Saturday, November 1, 2008

The Flaming Fort

**Most toys not harmed in the making of this cake**

My little brother has hit the double digits.  He is now a proud ten-year-old!  And of course, what better to celebrate and comemerate such an occation than a cake with toy soliders on it?

Now I realize that when you look at this cake, it may not look like my best effort:  it kind of leans to the side, there are definite crumbs in the icing, and speaking of icing, I did a poor job of smoothing it down.  But fear not!  The appearant lack of perfection in this cake is exactly what I was going for.  And when I say "I," I mean to include my little brother too.  Because James definitely helped.



He picked out the cake mix (silly lemon cake lover!) and we baked cupcakes together.  Why cupcakes?  It was his idea.  Then together we took the cupcakes and some yummy cream cheese icing and created a fort.  Not a castle.  Oh, no, no, no, no, no!  Most certainly not a castle!  It's a fort.  After we stacked up all the cupcakes, I iced the outside walls and the roof.  Unfortunately, 34 cupcakes stacked up on top of each other isn't very stable.  One misstep with that icing spatula and I could've knocked down an entire wall!  So I had to be very careful.


For the finally touches (after I piped on some doors and windows.  Windows which apparently weren't appropriate for a fort, I might add), James and Mom cleaned off some of his new army men and placed this strategically on the cake.


That wasn't the end of it, though!  Dad, of course, had to pull out the sparklers.  Candles just weren't good enough for this cake.  And so, as we all joined in a chorus of "Happy Birthday," the sparklers  sparked happily on the top of the cake.  Until...


Yes, that's right.  One unfortunate solider got caught in the crossfire and, well, caught on fire.  Thankfully, he survived, even if his arm didn't.  And James had a fun story to tell at school the next day!

5 comments:

Amethyst Willow said...

Poor soldier! You tagged this castle not fort, don't tell your brother ;)

Unknown said...

Yes, I've tried making this kind of castle cake for my son's birthday last time, and the towers were lining to the side. I said, hey we have Pisa tower here hehehe... The greatest thing is that your children enjoy it, Kelsie. Well done!

Anonymous said...

If you have to do one like this again, you might try driving a bamboo skewer through each "tower" for stability. It looks like you and your brother had fun and that is what matters much more than whether or not the cake was a masterpiece. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. :)

Sweet Treats by Dani said...

WOW!

Donna said...

Such a cool idea...and a memory that your younger brother will not soon forget!! What a GREAT sister!!