It was my birthday this weekend past and despite my many reservations, I agreed to vacate the house for the morning while my husband and children made me a birthday cake. Now, I say that I had reservations because although my husband is absolutely amazing and can do a great many things, baking is, unfortunately, not one of them. Still, the children were so excited to bake mommy a cake and so off I went.
Thankfully I asked my husband to take some photos so that I could follow their progress (there were over 100, these are the ones I selected).
Two little girls and one little dog all ready to go (I am not sure why the shoes had to be on the table).
Eggs all beaten and apparently very interesting.
I really liked how the girls were completely in charge and took it in turns to pour and stir.
Once the cake was in the oven it was time to make the icing.
Somehow I don’t think all of the butter made it into the bowl.
I think I tend to forget how capable my children are sometimes. I am usually the one supervising these activities and so I don’t get to sit back and just watch them. I was so proud when I looked at all the photos and saw how they were pouring, mixing and EVEN tidying on their own.
Once of my children chose to wash dishes, the other did not!
Everything went so well, and then the cake broke. This is the point where my husband chose to phone me. In between the hysterical laughing I managed to piece together what had happened and although we won’t go into too much detail about how it broke, I will say, please make sure you never pick up a warm cake unsupported!
I LOVED that I came home to a broken cake, a messy kitchen, two filthy children and three HUGE smiles.
Although the cake itself didn’t matter and it was more about the father-daughter bonding experience, I had been craving chocolate cake ever since I laid my eyes on that particular box mix and so we set about trying to make the best of our bowl of cake.
The original plan was to ice the individual broken pieces and make cake brownies but the pieces were too uneven so instead we went with plan B. We lined a round bowl with cling wrap and then spread icing all over the wrap. We then broke up the cake even more and put it into the bowl on top of the icing. We covered it all up and placed in in the freezer for about 45 minutes to set the icing. When it was done we turned it out into a bowl and slowly pulled off the cling wrap. What we ended up with was a cake bombe that the children could still decorate and that tasted delicious.
What you need
• 1 box of cake mix (I selected the Nomu cake mix because I know it turns out and tastes delicious and as an added bonus it is one of the few cake mixes that includes an icing mix too).
• Additional items as per the box mix (i.e. butter, eggs and milk)
• Industrial strength kitchen cleaner
• A sense of humour
Method
1. Grease and line cake tin
2. Place cake mix and all additional items needed on the kitchen counter
3. Leave the house for the morning and try not to think about the chaos you have left behind
4. Return a few hours later, hopefully relaxed and calm after some me time.
So, if you are ever tempted to hand over your kitchen to your husband and children I say go for it. The happy memories and tasty (albeit wonky) cake in the end are worth all the mess and chaos.
It was the best birthday cake ever!