Frosted Friday - A Re-Post

I am phoning it in just a little today. Actually it's more like copy and pasting it in. As you read this, I am elbow deep in blue buttercream. A very dear friend is very, very pregnant, and her shower is tomorrow. I made the cake for her wedding shower, and am very pleased to be making this one too.

I will post about it soon, but for now I am re-posting this from when I made my son's 1st birthday cake.

This will look familiar to some of you.

Act surprised.

Dear Wilton Industries,

Thank you for the lovely 3-D rubber ducky cake mold you make. It is perfect for my son's first birthday party. He has loved duckies since he could focus his little eyes, and as this is his first cake too, it should be great fun all around. I do have one small issue, though.

When researching and purchasing this mold, I somehow missed the tiny writing that said baking the cake would require oven safe cotton string or wire. Had I noticed this, I may have stopped to wonder why such tools would be necessary. Unfortunately it wasn't until this morning that I read the directions included inside the box, and realized my mistake. Apparently, I will be strapping two mold halves together rather than gluing two cake halves together with frosting as I had assumed. Granted, this is partly my fault, but really! Since when does cake rise like that?

Thankfully, I had planned ahead and arranged for an auntie to distract my son this afternoon to allow time to fix anything that may go horribly awry. I would ask, however, that in the future you include a warning on your cake pans. I'm no Martha, but I am fairly adept when it comes to all things baking...

No, seriously. I gots mad SKILLZ.

For reals.

But if the cake my son is expecting will require channeling Duff from Ace of Cakes, I would appreciate a little advanced notice.

Demonic-level possession takes a lot out of me, and I still have vegetable dip to prepare.

Thank you for your time,

Alicia

And now, the cake that took hours to make:And mere minutes to destroy. All humans in attendance had a wonderful day.

The duck, on the other hand, probably did not enjoy it.

The little duck on the smash cake actually looks like he knows what is coming... poor thing.

It was yummy, and everyone loved it, but man that thing was labor intensive! It was a little lopsided and had cracked on one side, as most cakes do. It's leveled, plastered with frosting, resting on a ramekin and cake board base, and has a chopstick shoved through it's head to keep it steady.

Seriously, I think I qualified for college-level engineering credits with this cake.
We went with vanilla for the tub and chocolate for the duck. The suggestion of red velvet with a strawberry filling for the duck was vetoed, as I did not want to shell out mega-$$$ for therapy for the children in attendance.