Monday, December 22, 2008

Lion cake?!?!

Okay, here's the deal. We've decided not to do a birthday party this year for the kids. We're going to be doing way too much in the next few weeks and I'm afraid Ethan will be overstimulated. So, between a lack of finances and no desire to repeat last year's debacle (read: the in-laws), we've decided to keep it quiet and lay low. But, I do want to do something special. So, this is what I'm thinking...

I want to make them a lion cake. Or an elephant cake. But, how on earth does a complete non-baker do something like this? I tried a few years ago to make my niece a Barbie birthday cake and it turned out to be a disaster. Part of it was because our oven in the apartment didn't work and it took 2.5 hours to bake the dang thing. The other part? My lack of skills! LOL! Do any of you creative mommas have any idea? I am getting desperate, so desperate that I've thought of purchasing an edible cake picture of a lion off of the internet and just baking a sheet cake. Bah!

For the actual day of their birthday, since my husband will be at work and it will just be the kids and I, I want to take them to one of the local indoor soft playgrounds. And, when they wake up in the morning, I plan on having hundreds of (okay, so maybe just a few dozen) balloons on the floor downstairs. I want to make some safari animal hand puppets, too. I have the thing that I made a while back that is up in their bedroom, but I'm thinking something funner. Michaels must have something. I know I've seen stuff at Walmart in their craft area. (Ugh. I hate the Walmarts in this state. I don't shop there. The one's in Oregon and Colorado are MUCH nicer.)

C'mon, mommas. I need some baking help, here. Is there some easy way for a hopelessly blond non-baker to make a cool cake for her kids?

3 comments:

Janette said...

I started my birthday cake decorating using Wilton cake pans. (http://www.wilton.com/shapedpans/browse.cfm) The first ones I made took a very long time, and I realized it is easier to have several disposable decorating bags, as well as tips, so you don't have to wash them out every time you change colors. They're pretty fun, once you know the ropes. Just pipe stars all over the cake! This year, I made up the basic shapes of my boys' cakes and just piped the stars to fill in. You don't have to be perfect--mistakes don't show easily. HTH!

Figgy and The Professor said...

Thank you! I've been scouring the net looking at different cakes and I *think* I can do it. :) Wilton discontinued the lion pan, though. Bummer. I'm sure it'll be fairly easy to find a lion pan somewhere in this town. Hopefully. And, I'm thinking I can frost it yellow and do the mane with the star piping, like you said. Michaels is usually reliable for those sorts of things.

Janette said...

You can also try ebay, if you have the time. Good luck!