Nailed It!

After much research, Zibbi decided she wanted an Elmo cake for her birthday.  Every time I would mention her birthday, she would say, "Elmo" meaning she still wanted an Elmo cake. 

Originally, I thought I'd have the professionals at Hy-Vee Bakery create the masterpiece.  Having recently discovered Pinterest, however, I decided I would make the cake.  Ben and I looked up You Tube videos on how to make a cake.  One chef promised us it would only take an hour as she went through 65 easy steps to an Elmo cake...it was as if part of her instructions were in a completely different language.  The cake she made was gorgeous.

Finally, I decided on a cupcake pull apart cake.  It is a bunch of cupcakes squished together to look like Elmo's face.  Because Zibbi's two favorite Madison people could not attend dinner on the same evening, we were having two celebrations.  I thought we could just take cupcakes from the bottom of the face the first night and it wouldn't even look like we'd actually eaten anything the second night.  Sneaky. 

With the craziness of after school and the day in general, I was rushed to get the project completed before our first guest arrived.  Then I realized we had a function at Lotta's school that night rather than the next night as I'd previously thought.  So I raced through the cake baking and then frosting making. Needless to say, the Elmo cake did not turn out the way I had anticipated.  I texted a friend that I was hating on Elmo after my fail.  She told me that I couldn't possibly hate Elmo, he is after all, all about love. 

I did learn some valuable lessons that day.
1.  It is so much funnier to fail than to succeed.  Go to pinterest failures for loads of laughs.  Here is my pinterest "nailed it".  I mean, yes, not even Zibbi recognized my attempt as Elmo.  Still, it will be a story to tell for years to come...

2.  You can't rush.  Part of the problem I had was feeling rushed, putting the frosting on too early.  Rushing to make the frosting before the butter was softened, etc. etc.  Apparently, "they" have all those baking "rules" for a reason...

Our great friend Brittany kept saying, "It tastes great and that's what matters!"  Lotta, on the other hand, decided she will have brownies for her birthday.