Thirteen

Daughter is turning thirteen at the end of this month. The very end, shared with Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling, which pleases her greatly every year.

But our friend Harry is not the focus this year, although we have yet to see his latest movie and feel a certain urgency thereto. The focus this year is a certain group of vegetarian vampires, and thus entered the Cake. The Cake is a feature in a key scene in the new movie about the VV group, a scene included in the movie's trailer, which trailer was the entire reason we had to watch the MTV Movie Awards, which afflicted me with the sight of Bruno upside down in Eminem's lap, something I'm still trying to scrub from my retinas.

I digress. Back to the Cake. In the book, it's pink, and Daughter being a purist, she asked for a pink birthday cake. Actually, that's all she said at first.

"I'd like a pink birthday cake this year."

Being a naturally suspicious sort, I asked her why. Pink hadn't been on her list since, well, since she was three. Pink is not in the palette. Pink is gross.

"Hm, mm, mumble, Bella, you know..."

Ah. A Twilight thing. It was beginning to make sense. I researched, first the book (the cake was indeed pink) and then the movie. Here's what she has in the movie:

Not pink, as you can see. But we all know movies make changes, and... did I mention purist?... she wanted a pink cake. In my fondant naivete, however, I thought I could make a similar cake, only in pink. A combination of book and movie, as it were. I could do this, especially since the cakes at the local bakery started at $32.50.

Now, let's just say I'm no baker, but I've done a few birthday cakes. There was the ladybug cake for her first birthday. Yes, that's tinted coconut, and yes, I made my own gummy worms on the cupcakes. There was the Barbie cake, with a real Barbie, not those fake ones just for cakes. And the dragon cake I made for her brother. I didn't mind showing any of those to complete strangers, so I thought, hey, how hard can a little fondant be? And it's not like I'm going to attempt three tiers, let's not be silly. Two is plenty.

A friend on Facebook recently did her first fondant cake, so I cribbed the recipe from her. And I checked to see how to beef up a box cake mix to make it more carvable and sturdy (double the oil, add an extra egg, a box of pudding, and a cup of water.) And what the hey, I bought frosting. Wasn't up to whipping up buttercream.

So we made the cakes last night (chocolate lower tier, strawberry upper tier.) And we made fondant. It involved melting marshmallows and kneading in vast quantities of powdered sugar, then dividing in parts and tinting them pink, then more kneading, with Crisco on one's hands and on the table. Lots of Crisco. Great for the hands.

Today, we started putting it together. Second trip to the store for more frosting. Rolled out fondant, cut two- and three-inch stripes, applied to the sides, finished with the Easy Flow Decorating Icing in a Color Not Seen In Nature, added birthday candles that spelled Happy Birthday (thirteen letters, see?) and I wrote her name on the top.

Ta. And Da.

Only... let's just say I have a new respect for those who bake and decorate cakes, and maybe I won't laugh quite so much at Cake Wrecks. Maybe. Because le fondant is the devil's own Play-doh. How do they get it so straight? And why didn't I just slap on pieces of bubble gum? I think I'll stick with Betty Crocker.

But it was worth it. Time spent with daughter = always priceless.