I just read Joey's blog 80 Breakfasts with a great Moomin cake. Very cool and very cute!
It reminded me of one of the first birthday parties for children we ever hosted and how we may have unwittingly set our firstborn up for a lifetime of therapy. Unfortunately Little was into that big purple dinosaur Barney. Being a super lovely mummy willing to go to great lengths to please my children (without spoiling them of course) I went to our local cookshop and hired a Barney Cake Tin. My memory fails me as to which birthday party it was.
Anyway, with the cake tin ready to go I made a plain sponge cake mix of mammoth proportions. Buttered and floured the tin so it wouldn't stick. Made the first cake, which stuck to the tin and broke into small pieces. Not good! I made up some more, buttered and floured the inside of the stupid cake tin and thankfully second time round it worked. I let it cool. It was a baking hot August day and the icing was far too runny. I'd almost got the purple colour right (I know food colours aren't great but it's not every day and I had made other 'proper' cakes for everyone to eat). In the end I threw the lurid purple icing over the top of Barney and kept my fingers crossed that it looked okay. It really didn't so no matter how much finger crossing I did it was just a purple mess.
After we'd all eaten it was Happy Birthday time. I put in the candles and brought the cake out, everyone was singing. For a child that was known for always being happy, too much excitement sent him in the other direction. For the first 3 years the Happy Birthday song made him cry, as did too many presents. We'd have to open them over a few days or he was completely overwhelmed. And overwhelmed I think he was. Just as he began to admire his Barney Cake, he noticed the knife, which of course we needed to cut the silly cake as that's what you do with birthday cake right?
"You're going to kill Barney??" Sounding desperate. "You are NOT going to kill Barney!" and so ensued a whole lot more tears and most probably, a future involving therapy. For those that were there you'll remember it wasn't one of my finest creations and as for stupid Barney he wasn't loved quite as much after that, so maybe it was a good thing...
3 comments:
We went to a 3yr birthday party last year, and the Mum had gone to great effort to make a Fifi head (I can't remember the Spanish name for it) thing made of paper mache filled with sweets. Everyone ooh and ahhed and then the sticks were held out for the kids to hit and make a hole in Fifi, mine was really shocked 'They're hitting Fifi' she said and 3 others were really wailing. I actually found it a bit upsetting myself! Poor Fifi!
At least he is a caring little boy, concerned for his friend Barney :)
KJxx
Oooh I know, that was one of those hand in the air moments from school. Pinata. You say it pinyata. Sorry hubby grew up in Spain, I think they're Mexian though I'm not sure. We've never had one for that exact same reason. I learned my lesson from Barney.
Thanks Kelly-Jane x
Ahhh... children. Aren't they just wonderful! I remember the daughter of a friend of mine went to see Barney at the local shopping mall. She was about 4 at the time. She was so excited. Barney didn't talk of course, as he was just an old man dressed up in a purple dinosaur suit...her comment. "I think he was very shy. He didn't want to talk!"
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