P turns Five!

Yesterday has been a great day! It was a bit busy for me but it turned out fine.

After three years of planning, I was finally able to bake my son his birthday cake. A first for me, I'm afraid. We've always bought cake from stores before and just come to think of it, he has always had a cake on his birthday. Small maybe but still a cake.

I started around 10 AM after my morning routine. I made two batch coz the portions were not that enough. After two hours, a total of 6 C of flour, 2 C of mayo, 3 C of sugar, 12 T of cocoa and a number of sifting, the mixture did get into the oven and out to start cooling while we had our lunch. Having it cooled a bit, I went back to it to make the fudge and finish up the irregular turn out of the cake. Ha! It sure was time consuming for a first timer like me. I still had to run to the market to get some peppers for the spaghetti. It was about 4 when the grandparents arrived with their gift. ;)

Since not everything is still settled, we all went out for some playtime for the birthday boy and while I run for additional candles and peppers and other stuff needed. SOS from my bro who took care of the finishing touches for the cake which was wanting some colors save for the brown chocolate fudge covering it.

Things to properly note down on DIY cake: NIPS, or MnMs, mallows, sprinklers (which I have to go to a special party store and not just at the only mart in town!), small stick'o, pretzels, hmm...it should look better next time. ;)

Some more notes on the things I learned:

a. I may someday consider using the confectionaire's sugar on the frosting or even fudge. I did buy it and it's rotting in my cupboard. The very conscientous of sugar for the teeth really gets in the way of my baking. Tsk, tsk. I keep on thinking of the very fine confectsugars that is just perfect to melt in our mouth and at the same time melt our teeth! There should be a balance somewhere.

b. Take care of the candles way in advance. This is a second for me coz I do remember one of my friends who had the same problem last time. I almost had the same, except that mine was easier solved. I didn't have to look for a very special candle. A stick was enough except that I needed one more. My reuse-reduce-and-recycle-thing kicked in and what I did was just add one more from the last set that we had last year. Ah! I did buy two this time for next year. Hmm..kidded the clerk about it but I was actually dead serious. LOL..

And now, off to make our thak you cards for our guests yesterday. My son sure had a great birthday thanks to them.