Rescue Mission: Half Birthday Cake

I don't want to disappoint any of you that are new around here. I know I have been blogging a lot lately about food. But I would hardly classify myself as a foodie. It has been freezing in Massachusetts for about a hundred years, and this winter has nearly lasted a millenium. So I have had my oven on a lot!

But there are times my baking becomes a rescue mission. Case in point, this cake.

You know you are foodie if you can tell what happened already. But first, you have to know how this all started. This cake is at least six years in the making. Well, maybe even longer if you count back to my childhood.

Without fail, my mom always made my birthday cakes. She always made my favorite chocolate cake made from meringues. Think deep chocolate, and then dream more chocolate, and trust me, you still haven't daydreamed enough chocolate. I always imagined myself baking my kids' birthday cakes one day, from the days I had an Easy Bake oven. It's the thing about being a girl....about planning out every detail of how to live your life. I imagined baking birthday cakes up until the months before our kids' birthdays. I had romantic ideas of taking cake making and cake decorating classes like my mom, and baking picture perfect cakes that people oohed and ahhhed over.

The truth is, I have been a mom for 6.5 years and I have never, ever made any of my three kids their birthday cakes.  

Confession: I have bought every single one of their cakes for under $20 at my favorite giant wharehouse where I hold a membership. And I have major Mommy guilt about that.

At least I tell the warehouse bakery to leave the cakes white, and blank, apart from Happy Birthday and the kid's name. Then I buy and top the white frosted cake with some impressive large brand new toys, in the kid's party theme, and people ooh and ahh. But they are not actually oohing for the cake. They probably just don't know anyone else that builds toys on top of cakes but me. And plastic toys on top of frosted white cakes does not erase my mommy guilt around homemade cakes.

Recently, my eldest came home from school asking about his Half Birthday, like it was an obvious and recurring event in our home. He asked, and he asked, and he asked some more. I dismissed his questions, hoping he would forget. I knew that if we celebrated his Half Birthday this year, that it would become an undying Farmer family tradition for the next 16+ years, you know, until my youngest turns 18. I may tend to be fatalistic and dramatic about such decisions.

I remembered that a friend makes half a cake for her children's half birthdays. If I was going down this road of Half Birthday family tradition it required me baking and creating the cake myself. In my mind, there was no alternative.

I baked a vanilla cake, Son1's favorite. I cut it in half, and anointed the cake with a rich cream cheese frosting recipe, courtesy of Paula Deen. Then I donned the cake with strawberries. It drives me nuts to eat cakes layered with fresh fruit, and have my dessert be reduced to a sliver of fruit I need glasses to find. So my cake was punchy with strawberries, for sure. I tried to crown the cake with the second vanilla half, over the punchy strawberries, but the crown slid off. I had a solution for that. I shellacked the strawberries with more cream cheese frosting, only to throw myself into a fit of laughter as they slid around. I then crowned the cake with the second vanilla layer and watched punchy strawberries squeeze out the sides of the cake. I shoved them back into the cake and held the crowning vanilla layer down with two wooden skewers. This cake was not about to escape my grip.

I will never again wonder why fresh fruit cakes are served with slivers of fruit rather than punchy layers. You may want to take a moment and scroll back up to the picture of the cake. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Now, Son1 is in a deep soldier phase. He is in love with all things soldier. Watching Toy Story 3 only enhanced this love. I knew without a doubt I was making a soldier cake. I pondered fondant and fanciness, but I am glad after the sliding strawberries I stuck to my dirt plan. I threw an army full of oreos into the Vitamix for the cake.

I should make one more confession. I have never, ever, eaten anything with crumbled Oreos. You know those things like dirt cakes, or cemetery cakes served around Halloween with crushed Oreos? I have always passed on those desserts. The thought of eating dirt, or gummy worms buried in crushed Oreos places an undue stress on me. GROSS. So this was an absolute stretch for me to coat this cake with Oreo crumbs.

The cake was a complete surprise for Son1. He had no idea that I remembered his half birthday with a half cake, let alone a soldier cake. So after a dinner of his favorite, tacos, the Farmer family ate a ridiculous lot of this entire cake. If I have ever doubted crumbled Oreos, this strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting has made me a believer.

But most importantly, here is what I will take away from this first Half Birthday celebration in our home. Son1 jumped up and down, hugged me, thanked me, and said this.

"Thank you, Mommy!! I LOVE it!! And this is my very first cake you have ever made me!!"

I have never, ever mentioned my mommy guilt over not making my kids birthday cakes, ever to them. But just when I thought baking a birthday cake was important to just me, I realized I was wrong. I asked him if ever minded that I bought his cake. No, it did not matter to him. But he really did love this cake. That was enough to make this homemade Half Birthday cake tradition stick around here!!