How NOT to Ice a Cake

If you asked Michaela Byrd yesterday, she would have happily told you it was "Hayla's Birt-ay." 


If you don't speak toddler, that translates to "Michaela's Birthday." 


Having a child with a birthday so close to Christmas can be tough. Most people are partied/presented out by now. We're planning a small party later this month, but today was all about Michaela Byrd and her family. I took her to Panera for a chocolate chip bagel in the morning while Natalie and the rest of us celebrated the return to preschool.


I planned to bake a cake for my newly turned 2 year old, and realized around 3 pm yesterday afternoon that I had not baked it yet. While my girls turned to blobs in front of the TV amused themselves, I got to work with my friend Betty Crocker. 


{Before you read the rest of this post, I must beg of you to please not send it to Cake Wrecks.}


Clearly, I am not an icing pro.

In fact, I am pretty sure Michaela Byrd herself could have done a better job at icing this cake, were she able to resist the temptation of licking the knife.


I got distracted by something shiny as I was icing the "dots" around the perimeter of the cake, and they veered off the edge somehow. 

Lucky for me, I have two little girls who are voracious cake eaters and not so much connoisseurs of icing aesthetics.


After opening a few presents, we sang the traditional birthday song, though it received tepid reviews:

(She cried because I wouldn't let her pick up the entire burning cake with both hands. I am such a mean mother.)


But all's well that ends well. If our rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" was dismissed, the cake itself earned 5 stars.

And my little food critic would know, after all!


{Bon Appetit, Y'all!}