Ryan's Birthday

Today is my nephew Ryan's Birthday. He told his mom that he wanted a cake like Dillon's but one that was chocolate, with fudge in the middle, chocolate frosting and his name on it. So, not really like Dillon's, but what he wanted was a layer cake. Being the nice aunt that I am (and really that it gave me a chance to bake something) I offered to make the cake for him. So, I woke up early and went to the market to buy the stuff to make the cake: 2 boxes cake mix, 2 jars hot fudge, 2 containers of frosting and eggs. (Yes, I took the easy way out and used cake mix.) The girl bagging my groceries actually asked me if I was making a cake. I had to bite my tongue to not reply with a response along the lines of: No, I'm making soup!

I got home and preheated the oven and started making my cakes. As I was making them, I kept thinking of the incident that Marci had last week when making a cake for her dad - Her son accidentally dropped it on the floor. Luckily, that didn't happen to me and Ryan's cake turned out perfect. I was so excited at how smooth and line free I managed to get the frosting on the top of the cake and the lettering turned out awesome - even with my normally ugly writing.

So, I put the cake in a box lined with foil to transport it to the birthday boy and we set off on our 29.29 mile trip to deliver the cake and then go out to dinner. All the while I kept thinking how much it would suck if the cake were to fall off my lap (I'm such the optimist). We were about 2 miles from our exit when we had an accident... (Yes, were ok - notice that I said that we had an accident and not that we were in an accident. There was no car accident, just a cake accident.) Jason was driving and I was holding the cake on my lap and staring off into space. I was trying to figure out the rational of the guy driving the truck next to us. It was for sale. It was a 1994 Chevy Truck. With a big dent on the side. All for the price of $16,000. I was pondering who would actually pay that much for that truck when Jason hit the brakes hard and the cake slid out of my hands and landed - upside down on the floor of the car. A rarity ensued when expletives flowed from my mouth like lava from a volcano. I just stared at the bottom of my beautiful cake, wanting to cry. Jason just kept telling me to flip it back over. After I got over the shock of what had actually just happened, I came to my senses and did what he was telling me to. The foil that I had - Thank God - loosely covered the cake with was now smooshed to the top of the cake like silver icing. When we got to the house, I carried to remains of my cake in to survey the damage. I peeled back the silver bandage to find this:

All that was left untouched of my beautiful work of art was the "N". I decided that with some major surgery, the cake could be repaired. So, Jason and I drove to the store to buy more chocolate frosting and a pack of writing icing. We got back to the house and I mentally prepared myself to fix the cake - all the while Jason is taunting me about how this wouldn't have happened to the "Ace of Cakes" to which I retorted that I just saw it happen last time I watched the show - only their cake disaster was MUCH worse! So with a little patience, I was able to fix the cake. Or, at least make it better...

It was still smashed onto the side of the box, but I definitely think that it was a major improvement from what it looked like before I repaired it. Later on, we went out to Red Lobster so Ryan could have his favorite food - crab! Dillon got a little fussy towards the end of the meal, so my wonderful nieces and nephew took him to see the lobsters. He looked at them and then decided that he wanted to jump in with them. Luckily, they are fast on their feet and he wasn't able to dive into the tank.

When they brought him back to the table, Dillon demonstrated to everyone his lemon eating skills. He ate (or rather sucked on) three lemon wedges.

After dinner, we went back to the house for cake and ice cream. Even though the cake wasn't so easy on the eyes, it was great in the mouth. Well, maybe a little rich, but luckily we had vanilla ice cream to help wash it down... Anyway, I hope Ryan had a Happy Birthday and that he like the cake that he requested.

(I really liked this picture of Dillon - It's from before we ate dinner)