let them eat cake

A little while back, my sister-in-law Rachel sent me a picture of a pretty cake and asked me how I could help her make one like it for my niece's third birthday. I took one look at the prettiness and volunteered. I don't particularly care for eating cake, but I sure do like making them. Especially pretty ones.

The next day I was off to Michael's in search of silk flowers, which I have never before purchased outside the occasional 70% off stem or two. After an hour of deliberating on colors, sizes, etc., I went to the register feeling pretty good about my choices. Then the cashier rang me up and I about swallowed my tongue. 

People, there is NO WAY that fake flowers can possibly be worth that much. Seriously.

But all my grumbling about unethical silk flower extortion evaporated once I started putting the cake together: one 8 inch and one 6 inch round of strawberry cake, frosted with an illegal amount of cream cheese frosting, topped with these-may-as-well-be-made-of-gold-for-how-much-they-cost silk flowers.
 

I was so giddy putting this thing together that I'm pretty sure I jumped up and down and few times. It's possible I even clapped my hands and giggled a bit, but you didn't hear that from me. 

It wasn't a terribly difficult cake to make--Wilton cake decorators and people who use fondant will probably roll their eyes at the simplicity but I don't care. I like it. It made me smile. 

I can definitively say that I certainly never had a cake this pretty...um...ever...so I'm glad I at least got to make one. I know my niece could have probably cared less what this cake looked like--I mean, who cares about cake when you've got a floor-length Rapunzel wig? But I enjoyed it anyway.