Cake Tour, Part 1

{Reposted... this was on my regular blog, two years ago. At the time I didn't have a recipe blog. I hope you can get some ideas & inspiration for your own kids' birthday cakes!}

Since Noah's birthday is coming up, I have been thinking about all things birthday lately, including cakes. As many of you know, I often put the most effort into the cake - more than the party, the decor, the hairdo of the birthday child, etc. It varies from birthday to birthday and I have even done a couple of store-bought cakes the past few years (the horror!) but I do usually make them myself and I am usually proud of them.

I just went through pictures of all of the birthday cakes I've done and I've found all the ones that I liked enough to display here, so here they are - broken into five posts.

So with that rambling preamble, here is part 1.

My first big fancy cake; Noah's 2nd birthday in 2002. It was so much fun but I think I was up until about 3am the night before finishing it. He was really into trains at the time.

Molly's 1st birthday, 2003. I thought that dying coconut green to look like fake grass was SO fancy. The flowers were pre-done in royal icing but you can't really tell.

Noah's 3rd birthday, 2003 - he was so funny and requested this one very specifically. When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, he said he wanted chocolate with blue circles all over it, with a big yellow circle. I think it turned out pretty cute!

My first character cake for Molly's 2nd birthday - Dora turned out a little sunburned-looking but oh well! I printed out a picture of her and kind of made a stencil. I couldn't draw that well free-hand. Most memorable part of that day was when Molly didn't understand about blowing out the candles and tried to grab them instead (while lit). Ouch! See, too much attention was given to the cake and not enough to instruct the birthday girl!

Thanks for indulging me in this walk down memory lane so far... stay tuned next time for four cakes made in 2005!