paper fiori: Happy Birthday Baby!

I guess she's not a baby anymore... (sniffle) My baby is 6 years old now. It's amazing how the time flies when you have children. It seems like yesterday when I dropped her off at her first day of pre-school and cried on my way out of the building. Now she wants to do everything on her own, dress herself, do her own hair, go to the potty by herself when we're at a restaurant (I have to say no to that one). I tried to hold her on my lap today for some snuggle time, and the two of us didn't fit so well on the cuddle chair anymore. It's hard to let go of the little things like that, so I told her I would buy us a bigger chair for cuddling (I'm so logical!)

It's tradition in our house for me to make the girls cakes. At first it was for my own pleasure of making a sweet creation, but Lily has been putting in her requests for the last 3 years. Since we love to watch the cake challenge shows on the Food Network together, she imagines now, big 3D cakes for every occasion and she can certainly come up with some doozies! Last year she wanted a butterfly with moving wings sitting on a flower...yea, she is totally my daughter. After explaining that I was unable to make a moving cake, this is what I came up with for her 5th birthday. Not a Challenge worthy cake, but she really liked it.

This year she wanted a Tinkerbell house with fondant icing and a Tinkerbell on top with 'magic' sprinkles coming out of her wand to make everyone fairy size - just like at Disney... How do I get myself into these things? Rob explained that the 'magic' has to stay with Tinkerbell in Disney and since we weren't having a big party palooza this year, we talked about down-sizing her cake for our small family party of 8. After seeing some ideas on the internet, she decided she wanted a rainbow cake with m&m's. Thank goodness she forgot about the m&m part 'cause each color is $5 bucks a pound!!!! This is what I came up with for this year's sugary perfection!

Here is the post baking, pre-icing photo. I made 2 batches of white chocolate cake batter (doctored plain white cake mix). I took out 6 -1 cup scoops and placed them into separate containers to dye with food coloring into the colors I wanted. I then baked each 1 cup serving in my 8" round baking pans, (I only have 2 8" pans) at 2 pans per cycle of 15 minutes of baking and 15 minutes of cooling, it took almost 2 hours to bake. The rest of the un-dyed batter I placed into 2 6" round pans and baked until done. I made icing to match the layer colors and used them to layer the cake and then I froze them for the night.

The next morning I cut off the bottom of the layered cake and shaped it into a rainbow and placed the ends on the 2 6" cakes. (I really like making 3D cakes) I piped colored icing for the rainbow with a small star tip and piped the clouds with a large star tip with white icing. This could be done flat if you are afraid to go 3D, but it's really not as hard as it looks! Below is the cake cut...how fun are all these colors? I really looks like you are eating a rainbow! Wouldn't it be a hit at a kids party?