The Birthday Cake
We had a fun weekend with my family, celebrating my grandma’s 80th birthday! My job was to make the birthday cake, and transport it to the party. Decorating it was the first challenge. I didn’t have a clear plan when I started, so it took a little longer than expected. Well, that and I haven’t practiced much. Besides, it’s one thing to practice the basket weave on a flat piece of waxed paper, and quite another to translate that to the side of a cake!
The second challenge was transporting the cake without ruining it. My mother-in-law had some great suggestions for that. First, you have to freeze the cake, then put it inside a large plastic bag, blow air into it, and tie it off. Put the whole thing in a large cardboard box with some ice packs and wrap the box with blankets to insulate. And amazingly, the cake arrived pretty much unscathed! I never even took a picture of it until we reached our destination.
We had the party at a park where my aunt and uncle live. The wind was really whipping on Saturday! Some of the cousins played frisbee golf, although I’m not sure how! Other than having to hold down our cups and chips at dinner, we managed pretty well. Everyone brought yummy food for the cook-out, and my parents made homemade ice cream to go with the cake which we presented to Grandma after dinner:
We also took a windblown family photo while we were there. I look like a giant standing next to Grandma, but I’m not – she is just very petite! (You can click on the photo to see a larger version – you know, in case you need a better view of those sweet babies. Aren’t they precious?)
A fun time was had by all! What did you do over the long weekend?
Page with Comments
Comments are closed.
When I first read the title of this blog I thought you’d made your Grandma a soap cake! Haha! That’ll teach me to read things properly won’t it 😉
The cake looks great, well done on transporting it so successfully 🙂
Amy,
That cake was so pretty, and I’m sure it meant a lot to your Grandma. She looks like a fun lady! So glad you had great day -memories of Grandmas are just so special. If she’s like my Grandma was, she’ll be talking about it with her ladyfriends for weeks and months to come! 🙂
@Harriet – Yes, considering the name of my soap company, you might think I made cakes out of soap!
@Becky – You are right!! I’m sure she will be talking about it for quite awhile! 🙂
Awww, she looks so happy with her cake! Happy birthday to her! 🙂
Wow – what a great suggestion. I never would have thought to freeze it to get it there safely. Lovely idea and what a great looking birthday cake. It sounds like a great time was had by all.
You did a wonderful job of the cake, it’s beautiful, I bet your Grandma was frilled to bits. I hope she had a great day.
@Anne-Marie – Yes, freezing it was a great idea!! You just have to let it thaw slowly, so condensation doesn’t form. There was one small spot under the “80”, but not too noticeable. The filling was still a bit frozen when we cut it!
@Jan – Thanks so much! Yes, “frilled to bits” pretty much describes it!
What a lovely cake!!! And your grandmother’s shirt totally matched the frosting! You did a beautiful job!
Love the family picture…it looks like it was a fun day!
Thanks for the tip on how to transport the cake…I never would’ve thought of that!