Or...
Maybe We Should Have Named Her Cake-ence. I turned thirty-eight the day before Easter. Cadence turned one the day after Easter. Even though she's started gingerly walking and unpacks all the cupboards every time I turn my back, she is still so small and baby-like that it's hard to believe she's now one! Harder yet to believe that in five months, she'll be a big sister.
I usually don't do much for our children's first birthdays-- a cake is about the extent of it, as they don't care much either way. Now that the bigger girls have begun choosing special desserts over shaped birthday cakes (and the younger girls ask for things like "a cake shaped like a seven and covered in blue frosting), it's been a while since I made a fancy birthday cake. It was about time! Even though I knew Cadence would be just as pleased with a flat cake of any color, I wanted to make her a pretty cake for her first birthday, one that reflected our magical spring baby.
I snipped a few green twigs from a cherry tree out back, and I stole the twig number idea from here. (Hint: it takes about five minutes to make, so don't buy one.)
I made the fawn (a bit droopy) from marshmallow fondant mixed with some gumpaste powder leftover from Deborah's wedding cupcakes-- recipe here. This was my first time modeling anything for a cake, and next time, I'll probably add a bit more gumpaste powder to firm things up. When I first started, the fawn looked like an "Alien Tootsie Roll Creature" (my words), so I was very relieved that the final result was recognizable.
I really didn't have much to do with making this blue-eyed baby, apart from allowing the Shaper to do His good work for nine months within me. And look at His work! Marvelous to behold.
She was so cute snitching fingerfuls of frosting that I was overcome and took too many pictures.
And then, because my blanket-holding serfs were getting tired, I moved the cake away. While I was putting it away, Susannah took this picture of the unhappy Magic Baby.
She's learned to voice her displeasure quite piercingly these days...
AH! BUT WHAT'S THIS?!?!?! Baby and her beloved Cake reunited at last! All it took was a few-hour wait, and we decided to allow them to see one another again.
She was happy-happy-happy.
And then we gave her her very own slice to nibble! She could barely believe her good fortune.
She must take after her mother, because she nibbled it right to the nubs. Oh, little dearling sugar tooth, we love you so! We love you much more than cake and always will. Here's to another year of growing stronger and bigger and more filled with curiosity and wonder for all things wondrous, from cupboards and cakes and daffo-down-dillies to all that's yet waiting your discovery. It's going to be a fun year!
Love her beautiful cake :) Have I told you how much I love her name.. Sadly the girl we are adopting has the same given name, however different spelling, but she despises it so no matter how much I pleaded with her to keep it her mind was made up to change it but we almost had daughters with the same name <3
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that cake! The fawn actually has personality! And it is food! Is the eye a bead? I even see a sparkle in her eye. I suspect there will be a new wave of sculpted creatures on cakes from now on- the children have a new option they probably never knew existed.
ReplyDeleteI wonder...who wound up eating the deer?
She is such a small little thing, it is hard for me to imagine her a 1 year old. What a little gift, wrapped up for you.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteA cheer for the adoption! :( to the name change. What could possibly be nicer than Cadence?! ;)
Rebecca,
Thanks! The eye is indeed a bead. Piper has already requested an identical cake for her birthday on June 1st, except with a skunk in place of the fawn. (Everyone had a bite the night of the party, and I just threw the rest of the fawn out on Saturday. We've had so much other junk in the house lately that it appealed to no one.)