The Cake

This is what the cake is supposed to look like.

Preparations for Marni's 6th birthday began a year ago when Marni started watching how-to videos about birthday cakes.

Over the months she saw videos about princess cakes, Barbie cakes, ladybug cakes, and more. And she shared each and every video with me and Lisa.

Eventually she settled on a princess castle cake.

As her birthday drew closer she would make us watch the how-to video more and more often.

Lisa and I determined that we could probably handle the challenge, but decided to make a practice cake a week before her actual party... just in case.

So a week before her party (and while the kids were visiting with their grandparents) we undertook the practice cake.

Practice cake

Lisa gathered the ingredients and baked the 4 layers. I spent the night decorating. When the confectioners sugar settled, we ended up with a cake that pretty well matched the video. We marveled at it for a while and then gave it to neighbors because we didn't want the girls to see it when they got home.

A few days before her party, Marni began to complain that she didn't see enough cake-making action on our part. She was beginning to worry that we weren't actually going to make a cake. Two days before Marni's party we gathered more ingredients and tweaked our process. And the night before her party we once again crafted a princess castle cake.

The final cake

Cake #2 came out much better. Stella and Marni were appropriately impressed.

Needless to say, the cake was a big hit at the party the next day. We even had some requests to make cakes for other parties.

No thanks.

Now we move on to Stella's party. Originally she requested that we make the same cake for her. But lately she has changed her mind and has opted for an ice cream cake.

I vote for the ice cream cake too.