Day Thirty-One: Character Cake!

Being the mother of a two year-old comes with certain responsibilities.  While last year, my son was blissfully ignorant about the whole birthday party, presents, cake thing, this year he is a well practiced birthday connoisseur!  In fact, the end of January through the end of March is the "birthday season" in our family.  There are a whopping SEVEN birthdays to celebrate within this time frame!  And these aren't the birthdays of random extended family members...  These are the birthdays of all four of his grandparents, his aunt who he  stays with twice a week, and his mother!  So needless to say, Liam has practiced his singing, eaten cake, and ripped wrapping paper like a pro in the weeks leading up to the culminating event of the "season!"  He knows what to expect, and Mum-Mum had better make it GOOD!  

Finding an appropriate birthday cake for Liam has posed somewhat of a challenge.  You see, just days before I was in the hospital adding an eighth birthday and a few weeks onto next year's "birthday season," Liam and I were at the allergist due to an apparent reaction to food dyes that was first discovered when he was eating...  a birthday cake!  So not only was he expecting a tasty, fun cake, but it was going to have to be dye-free.  Yikes!

And, like most two year-olds, Liam has his favorite characters.  There's Bright Red Elmo...  Bright Yellow Big Bird... and Bright Orange Ernie...  Thankfully, there is one other favorite - A lesser known character aimed as much at adults as children.  And that character is BLACK AND WHITE, Shaun the Sheep!  Phew!

So in the days leading up to his party, I scoured the web to get ideas about how a person with absolutely no experience with character cake baking and very little artistic ability might make a decent Shaun the Sheep cake.  In the process, I learned all about gum paste and fondant and cake pan molds and saw some absolute works of art...  Way, way out of my league!  But eventually, after looking at several simpler versions that were out there, I came up with my design and purchased my supplies.  I was ready to create Shaun the Sheep...

With a little help from Betty Crocker, I baked the necessary cakes... and some extra to ward off disaster just in case, and set to work creating my basic shape...

The beginning of Shaun's Head...

And some angel food cupcakes to accommodate the low-fat diets of several of the party goers and allow me to make a "pasture"...

Angel Food "Pasture" Cupcakes

With both white and chocolate butter cream frosting made and ready to go, I started the decoration process.  Amazingly, it went well!  So, with disaster averted, I created a second sheep with the extra cakes.  In a moment of inspiration, my husband turned Shaun's random flock member into the baby sheep, Timmy... 

The Flock

I had fun, gained some knowledge and confidence, and fulfilled my novel experience for the day!  But, most importantly, Liam recognized who his cake was supposed to be and loved it!  He was so excited, in fact, that after identifying who the cake was and blowing out the candles, he immediately plucked Shaun's eye off and ate it!  Oh, life with a two-year old begins!  And I love it!