Luis's Birthday - Phase I

Thursday (tomorrow) is Luis's last day of school before the winter break. I asked the teacher if I could bring in something for the class (she said, "Great!") and then I asked if there were any allergies (no - to which I said "Great!"). Apparently, no other parent's have brought in treats for their child's birthday. My number one memory of my birthday as a child was how special Mom made me feel on that day; not that she didn't make me feel special most days, but birthdays were different. I am eager to pass this same feeling/experience on to Luis. So I set out to bring a GOOD treat for Luis on his special day.

The next day at the mall, Jules and I found this really amazing 9 train-car cake mold at William Sonoma, which I couldn't quite resist.

This morning, we made the cake trains. Amazingly, they didn't stick at all - coming out looking like nine awesome trains. Predictably, I filled each mold WAY too full, so they were awesome trains on big blobs of platforms. Tonight, Jules took on the job of decorating trains, while I took on the job of wrapping a big box like a present and then lining the inside with foil - so Jules could paint a train track on the inside (and I could carry the trains to school in the morning). Let's just say we each had jobs well-matched to our talents...

The trains sat on the "over-flow blobs" for decorating, making it easier to get the sides and bottom. Then we just frosted the "blobs" to share with the teachers.

Jules continues the decorating the trains

I wrapped a hinged box with wrapping paper to look like a gift. Then inside are the trains on a track made of frosting.

They turned out A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Engine, engine Number Nine; Going down Chicago line...

What's a train without freight cars? And what yummier freight is there than marshmallows and mini chocolate chips?

A head-on view of the train

We've been to a bunch of birthday parties this year all with delicious, beautiful store bought cakes. Growing up, we always had home made cakes. Home made sheet cakes because Mom said she couldn't make a "two-story" cake (our name for a layer cake). There were many, many, many years where all I really wanted was a store bought cake. But I always got home made. Then there was a year in my early twenties when I was home for my birthday. Mom "surprised" me by getting me a store bought cake. She was clearly very proud of herself. I appreciated her effort, but was in fact, completely disappointed that she hadn't made me a cake. My mom makes DELICIOUS cakes.

I imagine that Luis is going to have a similar experience - pining away for those store bought cakes where the cake to icing ratio is 1:1. But he'll be enjoying home made cakes. I just hope that some of Jules's creativity has worn off on me so that I can continue to make such beautiful, original, awesome cakes as he's going to have this year.