Adventures in Cake making!

As you may have read below, we are celebrating Mairead's 4th birthday on Saturday. It has been a little tradition in our household to bake & design a homemade cake. It all started with my mom. She and my father came to Virginia to celebrate Mairead's 1st birthday. My mom thought it would be a fun idea to bake our own cake, and ever since, that is what we have done for each birthday celebration! Each year, the tradition gets more and more fun with the girls! Now, I am absolutely NO Betty Crocker, but I make a mean boxed cake! For Lilah's birthday, I attempted a cake from scratch, but for Mairead's, her "castle cake" is all I can handle this year!

On Friday night after we put Lilah & Clara to bed, we snuck Mairead downstairs to help me bake her cake. She, of course, thought she was so cool being able to come downstairs. It was a lot of fun for both of us!

First, Mairead emptied the mix into the bowl, and added the water & oil.....

Then, she cracked the egg - and did a very good job at it! Once the eggs were cracked, she mixed it all up! 

She poured the batter into the heart shaped pan. She was very anxious to start licking that spatula! I mean, who isn't? I was even chomping at the bit waiting my turn :)

 Once the licking of the spatula was complete, we put the cake(s) in the oven, and off to dreamland she went! When we awoke, she was very excited to see the cake she had made. We sent Lilah & Daddy off to the store for some last minute pick ups, and we started to decorate the cake. 

Mairead had asked for a "castle" cake for her birthday cake. I was stumped! I found a photo of an elaborate but claimed "easy" in a parenting magazine. I went off of that for some ideas and called a girlfriend of mine for some advice! It surely didn't look professional, but it was the memories made that really matter in this case! 

Overall, I was very happy with the way the cake came out, but most of all, the look on Mairead's face when we finished was what made everything worth it! She was so excited to dig in!