A Life in Cakes

We just celebrated Ethan's 10th birthday yesterday. Yes, 10!! We were reflecting on each year last night at dinner and got on the topic of Ethan's cakes. My mom set an example for me of having creative cakes for our parties. I can't say all of Ethan's have been amazing, but it's fun to look back through and see what he liked each year. Here they are:

1st year: He didn't care, so I just made a generic cake to the feed the masses of friends we invited (he didn't care who came at age 1 right?)



2nd birthday: Ethan loved Blue Clues. This is when I first discovered the awesome time and effort saving technique of using toys to decorate the cake, rather than actually drawing something. (I'm pregnant in this picture, by the way). It's fun to see that the two kids on the right, Jackson and Emma, were at his 10th birthday party too!


3rd birthday: I'm pretty proud of this one. You can't tell much, but I dug part of the cake out, throwing those M&M rocks into the hole (if only real rocks came in candy colors). Again, Ethan's toys to the rescue!


4th birthday: I didn't want to ruin Thomas by planting him in frosting, so I constructed this, probably from a picture.


5th birthday: This one was our first in Singapore. I realize it doesn't make sense that Spiderman would be laying on the web like this, but it looked better than him doing a face plant into the cake.


6th birthday: Dinosaur! I wish I had a closer picture of this one. This was my first shaped cake. Notice the "rocks" on the table - chocolate pieces I found at Mustafa! The palm branches are courtesy of the courtyard. Ah, the tropics!


7th birthday: I'm not sure why Ethan wanted a Superman cake. I think he requested superheroes in general and this was the easiest. That red frosting was so potent the kids' mouths and hands were stained for days!


8th birthday: What do you do when your son asks for a "Lego Star Wars" birthday. Not Legos, not Star Wars, but Lego Star Wars. Call in the toys! There's a stormtrooper riding that green animal, and some other figures scattered around.


9th birthday: Ah, possibly my biggest challenge yet: a Bakugan birthday. Thankfully, these little toys are round so I suggested cupcakes. I then spent a night creating frosting in the various colors of Bakugans. After all my work, I was informed by my son that they were not quite the right colors. Because it was his birthday, I let him live.


10th birthday: Camouflage! Good thing I stocked up on all those different food colorings at the baking store in Singapore. This required brown, black, and two shades of green. My fingernails are still stained. As are some of the boys.

There it is - a life in cakes.