The Perfect Cake

On Friday, I baked a cake.  If you know me well, you probably know that baking is not really my thing.  I make cookies with my kids and let them help me bake boxed cupcakes, because that's what moms are supposed to do.  I don't really enjoy it that much.  And baking from scratch...no.

It's too precise.  I don't have the patience.  Rarely do I have an hour or more to dedicate to the creation of sweet, baked goods.

But, last week was also my birthday.  And this summer, my aunt gave me my grandmother's birthday cake recipe.  In her handwriting.  Framed.  The most weep-worthy gift I can remember receiving in a long time.

And this cake...it's my whole childhood.  It's part of every birthday, every celebration, every family get together.  It recalls memories of gentle hand slaps as I tried to swipe the icing with my fingertip, smiles from my grandmother as she shooed me away, and laughter as we sat around enjoying the treat.

I had decided weeks before that I'd make it for my birthday.  But just so happens that my birthday always falls at a bad time.  Back to school.  And this particular year...Back to School Night.  So it had to wait a few days.

Friday morning, after dropping the kids off, I went to the store to buy real sugar, white flour, and Crisco.  Things I haven't bought in a long time.  And that afternoon I set out following directions to a tee.  Sifting flour and cocoa together three times.  Adding only one egg at a time until it was fully immersed in the batter.  Adding baking soda to freshly brewed coffee and watching it foam up the sides of the measuring cup.  Whisking continuously until the flour thickened the milk.  Waiting 5 minute for the vinegar to sour the milk.

So many times I wanted to cheat.  Is it really necessary to add eggs individually?  Sifting?  Really, is it needed?  Sour milk?  Wouldn't regular milk do?

But I didn't.  I took every step as my grandmother had laid it out.  Waited each time she asked. Alternated ingredients each time she instructed.

It took me an hour.  An hour before baking.  I'm not sure I've ever spent an hour baking one thing.  Especially not a cake for myself.  But as I was sifting and whisking and alternating I thought a lot of my grandmother.  She was so patient and seemed to take her time with everything.  At a time when conveniences and time savers were at a minimum, she seemed to enjoy the long tasks of shucking corn and canning vegetables.  She could be found weeding her garden most spring days.  If she wasn't home, she might be picking berries to make jam later that day.

I rarely have that kind of patience.  I won't make a recipe that has more than 5 ingredients or takes longer than 30 minutes.  My house is only kind of clean most of the time because I don't scrub grout with toothbrushes or dust picture frames.  And it is a rare, RARE occasion that I move furniture to vacuum.

But Friday, I made myself enjoy it.  And I did enjoy it.  I performed each task meticulously and checked each direction thrice.  Friday I had the time.  Friday was my last day of unemployment.  I had spent the last 6 weeks cleaning and organizing and playing with my kids and working out and maybe binging a few Neflix shows.  And Friday was my last day of nothingness.  The kids were all in school.  No chores.  I finished House of Cards on Netflix.  So what else could I do but bake the perfect cake?

Tomorrow I go back to work.  I go back to a previous employer in a town I used to live in.  Tomorrow I go back to the craziness of juggling work and school and activities and me time.  But Friday?  Friday was all about the cake and making it just right and seeing to it that my grandmother gets to touch my kids life in some way.  And after all of the instructions and time it took to create, it was perfect.  Exactly as I remembered.  And I know my grandmother would be happy to see me enjoy every moment it took to get there.

All Tangled Up

Last weekend was Ainsley's Tangled birthday party.

We had it at the pool, which other than carrying all the stuff there and back, made it incredibly easy.  No worries about having the house perfect to host a party.  There was just a small area that I needed to decorate and have ready.

It also took all the pressure off party food and extreme decorations.

We did frozen burgers and dogs, chips and fruit.  Then we bought some balloons, streamers and table cloths.  Oh and I got some paper lanterns to mimic the floating lanterns in the movie.

Actually, the only thing I really worked at was the cake.  And this was going to be a tall order since Ainsley had requested...and I quote..."Can I have a cake with a tower and Rapunzel in the tower with her hair out the window blowing in the wind? And Flynn Rider is climbing up the side of the tower with his stick and Maximus and Pisaul are playing in the water?"

Um...yeah...

When I lived in Richmond, I had this awesome friend Heather.  She bakes and decorates amazing cakes.  Look here.  She made me cakes for showers and engagement parties.  And she made Ainsley's birthday cake last year.

So when it was time to find a Tangled cake, I didn't know where to start.  Heather lived too far now.  Big sad face :(

But I had made Ainsley's first birthday cake.

And I had made the cupcakes for Freddie's first birthday.

So I was ready to tackle the Tangled cake.  I emailed Heather for advice.

And, I think it turned out pretty well.  What do you think?

Want to know how I did it?  Instructions below.

Tangled Birthday Cake
The cake was the easy part.  All you gotta do is open those boxes and mix with oil, water and eggs. 

Bake and done.  I cooled them overnight.

I also baked a small round cake for part of the tower.

Constructing the tower was a bit more difficult.

Two nights before the party, I made rice Krispy treats.

Half of them were wrapped around a wooden dowel, covered in Saran wrap and placed in the fridge.  We ate the other half :)

On the morning of the party, I covered the two cakes in green icing.

I then cut a hole out of the cake to place the rice Krispy treat tower in.  Note: I thought I could just stick the dowel in the cake, but it turned out to be too heavy.  So I pushed the dowel to the top, cut out a larger circle in the cake and stuck the entire tower into the cake.

Next I needed to add the circular room that Rapunzel spends her days sweeping and painting and baking in.  This is where the small round cake comes in.

I cut the edges to make it more cylindrical.  I used the cut off pieces to kind of prop the tower up a bit at the base, and give it more of a shape.

Next I covered the tower in gray icing. I used a toothpick to add texture and give the tower a stone look.

Note: It is not easy to get gray icing.  I mixed brown and purple.  The trick was adding blue.  Kind of reminded me of Steel Magnolias and the gray armadillo cake!

Then I placed the cylindrical cake on the top of the dowel.  I painted it brown - it looked like peanut butter. 

To finish the structure of the tower I added a sugar cone to the top, covered in purple icing.

Now it was time to decorate.

I added a window and iced flowers and ivy all over the tower.

Finally, I had bought some little Tangled figurines.  I placed them on the cake. 

I wrote Happy Birthday in pink and then wrote Ainsley in yellow with the hair tip and extended it over the cake, around Flynn Rider and connected it to the Rapunzel figurine.

Voila...Tangled Cake!

I called Ainsley in to take a look.  I picked her up and she studied the cake. 

"So Ainsley, do you like the cake?" I asked.
With a very concerned look on her face, she responded "Yeah, but...why isn't Rapunzel in her tower?"

Look kid, I'm an amateur...cut me some slack!