birthday prep

It's possible by reading this blog to get the mistaken impression that all I do around my house is prepare for parties and eat cake.  Though those often make the blog, I promise - and my fingers aren't even crossed - that there's more to my life than that.  

But in fact, this post is actually about parties.  And cake.  Sorry about that.

Because I've taken a wad of pictures from Samantha's actual birthday (yes, I haven't even caught up to her birthday yet...) I'm posting pictures of the cake ahead of time...so that you wont' have to scroll through an embarrassing amount of photos.  

Samantha requested a sunshine cake for her 3rd birthday, and her dear friend Becky further required that the cake have sunglasses on it.  This is not a Top Chef challenge, people.  This is a cake-disadvantaged-mom-who-also-has-to-do-something-for-Father's-Day-and-her-anniversary, thankyouverymuch.  

But anyway, I did it and I'm posting pictures just to prove it.  Ha.  

I also had to use my last yellow cake mix to make this little guy, so I figured if I'm emptying out the cupboards, we're going to go out with a bang.  So I added the food coloring business from "rainbow cupcakes" (more technical people would insert a link here) and went for a rainbow-colored sunshine cake.  

Step 1:  Cut the shape I wanted out of the pan.  I used a big pan for this project.  Think of it as a cake mural. 

Step 2: Extraction.  Get the cake out of the pan.  Actually, I just liked the way the colors swirled in the pan so I took a picture.  

Step 3:  Assemble the pieces I cut onto my big cutting board for decorating.  
Doesn't that make you feel all happy inside?  The random conglomeration of colors? I really like it.  
Never mind that the sunglasses look a bit jacked...the end product looked something like this:
I even busted out some streamers I bought in America (note to self: streamers are a hassle) and a Care Bears tablecloth I bought in the Big City up North.  

Samantha woke up with the house declaring to her that she was turning three.  She was super excited to start her day...