Cake Story

In an effort to keep things simple at this point in my life, I decided not to do an all-out party for John's birthday. But we still had to have cake, and since I love to decorate them, it sounded fun to try a rocket ship since John is into them right now.

It went okay. It was better than my airplane cake debacle of 2004. (Apologies to Beth Barker since it was her family alone on the guest list.) But only a little bit better.

Found LOTS of suggestions online, after being afraid that my own idea of stacking 4-inch rounds a mile high might prove disastrous.

Here was my model:

Happily, this cake lady said she bought pre-made roll cakes. Pre-made makes things even simpler! And roll cakes happened to be on sale at Smith's this week. Bethanie chose one lemon and one red velvet.

I visited Smith's, Target, WalMart, Michael's, Jo-Anne's, and the location of a now-out-of-business candy store in an effort to find the little silver balls to use for rivets. VERY frustrating. Decided to use M&M's instead and hope for the best.

Here's the cake in its beginning stages:

I used a waffle cone for the nose of the rocket, which turned out to be the dorkiest-looking part, in my opinion. But I couldn't (and still can't) think of anything that might look better.

Here's a photo from the best angle (in other words, where you can't see the underside of the nose that didn't match up):

I wonder if 3 year-olds make wishes. The candles were supposed to stick out the back, ready for blast-off - but that sounded precarious. John didn't complain about the lack of realism.

Proof that it was eaten: