ashamed?

Besides the other glaring differences, I didn't put candy canes on mine because that is so last month.

My kids thought the mint in the cake was a little strong so I may not include the mints between layers when I make this cake again.  The ganache was divine.  You really can't go wrong with a pint of cream and a pound of chocolate though.

Last night, in addition to cake, we celebrated with presents for the birthday boy.  Among his gifts were boxes of cereal--for the boy who inhales food.  He was a little surprised by the gifts, but pleased.

They weren't the typical kind of cereal I buy either.  There was no notice given to sugar content.  Grandma Geri gave Braeden a generous gift card but also a box of Zingers.

What does it say about a person when people give them food for presents?  That they're an always hungry teenager?

Geri covered him in boxes of sugar food for a picture.  What does it say about a person when they can't stop talking to smile at the camera?

That they're Braeden.