Ben's 2nd Birthday Cake - From the Archives

I was looking through some old pictures today to see if my son, Ben (who will be 4 yo in less than a month) looked anything like my daughter does now at 18 months.  I came across Ben's 2nd birthday party back in 2008 and realized that is when I knew I liked decorating with frosting.  I have always enjoyed baking and I knew that every birthday cake for my kids would be baked by me from scratch, but I didn't recognize that the whole decorating part would be something I grew to love.

At Ben's 2nd birthday party, I was pregnant with Miss Paige.

First of all, I REALLY wanted to make a Mickey FACE cake.  Wilton no longer carries the pan and it was on ebay for lots of $$$$, but very hard to pin down and "win."  So I settled with Mickey's body, which Wilton also no longer carries.  I found it on ebay for $30 and jumped on it (later to be sold to my ultrasound technician who I saw on a weekly basis and talked to about the party).  I scoured the internet to find the best chocolate cake recipe out there.  I settled for Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cake, which turned out to be fabulous and will forever be my chocolate cake go-to recipe.  I stood for hours decorating this Mickey Mouse cake - Wilton style.  I had piped Ben's first birthday cupcakes, but this was the first real time, I had to do use a piping bag in this manner.  I had to color so many shades of frosting.  I had never done anything like it before.  It was a painstaking process that included tears, almost quitting, and finally smiles.

Baking the cake was one thing.  I was so nervous about getting just the right amount of batter in the crazy-shaped pan.  But THEN when I saw that very subtle Mickey Mouse staring back at me longing to be "brought to life," I freaked out.  I still had 3 brunch casseroles to make and lots of other stuff to prepare!  We won't even go into the story about how I had to trace, trace again, and cut the cardboard to the shape of Mickey Mouse.  Seriously??

Once I started, I felt so much better.  It was one of those situations, when you just have to start somewhere.

There was a glimmer of hope.

And an enormous mess!!!

Of course now I look at it and I see sooo many things I would change.  I followed Wilton's method to a tee.  Now that I have more frosting confidence, I would do some of my own stuff.  However, I was so very proud!!!!

And Ben woke up the next morning in heaven.  This was the best part!!!

(Do you even see my dog, Lucy, wanting in on some of the action?)

Happy 2nd Birthday Ben (2 years ago), as I am ready to wish him a Happy 4th Birthday on February 21st.

What will this year's party dessert be?