Let Him Eat Cake!

For The Good Doctor's birthday, we undertook the undertaking of cake making. I was going to just buy a Nothing Bundt cake because for some reason, he loves those. But then I saw this lemon pound cake recipe in Real Simple and it seemed pretty, uh, simple so I was inspired to ask my dad to bring over a bundt pan. Then I couldn't find my magazine so I Googled lemon cake to find the recipe and this Sunset magazine recipe for a berry lemon cake came up and then Emmy said she wanted to make that instead. 

That was the roundabout way I arrived at Marshall's to buy two 9 inch springform cake pans. And almost gave a store worker a heart attack. I have never operated a springform pan. So when I saw the buckle, I unfastened it, natch. That sent the 9 inch metal bottom KAH-RASHING to the linoleum floor where it spun and clanged and rolled 10 feet away before I could scoop it up. Heh heh. Don't mind me. Doo da doo da doo.

Emmy helped measure the flour and did a little whisking before she became consumed with touching the fine white powder on the baking sheet I used as a catch-all. Because I'm anal and when you bake with a 3 year old, anality requires that you try to catch every spill before it happens. 

Somehow she still became a little powderface during the process.

Emmy assisted again after the cakes were baked. She is responsible for 94% of the berry placement on this cake. Not too shabby.

We kept it a secret until Emmy said, "Can I show Daddy his birthday cake?" right before dinner and the Official Birthday Cake Reveal Time. She's only 3 so I am cutting her some slack. Plus I didn't tell her to keep it a secret. There's something creepy about telling toddlers that something should be "our little secret."

But Asian Grandpa should know better. That still didn't prevent HIM from spilling the beans during dinner when he said, "We still have to go home and eat cake." Thanks Dad. Good one.

The Good Doctor probably had his suspicions anyway since he spotted the original cake pan I bought and left sitting on the counter so I wouldn't forget to return it because I got a better deal at Marshalls. I saved $8 but spoiled my own surprise with my unconvincing story that "Uh, my dad bought it. He thought uh we might need it. Uh but we don't." *shuffling past The Good Doctor to run upstairs*

Alas, the cake photographed better than it actually tasted I think. The lemon zest frosting and berries = tasty. The cake = dense as a mother. And dry like the sands of the Sahara. Well, not that bad but it was not a moist, fluffy cake. It was more of a thick, Russian grandmother I survived cold winters in Siberia by making soup from bark cake. Edible but nowhere near as delicious as the beautiful HOMEMADE black tea and chocolate macarons our neighbor gave us. And I don't even like macarons but these were gorgeous and scrumptious.

Maybe I can book her for next year.

Meantime, Happy Birthday to my favorite husband! Thank you for eating your cake slice without asking for a glass of water.

Emmy's 3rd Birthday: PreSchool Style

This is why people love our preschool. The teachers are amazeballs and the kids are not hair-pulling zombie tyrants. At least none that I've seen yet. Although Emmy's dad has a thing for zombies. As in, he will accidentally waste 2 hours watching a movie about zombified sheep that take over a countryside. (That was before we had children. Because if that happened now, I would ensure he took the first step toward zombiehood.)

I love how Emmy responds to "Goocha," the purple puppet. It's this little glimpse into how she thinks and acts when she's out in the wild, "all by herself" as she dramatically puts it. The part where Goocha looks into her eyes is probably my favorite. That and when she she yells "Yes!" when he asks if she's a girl.

I was hiding behind a book case shooting this video. I think if I could have a super hero power, I would choose invisibility. To be a fly on the wall in so many situations would be much better than my current hero power: causing electronic devices to freeze by simply touching them.

Ox Cake

Vietnamese Cake Boss pulled it off. The ox cake came complete with field, flowers, and the ox munching on a tuft of grass. Asian Grandparents picked up the cake, so I didn't get to thank him in person but I hear he spent much of the morning perfecting the shape of the three dimensional whipped cream bull, right down to the horns. He was extremely excited, too, guaranteeing excellent pictures.

