solanos: birthday cakes for 2011

I started this post at the end of last year and obviously got sidetracked. Rather then scrap it, I better go ahead and finish it up and publish it out of order...This is evidence of my tendency to procrastinate and my love of good dessert.

Brock and I never should have started watching the Cake Boss. We made the mistake of letting the kids watch a couple of episodes. As a result, this year the pressure was on for good, creative cakes. Luckily my family is easy to please.

In February we enjoyed a Raspberry Walnut Torte to celebrate Brock's birthday. We ate something similar at extraordinary desserts and found a recipe online. Definitely worth repeating, so we did when Brock's parents came into town. Not a very manly cake, but that's what you get when you have a birthday so close to valentines day.

We got a little store bought lemon cake for Claire's family party and created a chocolate ladybug cake for her friend party at the park. I am pleased to say that this cake was completely devoured. It was not one of those cakes where the kids eat half a slice and give up. These four year olds were coming back for seconds.

Ashlyn got a layered berry, angel food cake, trifle this year for our family celebration ( a family favorite) and a chocolate layered cake for her dolphin party with marshmallowy frosting. The dolphin was made with rice crispy treats covered in fondant (see cake boss for instructions :) ).

Here is my "ice cream cake" that Brock bought me. Blew DQ out of the water, and I enjoyed it for weeks to come. My favorite Phish food on the top.

Our ONE YEAR OLD!!! Warren spent his birthday beach camping with cousins. Spencer and Kim and kids go beach camping every September and it was a lot of fun to join in. I am so glad they let us tag along, and we hope to make it a tradition. He got a little cupcake while everyone else ate their doughnuts and then we celebrated with the extended family the following week-end. Cousin Julia was born only two days before Warren and here they are enjoying their first cake together. One of those cake rolls with vanilla whipped cream filling.

Lastly here we are in October with Lara. A chocolate Oreo cake. Our big three year old. She lasted tolerably well through everyone elses' birthdays. We had to keep telling her, "yours is right before Halloween." She loves candy so much and feels that Halloween is an extension to her birthday.