My baby is two already!

Yesterday was Jasper's second birthday. I can't believe this spunky, mischievous little guy has been with us for two whole years!

He was a real pro when it came to blowing out his candles.

For the birthday cake this time, I wanted to make something that Jasper would like...cheese and berries are two of his most favourite things in the world, so I made this recipe from joy of baking.com, White Butter Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, and topped it with berries. The cake looked rather pretty, but in terms of deliciousness, it was a complete flop. Seriously! Although I followed the recipe exactly, and even whipped the egg whites separately and folded them in for maximum fluffiness, the cake layers were practically as hard as rocks. Without doubt the unfluffiest cake I've ever made. I can't figure out what the problem was--was that pastry flour I bought from The Bulk Barn mislabeled? Should I not have used organic sugar, which has a larger crystal than regular white sugar? Or was the recipe wrong? The batter seemed quite dry for cake batter...I am thinking that maybe the recipe should have had more milk than 1/2 cup?

On top of the rock-hard cake, the cream cheese icing was too sweet, and the lemony flavour was too strong...nobody liked this cake, although Jasper did enjoy picking all the berries off.

Maybe I should have gotten the Dairy Queen ice cream cake that I got my other two for their second birthdays...ah, well. You win some, you lose some. :)

Jasper did like the cape I made for him, and the crown that a dear blogging friend kindly made for him.

Let me tell you...that cape was NOT fun to make. That red material, which is so pretty and silky, was H-E-double-toothpicks to work with. No matter what I did, no matter how many pins I used, that stuff slid all over the place. I could not get the two types of material to hold together, nor sew a straight seam, for the life of me. You can't see the bottom seam there, but it's completely lumpy, puckered, and weird looking!

As a side note, for the cape I used this tutorial at The Pleated Poppy, which I really liked because it was so easy. No pattern pieces--the cape was drawn freehand, which suited me just fine. Measurements make me nervous, because you can get them wrong. :) I do plan on making more play capes from this tutorial--Kira has already requested a purple one--but next time, no silky fabric!

See the foam sword in the picture? We got him two of them so the boys could play together...Jasper has already taken a large bite out of both swords. I guess he just couldn't resist the spongey texture...after all it was softer than the birthday cake. ;)

Overall though, I am pleased with our efforts to keep his birthday simple and inexpensive. Making a gift instead of buying it saved a lot of money--I didn't even pay a penny for the cape because I already had the thread and fabric. And it felt a lot more special to give him a gift I had made myself.

Comments

[Missus]

Looks like you had a great day in spite of the cake. Definitely blame the recipe, I'd say. Happy birthday to your baby.

[Kathy in KY]

Hey Laura - I'm sorry you had such a time with the cape and cake - but am glad that it all turned out well for all of you. I love the photo of Jasper with his cape and sword. And I got a chuckle out of the fact that he has already taken a chunk out of both of the swords - too funny, and typical 2-yr old. I'm glad you were able to keep things simple, sometimes, well, most of the time, those are the types of birthdays we all remember - at least for me it is. Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting earlier today, and thanks for the encouraging email. I'll keep you posted. Take care, from KY.

[Meg]

congratulations mama - happy birthday jasper
everything looks wonderful....us blogging mamas commend your effort :-)

[susie]

Too cute! I love that you made his cape and planned such a special homemade party! You are a wonderful Mom and you can tell he was happy!
Have a great day!
susie

[Lindsay]

Happy birthing day mama! Too bad your cake was not so yummy - it looks beautiful, though :) Sounds like Jasper had a wonderful birthday!

[Abbie]

He looks adorable in his cape and crown!

[Homesteadgirl]

I don't know how I've lost you from my bloglist...but tonight I thought, Wait a second! Where's Getting There? How old is your baking powder? My sister almost died at the fluffiness of my pancakes because hers are flat...I told her to get new baking powder and it did the trick. It does lose its effectiveness, so if you don't bake much and think it might be old...replace it!
The cape looks great. and the cake does too! He'll look back on these and won't even remember that it didn't taste great...just that you made it homemade!

[Laura Jeanne]

Thanks for the idea--it's possible my baking powder isn't very good--it's just the cheap store brand kind. Most of the other stuff I bake turns out okay though--I just made two zucchini cakes a few days ago that were nice and fluffy! So I'm betting there was an error in the recipe somewhere.

But I can't help asking, what brand of baking powder do you use? Does the brand matter? (I do a lot of baking so this is an important question!)