The Lake and a Cake

It is not even my daughter's official birthday yet, but she has just finished with her second birthday party. We had a simple party with a few of her school friends on the last day of school, in hopes that we can catch people before they leave on holidays (drawback to a July birthday).  And without meaning too, a tradition has been established for a 'lake birthday' with my family and local friends.

The cake challenge began a few years ago, when our then fairy obsessed daughter innocently asked for a 'Tinkerbell's Teapot' cake for her party. My mom is ever game for such a challenge, and delivered a perfect teapot cake!  The next year she wanted a 'Cat Playing a Piano' cake. Boom! Done and delivered!  So this year, no one was surprised when Avery asked for a 'Hogwarts Castle' cake and Grandma acquiesced!

Just to make it interesting, some curve balls were thrown in. The week before the lake party, Mom needed to make two separate trips into the city, limiting her planning and playing time. And the day of the actual cake build was so stinking hot that the icing was melting right off the cake, and the elements were slowly sliding into the unknown crevasse of the platter edge. She tried to combat the heat by cranking the air conditioning up in their trailer. This did work for awhile, except the power draw was too much for our old cabin, and breakers blew any time anybody even looked at another switch. But we were all in for the success of the cake, and we worked around the breaker situation to make sure the icing would stick.  Until...

... the air conditioner froze up. All that hard won anti-heat gleefully escaped its confines and skipped down the road to far away. Fine. Mom broke out the party picks and stapled that cake together until it was one piercing away from a circus act. Our neighbours graciously cleaned out their fridge (I don't quite know where they put their food) and removed shelves and gave the Hogwarts cake a cool hangout.

Grateful for a whole alphabet of options, it was finally finished as Mom hit plan Y.

In the end, I think it was worth it! Avery pronounced it the best cake ever and exclaimed that she didn't want to cut it. Until she spied the tasty tower with a dragon on top, and enthusiastically claimed that piece for her own!

I think the eyes are the best touch! Or maybe the dragon. Or maybe the albino bats...

I love how the conditions helped achieve that haphazard Hogwarts feel.

Waiting patiently for the candles to be lit in the breeze. Mom found candles that had flames of different colours.

We gave up and moved inside to light the candles. That's how we found out that Avery has 4! crushes.