The Cake that never was...

Ok - so it wasn't really an extravaganza, but it was quite the celebration of family for Sophia.

We are graced with having lots of friends with birthdays all within 3 weeks of each other, so we took the opportunity to have a small, intimate gathering with just family for Sophia's 2nd birthday on Sunday the 6th. (Her actual birthday was the 7th - more on that day shortly.)

I had great hopes to make her a wonderful monkey shaped and frosted birthday cake. My mom always made these phenomenal cakes for me. I borrowed an awesome monkey pan, read directions online for frosting (though, admittedly, was still a little flummoxed how it was really going to happen) and set to baking. It was going to be the best monkey ever! Alas, the pan just didn't cooperate and at 11:30pm on Saturday night, after trying to frost together the

broken pieces, and then refrost again into an entirely different monkey design, I crumbled.

Here's a shot of the cake with batter heading into the oven.

And through the tears, the cake (which was made from scratch - a really tasty Buttermilk one!) went into the garbage. Sadly, I didn't have the heart to document the pain of the cake. Looking back, I totally should have, because I can definitely laugh about it now!

And thanks the sanity of my husband, I went to bed, took advantage of the Daylight savings and baked Sophia a wonderful, round cake with chocolate frosting the next morning that she enjoyed to no end. And we bedecked the room in Paul Frank's monkey stuff, and a Curious George from Nana, so she couldn't have been happier!

The birthday girl and her cake!

The highlight of her day was seeing her annual picture poster that Dad creates for her. It's a 4.5'x6.5' sheet covered with pictures of the prior year of Sophia. It was amazing to see the difference in the her from the Christmas time pictures of last year to the photos from the week before. She clearly was entertained by herself!

Finally, to top off the day, her friend Frances (who's birthday is also the 7th) celebrated with her in true style. It was a good day and despite the lack of monkey cake, fun was had by all!

It was a great day for celebrating year 2.