Birthday cake madness

Well it is official - motherhood has finally sent me over the edge. So much so that it has driven me to blog about it to try and rationalise my actions.

Each year of junior number ones short life I have risen to the challenge of creating a suitable birthday cake and after the event each year I vow never to make butter icing again! This year has been no different except this year junior decided he wanted a pirate party so I very stupidly agreed to make him a pirate ship cake. The party was only for 5 young children (two of whom are too young for birthday cake) and their parents, but as the recipe called for a triple cake mix and 3 quantities of butter icing - I obediently set about baking and attempting the icing.

As May is almost winter in Western Australia the weather is quite cool and beating butter icing can be an ordeal for my aging electric beaters (especially a triple quantity) so I reluctantly followed my mother suggestion and tried margarine this year instead of butter. All went well until I added the black food colour to the mix and created a very interesting metallic silver effect! It would look interesting as a paint job on a flashy car but not so inviting on something you plan to eat! After consulting with hubby we agreed that an emergency run to the supermarket to pick up some ready to spread icing was required. The cake was then iced following the directions and put aside to await the arrival of the quests.

The day actually turned out to be more pleasant than expected with a warm sunny day - great for a kids party but not so good for ready to spread icing - which started to droop on the cake. Hubby reluctantly made space available in the beer fridge to save my creation before it turned into a soggy mess on the cake bored but he did note that it looked more like a pirate ship (wreck) cake! Anyway it survived long enough to sing happy birthday and for the birthday boy to make a wish. Polite amounts were consumed by the guests, the kids ate all the smarties and hubby and I will be eating chocolate cake for the rest of the week. Dare I say never again? Perhaps next year I will cover a cardboard box with whipped cream and smarties - the kids will never notice the difference.