Mommy Cake, Daddy Cake

Leo turned two just a few days after the family came back from Asia. With Valerie and the kids jet lagged, and to make getting up for work tougher for me, we were out buying an orange at 10pm, and Valerie was just starting to work with the kids on making a cake at 11pm. Not electing to put my culinary skills to the test, I took a few pictures of them instead:

This post is relatively light on words, but heavy on images, so I’ll put a break here for any RSS users…

Olivia’s an experienced baker; she’s been doing this for a couple of years already:

Leo’s looking pretty relaxed about the whole process too.  He doesn’t yet see the irony in being roped into baking his own birthday cake:

The kids seem happy about how things are coming together, Valerie seems a little less convinced:

Of course, the real mess start a little later, when Leo figures that you obviously have to decorate nearby things like that orange:

For the finished product, Mommy decides to add a chocolate mousse layer… unfortunately, it doesn’t turn out quite as nicely as past chocolate mousse efforts since Leo’s milk allergy (which he fortunately seems to be growing out of) required creating a soy-based version.  It wasn’t bad, but Olivia could tell the difference, and coined this one “yucky chocolate”:

Leo isn’t quite old enough to blow out candles yet, though he understands the concept of blowing on stuff that might be too hot before eating it. With Olivia blowing out his candles, he figures the cake might be one of these things that just requires a little blowing:

Fast forward several weeks, and it’s just about Mommy’s birthday, which calls for another cake effort! This time, though, it’s up to Daddy and the kids to make the cake. Let’s start with the finished product – a two-layer lemon cake separated and topped with a strawberry compote with hints of orange:

Okay, two pictures is about as far as I can take the pretense, though anyone that’s ever had cake can probably already call my bluff – I might be able to cook a meal on occasion, but I’ve got no ability whatsoever when it comes to baking. Fortunately, I know this Betty Crocker person who helped out:

 Despite this, it was still a genuine 3-person effort:

 I think it works better when I’m doing the picture taking, but we’ll see how the cake tastes soon!