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Home > Blogs > Adventures in Motherhood > Archives > 2009 > December > 11 > Entry
Amazing cakes: Photo of the Week
Although money is tight right now at our house, I went ahead with my yearly splurge on the cake for my youngest child’s 4th birthday party. And now that you see the photos, you know it was totally worth it!
Friend and co-worker Karen B. took a cake decorating class the year after my son was born and has been fashioning evermore intricate confections for him ever since. First was a brightly colored Elmo carrot cake, next a three-tier Spider-Man cake featuring edible webs and a cityscape made of cookies, and most recently the Pirate Ship Extravaganza.
My two older kids had some great cakes in their pasts, but nothing like these masterpieces. I’ve even subjected my older son to my own homemade attempts at easy shapes like a hockey puck and a football. (Lame, I know.) And daughter gets a Jell-O ‘pool’ dessert for her summer parties. But they’re older now and don’t seem to mind all the fuss about little brother’s cakes — thank goodness.
The rest of the pirate party was pretty low-budget: I found a red-striped jersey fabric remnant at Walmart for like a buck-fifty and made quick-and-dirty sashes for all the boys (just scissoring involved, no needle and thread).
And Dollar Tree came through for me again: They had pirate sets for — you guessed it — $1, featuring an earring, eye patch, hook and telescope, so we were able to supply each child with a complete costume upon arrival. Instant party favors.
I made a ‘ship’ for the kids to play in from a huge cardboard box (thanks for the donation, Brian). I simply striped it with ‘planks’ of brown marker and had Hubby cut out one side so they could climb aboard. We filled it with a few dozen balloon ‘bombs’ and let them go crazy on each other.
For party games (which I’m not that into), I set up a ‘walk the plank’ game using a 2-by-6 on a blue ‘sea’ of painter’s tarp from the garage, then made it look very scary and dangerous (haha) using rubber bath-toy sharks and killer whales and such.
We played a game of ‘pass the cannonball’ (just like hot potato, but with a black foam bowling ball), and whoever was out had to Walk the Plank, after which the scurvy dog was rewarded with a chocolate coin.
That was it for the games. It took all of 10 minutes, and that’s plenty for an indoor party for 4-year-olds, imho. Or maybe I’m just lazy like that.
I’ve also learned that kids don’t generally eat much at parties, so why bother slaving away in the galley? I kept it simple yet in theme by serving ‘parrot wings and peg legs’ (chicken wings from GFS), emeralds and rubies (green and red grapes), gold nuggets (puffed popcorn), cannonballs (black olives), PBJ doubloons (sandwiches cut with a biscuit cutter) and veggie chili (for which I could not think of a clever pirate name). Oh, and a bit of rum punch for those scalawags over 21. (Lots of parents stay for my parties! ;)
Son has already picked out a theme for Birthday Number 5: Ninjas. I can’t wait to see what our personal pastry chef comes up with next!
P.S. Send me an e-mail if you’re interested in procuring the creative services of the talented Karen B. and I’ll hook you up with her contact info. She’s the next Chef Duff, but without the beard and tattoos.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Great deals, Helpful tips, Photo of the Week
Comments
By LucyB
January 7, 2010 2:22 AM | Link to this
Becca: I checked out your Web site, and your work is phenomenal! Beautiful stuff! Best of luck with your endeavors.
By Becca
January 4, 2010 12:01 AM | Link to this
You can call me too. I am a work from home mom who owns a home bakery. Check out my website www.thesneakycatbakery.homestead.com I would be happy to help local Mom’s make their children’s birthday cakes! The Pirate ship is VERY cute!