Happy Birthday!

Our gem turned 2 on Tuesday. I knew I did not have energy to do a big party with all the family. No matter how simple you try to keep it, with just the immediate family it is 10 adults and 10 kids. I also think it is kind of fun to do something ON the day, so I decided to invited the few family members who were not on vacation and our neighbor with Mateo's little friend.

I DID want to do a cute cake. Mom made and awesome UNO cake last year, so I want to try to make something this year. I love monkeys and remembered I had pinned quite a few last year.  I looked the week before his birthday at the recipe and design. I should say I have never made a special cake before. I normally do cakes in the 9x13 casserole pan and service it out of there. For my sister's 16th birthday I successfully made a coconut wedding cake, but you just cover the top in pineapple whipped cream and coconut.

I read some article saying how Pinterest can make you feel badly because of all the great ideas that just seems so unattainable for everyday, normal life (at least that is how I remember the article). The point of the article actually was to just do SOMETHING to make things special. It does not have to be Pinterest-perfect, but to take some of those thousands of ideas and scale it to what works for you. No need to feel guilty over all the possibilities, but to take advantage of the creative inspiration and DO something.

So that is my take on things right now...that was my take on the birthday. My goal was to have a cute cake. Something Mateo will later remember from the photos.

That being said: Here is the photo of my first special cake, first time making icing, first time using pastry bags (I had fun with those!) I was happy with the results! Especially the taste! It was a banana cake. If you Google 'monkey cake' the idea and recipe are probably the first one to show up.

Everyone complimented the flavor/moistness of the cake! That in itself pleased me. I have to admit I thought my monkey was pretty cute. It was probably the 2nd hottest day of the year, so the icing was difficult to work with, but I just did my best.