The Joys and the Trials of Life with my MS

I stumbled into the joy of making specialty cakes when my ES was 2 and saw a Winnie-the-Pooh cake pan in the clearance section at Target. Since the pan, with frosting colors, tips and bags was marked down to something over $2, I figured, why not? I made the cake and frosted it in front of my Basic Life Skills class (I'm sure being able to frost a cake like this ISN'T a BASIC life skill, but they were more than willing to watch me and then to eat the end result). I considered that my trial run.

I was amazed because it turned out better than I imagined (I had tried a few cakes before and found that I am horrible at spreading icing - the press down and lift up method for most Wilton pans was time-consuming, but looked much more professional in the end). So, I made the cake again, for ES's 2nd birthday and then forgot to even snap a photo of it. Hence, three weeks later, I made the same cake merely to take a photo of it (some day I'll devote a post to some of my previous cakes).

This past September, when my MS was turning 3, I found a Scooby-Doo cake pan at a garage sale for only 50 cents. It was great fun preparing it and he did enjoy it a lot, but within a few months of his birthday he began begging me to go on e-bay and buy a Spiderman cake pan. I figured I had plenty of time and, who knows, I might luck into another garage sale find. Then, I found Amber's blog and decided to attempt to follow her tutorial on Frozen Buttercream Transfers and make a Spiderman cake. I couldn't possibly wait until next September, so I made it to celebrate his 1/2 birthday.

It turned out we were expecting company, friends from DeKalb who were headed to Indiana this past week for their Spring Break, so I added a welcome message to them, too. Unfortunately, due to sickness, we didn't get to share the cake with them. Instead, we'll take it with us this weekend when we head over to visit the grandparents for our Spring Break.

Of course, I notice all the things I will do better next time. Primarily, my error was in not making enough frosting and not tinting the proper amounts. I began with the same amount I usually make to cover a cake made from a Wilton pan. However, Wilton offers helpful instructions as to how much to tint in the various colors. I had to guess and this was my first mistake. I made far too much red and black, just enough blue and not nearly enough white. So, the night that I set about making the tranfer (late in the night, mind you), I ran out of white frosting. It was already 1 a.m. and I wasn't about to stay up any later making more white, so I froze it without finishing the background. If you look closely, you can see the backwards c-shaped area where I filled in with other white (just a tad darker for some reason) the following evening.

I also didn't smooth it out sufficiently, so I notice lines where I filled in the background frosting. Then, came time to place it over the cake with its sides frosted. My transfer was too large (bad measuring, I suppose) and I had to push the edges down. I had already made another 1/2 batch of white frosting and so decided to merely do the borders in red on the top and black along the bottom. Not the best decision, but certainly more timely than making more frosting (I think I would have chosen blue borders just to even out the coloring some more).

Still, my MS was deliriously happy (and is having a hard time waiting until this weekend to eat it) and my hubby thought I did a fine job. I am thrilled to have learned a new way to decorate cakes and plan on getting more practice at every opportunity. Maybe some day, when I don't have two small children as extra appendages to my limbs 24/7, I will actually take a cake decorating class. Thanks, Amber, for teaching me something in my own home without the need for child care. Although, after last night, I am praying even harder for child care.

Yes, I did say the "trials" of life with my MS. I couldn't have blogged about this last night - the steam was still screeching out of my ears. However, by morning, I happily took a photo for evidence and decided to share more life with my MS!


Naps are a wicked thing for this toddler. He still needs them, but on days when he has one, he often doesn't fall asleep until very late. So, last night he continued to come out with bathroom jaunts and requests for rocking. I was already beyond my patience with him, when at 11:15 I heard the howl of my YS. I dashed in to see what had happened. Yes, the photo I could have taken last night would have looked reminiscent of the scene where ET is hiding in the stuffed animals in the closet. I had to search long and hard to make out my crying baby's face because my MS had thrown all of these items (which I tossed in a fury on the floor) into his crib.

I'm wondering if MS actually progressed in naughtiness. Did he throw in the stuffed animals first and say to himself, "Hmm, no damage?" Then came the slippers. Still no response. Then the water bottle and soft books followed by 7 or 8 hard books. How about the yellow rubber door jam? The plastic green roof to Big Bird's house? Hard action figures. "Nope, I'm gonna have to pull out the big guns. Ah, success - the metal Spiderman trash can! Yep, now I've got all the attention I didn't know I didn't really want!" GOOD NIGHT!