A Happy Third Bday

I cant believe my dear nephew is 3 years old! He successfully passed the terrible two stage - without being terrible! Seriously he's the most mild-mannered kid I've ever encountered. Because he's so blessed with very generous godparents, and even more generous grandparents, I've decided to skip the whole toy gifts and bake him his birthday cake instead! Im sure he cant appreciate it now, but when he's bigger - he's gonna thank me heaps for this kind gesture *winks**.

He had a party which unfortunately we were unable to attend as the Little Bee was sick, but nevertheless I sent his cake and I sure hope he enjoyed it, as well as the magic candles that wouldnt be off unless you dip it in water! Haha, tricky!

This is my very first attempt at baking a proper birthday cake. I wanted a two layer cake with immaculate white frosting and sprinkles all around - the ideal birthday cake. Alas - there were a lot of mishaps! I used the same Amazon cake recipe I always do with success, and the Vanilla Buttercream frosting Ive used before for the Little Bee's birthday cupcakes. While it was a success back then, it was a disaster this time around - not the recipes - they were still as great. But Ive learned some valuable lessons about them that I surely will remember for a long time.

First, the first cake layer crumbled over the weight of too much frosting! That was lesson number 1: this cake is maybe not the best one if you plan to layer it. After I've dapped too many frosting, the top layer just cracked! Thats why I ended up with just a single layer cake, *sigh*.

Second, while I adore the frosting recipe - there were two problems I encountered. First, it wouldnt turn the immaculate white that I wanted because there were just too many butter in the recipe that even if I added the maximum allowed powdered sugar, it still remained yellowish. I had to tint the frosting a bit of green to mask the butter-like color. Lesson learned: try another frosting recipe with a lot of egg whites ( Im guessing that would create the good white color I wanted).

Secondly, it was too soft for a two-layer frosting and actually was dipping to the side of the cake! In a hot summer temperature like ours, it was practically melting!

Nevertheless, I enjoyed making the cake and appreciate the lessons that came with it. It still tasted good, and the cute sprinkles hid whatever deformities the melting frosting did. Happy birthday to my sweet sweet nephew V!