Cute? Not exactly. But definitely memorable. And unique. And waaaaay better than a unicorn. 

The ox is currently living on a piece of foil in our kitchen. I didn't have the heart to slice into his whipped cream body. We may just put him in front of Emmy and let her go to town. It would be the only humane way to do it. 

Happy 1st Birthday Emmy! Your party was so much fun I lost my voice.

It's Going to be a SUPPLIES!!!

Being the stellar parents that we are, we waited until this week to select a birthday cake for Emmy's FIRST birthday. And by "this week," I mean today. Originally we thought we were doing a Baskin Robbins ice creamy cakey cake, ice creamy cakey cake, ICE CREAMY CAKE DO THE ICE CREAMY CAKE. But they only have cakes to serve 15-20 people, so we'd have to get two cakes and then we'd have to clear a bunch of freezer space that we don't have and it became a much much bigger deal than it needed to be, so we went to Plan B.

Asking a nurse at The Good Doctor's work to make one of her amazing chocolate raspbery cakes. "The Best Cake I've Ever Tasted," were The Good Doctor's exact words. Turns out she's out of town this weekend. Plus she probably thought we were nuts to ask her on a Friday to make a cake for 50 people by Sunday. 

So we went to Plan C. VIETNAMESE BAKERY Y'ALL!

L'Amour Des Baguettes. Next to the King Eggroll where we're picking up the most delicious eggrolls as appetizers for the party. 

My brilliant idea: unicorn cake for Emmy's first birthday. Symbolic. One horn. One year. That's deep, right?

But the Google image search was a little underwhelming. The unicorn cakes reminded me of the horse head in the bed scene from The Godfather. Or ugly rainbow unicorns with deformed manes. The only highlight was on page 3 of my "unicorn birthday cake" search. The RANDOM picture of a chocolate brown penis cake.

Plus the Vietnamese baker was all, "Unicorns would not work. You lose too much cake. How about a pig instead?"

Umm. Well. The pig was cute and all, but totally random. Unlike the unicorn, of course. That was symbolic. And deep.

But we spotted a whipped cream ox on one of the cake shelves. A small one. Since Emmy was born in the Year of the Ox, I thought that might work. Turns out they can only make pig shaped cakes. The ox is just a topper. But the baker suggested we make a giant ox, and use it on top of a half sheet cake. 

He promised it would look very cute, surrounded by tropical jungle plants and icing flowers. We Viets are tropical people, after all.

Keep in mind, this is THE owner and baker behind the successful, 3.75 Yelp starred L'Amour Des Baguette. I trust the man. He is the Vietnamese Cake Boss.

So I'm texting The Good Doctor, who, at this critical juncture, is in the operating room saving lives and not returning a single text. WHERE ARE YOUR PRIORITIES, MAN?

I go rogue on the situation, ditch the unicorn idea, and sign off on the $80 cake order. Half fresh strawberry filling, half pineapple with mousse. All adorned with a giant ox. 

If that doesn't say Happy First Birthday Emmy, I don't know what does.

Of course, there are no photos or examples or anything really even close to giving us an idea of what the Vietnamese Cake Boss has in mind. Just me, trying to explain my "vision" and him, patiently nodding, like "Chica, this ain't my first rodeo." But I went with my gut. I really think he knows what I'm looking for. I really hope Vietnamese Cake Boss doesn't disappoint.

Reminds me of a joke The Good Doctor heard from somewhere.

A general assigns a mission to three soldiers.

"Private Smith, you're in charge of shelter!"

"Private Johnson, you're in charge of finding a secure location!"

"Private Wong, you're in charge of the supplies!"

The general comes back a week later and says, "Good job Smith, shelter looks sturdy."

"Johnson, location is good."

"Where's Wong?" 

Private Wong jumps out from behind the bushes and yells, "SUPPLIES!" 

Emmy's cake will definitely be a SUPPLIES!