Like many things with young children, we forget how we got involved in doing particular activities. I started making cakes for Jack starting on his first birthday. Then we morphed into doing a cake for his father a couple weeks ago. Since Owen's birthday was coming up soon, we decided to surprise Owen.

Both Jack and Owen became fans of Elmo early on, and hence Owen was going to get his own Elmo cake. Jack mixed the food coloring into the icing and began icing the cake with the intenseness of Michelangelo doing the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

All went well for several minutes as Jack iced the cake. The second layer of the cake was added. Then the artist paused to observe the icing job was not quite perfect. Jack sat there and looked to figure out what the issue was with the cake's artistic look.

Finally, realized that some of Elmo's icing was not perfect and went about making Owen's cake perfect. Having added the needed icing, his next problem reared its head. He got the Elmo cake decorated, but what could be done with the extra icing?

Jack resolved the delightful dilemma. Then onto the pièce de résistance...making Elmo's face.

First, one nose....

Then the two eyes....

Then the most demanding and difficult stylistic flair...Elmo's mouth.

Again, an artistic pause. I think Jack was wondering whether the mouth needed more attention. Having resolved that problem, all was well. Besides, Owen has awakened from his nap just in time for the party to begin.

Owen cannot figure out why the candles won't blow out. We used the same kind of candles on his father's birthday cake. However, Owen continued to try while we all sang Happy Birthday to Owen.

Then I bent over and said to Jack, "Next week Owen will make you a Cookie Monster cake."

"Campbell's Cooking Class"

Visit the "Campbell's Cooking Class" page to read more about this topic.

08/18/14