...things i've learned about cooking....

this weekend. first of all, just because it is an easy recipe doesn't mean it looks anything like the picture in the magazine. since i don't believe in annual birthday parties for my girls, i feel like the LEAST i can do is make a homemade (for real homemade, not just made by me from a box which i still say is homemade) birthday cake AND frosting for my child. here's the picture from the magazine that georgia, with a little guidance, chose:



and it looked like a simple, lovely cake.

it literally took me all afternoon to get it done. how my mother can stand to be in a kitchen all day long and put together three hot meals seven days a week is WAY beyond me. nothing else got done on saturday afternoon. of course, i had two little helpers with me wanting to taste every four seconds!


then, i discovered that (probably because i only make real cakes every so often) i certainly didn't have THREE cake pans to make a three-layer cake. so i decided that it would look just as good with two layers (nope).

another lesson learned is that i lack the skills to look into a mixing bowl and tell which ingredients are lacking to make the cake more moist. had i those skills, the cake wouldn't have tasted like an unsweetened pound cake left out on the counter for a few days.

here was my version of the cake, which the children (most importantly!) found beautiful:



last lesson-- i need to invest in a cake pedestal! i think that must make a world of difference.



here are some birthday pictures from yesterday. we are all on the mend for the most part and were able to have a nice, low-key afternoon celebrating the big 0-5.









at the end of the day, happy girls, tired mama and daddy, and lots of magazine-worthy cake left. delilah is going to get a real treat tonight with her dog food!