The Little Cake that Could

Before Easton's first birthday I made the decision that I would not buy a cake for my children's birthdays. I don't know why. Kroger cakes are not evil. And they are quite tasty. But something in my maternal self will not budge on this. Maybe it's because I really enjoy cooking even though I'm quite lousy at it at times. Maybe it's the idea that I'm giving something of myself. Who knows. But 5 years later, I've stuck to the homemade cake idea. And on Easton's 3rd birthday we didn't even have a cake. We had pudding. Because that's what his 3 year old self asked for. Pudding. So be it.
This year we had a basketball themed party. I asked Easton what kind of cake he wanted. He said basketball of course. I did a little internet research and got some inspiration. Okay....chocolate? White? What flavor? He said, "Sprinkles". A basketball cake with sprinkles. I can do that. I did do that. But just barely. There was a point about mid day Friday when I thought it wasn't going to happen.


The base for my sprinkle cake
Phooey on salmonella. Licking the bowl is the best part.
To make the cake round and ball like, I used the traditional cake pans with a third layer baked in a round casserole bowl
Trying to create orange icing with food coloring
This is the point where I got very nervous. I put together the layers and tried to even them. The bottom two layers were too wide for the top dome and had to be cut. It wasn't pretty and I kept waiting for the whole thing to topple.
After one layer of icing...After another layer of icing and some licorice

With candles
After the party