Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Insanity

Sometimes parenthood makes you insane. It makes you ignore the drudgery of daily life and focus intensely on the moments of joy. It makes you put off all the boring necessities (laundry, cleaning, cooking meals) and invest every moment of your free time in frivolities. Like piñatas. And cakes.

Or maybe that's just me...

HeyMama wanted a Fancy Nancy Tea Party for her birthday. So instead of tracking down party supplies with Fancy Nancy's likeness on them, we planned a party to the description of Fancy Nancy's tea parties in HeyMamas favorite book. We used some of the recipes in the book that had been requested repeatedly for the last year. We pulled out the fancy serving ware. We provided hats, gloves, and bow ties to our guests. We dressed up in our fanciest best. BestestHusband even donned his tux. There were tutus. And tiaras. And a giant pink hat worthy of the Kentucky Derby. It was fancy. 

There were 3 lbs of butter in this lemon-flavored confection. Yes, that's pounds, not sticks.

We ate cucumber sandwiches. We had hibiscus lemonade and hibiscus tea. We made towers out of sugar cubes. We did sugar cube relays. We played "Pass the Hot Tea Pot" with a singing teapot toy. Then we did the piñata. And by "did", I mean we annihilated it. Actually, the kids beat it up. BestestHusband annihilated it with one spectacular blow. After the scheduled events, the kids ran around eating lollipops, blowing bubbles, and giggling. I think it was a success. HeyMama had the hugest grin on her face, which was the goal. 

I'm a little C-pot.

We're using the leftover cake trimmings and the frosting to make cake pops this afternoon. I had to send  the uneaten half of the cake to church on Sunday. There were still 1.5 lbs of butter calling my name. It just had to go away. 

So now we can start looking forward to MeToo's birthday in November. She's informed me that she wants a Princess Cake. Wish me luck.

6 comments:

  1. Darn! I didn't realize I missed some of that cake Sunday! Looks like you did a great job on that labor of much love.

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    1. THanks Brandi! The cake did go quickly. It was nice to share all of the butter with others' waistlines.

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  2. BTW, did you include the butter in the rice krispie treats? I don't want your audience to think you were skimping...it was a stellar day all around! Congrats!

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    1. Hahaha! I carved off a bit of the cake to make the shape, and I figure that balances out the 2 Tbs of butter in the rice crispies. But you're right, we wouldn't want to shortchange anyone any butter...

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  3. That cake looks super awesome. I never have mastered the art of making a cake that looks good. Tastes good, yes. Looks good, generally not. I'm hoping my kids continue to be pleased with cookie monster and elmo done in colored coconut on a flat cake.
    However, a princess cake is actually not that hard. You make a conical cake and stick a Barbie doll in the middle, and the cake is her dress. Some bakeries near us do them. I recommend giving her an updo to keep her hair out of the frosting, and you may need to refrigerate her slightly to make sure the frosting sticks to her (since you don't really want her to be topless). And the dress she came with is one of the presents. A cone shaped cake and ruffly skirt frosting are within even my artistic capabilities.

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    1. THanks for the idea. I was thinking about doing a crown or a castle, something that uses standard cake pans + construction. The domed bowl cake attempt soured me on anything other than a flat pan, unfortunately.

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