To celebrate the occasion I decided to indulge in a little at-home cookery nonsense. What started as a simple idea ("I am going to make a cake for Norah's birthday!") turned into a three-day-long testimony of my sacrificial love for my daughter (or my gluttony for punishment and an example of over-reaching to please a preschooler).
Norah and I decided together that she would like a yellow cake. I showed her pictures of yellow cake to confirm that she did, indeed want yellow cake. Check. I made the cake on Saturday (Day 1), and it only took about 8 hours to do. (I guess it would have taken less time if it weren't for the fact that the oven was in self-cleaning mode for about 6 hours of the day, which I discovered only after Norah and I had already prepped the batter....) I froze two cakes and we used the extra batter to make cupcakes with which we taste-tested frostings.
Norah said she wanted pink and purple frosting--no chocolate--and sprinkles on top. Colors I can do. Check. I knew that she disliked cream cheese frosting as well as chocolate, so I hunted around for a simple white frosting recipe. I made three different types of frosting over the course of 3 days--all rejected by the birthday girl--before we figured out that just didn't like the "flavor" of the colored frosting. So I had samples of pink, purple, green, and white frosting that had all failed to please Norah--whose preferences had shifted from pink and purple frosting to green and yellow. (Toby had a great time taste-testing all of them.)
By Sunday night (Day 2) I had forgone the taste-testing and just decided that I would assemble the cake as-is on Monday (her actual birthday) and she could just deal with it. Cake is cake. (This is the point where I mention that BJ had already politely suggested (twice) that I just order a cake from the local bakery.)
On Monday (Day 3) Norah and I put green frosting on one layer of cake and white frosting on the outside. With the leftover purple frosting I piped a border around the bottom layer (mostly to cover all the gaping holes where the cake unevenly met the cake platter) and top edge. We tossed some sprinkles all over the top and called it done.
To illustrate the joy on Norah's face when she is served the first slice of this glorious 3-Day birthday cake, please enjoy watching this video. Really, the picture of her digging into a huge slice of cake is priceless...
Did you see? How she just dug right into that huge slice of cake? You missed it?
Well, here's a picture of her plate once she determined that she was done with cake and wanted to move on to presents.
Awesome. Next time, she's getting a bowl of ice cream for her birthday. And I promise I will NOT be making ice cream from scratch.
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