Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Unnatural Disasters and Cyclone Yasi

We are into day 2, birthday cake 3, of our week long 4th birthday celebrations.
Tomorrow we are having our playgroup friends around to celebrate Peach's birthday, yet again. We have been in the same playgroup for more than five years. Now tots that once pulled each other's hair in the portacot are in school uniforms, and their younger siblings are tottering around.
Some of us, me included, are unfortunately running out of children and this will be my last year as a legitimate playgroup member.
Today I made myself a list, and ran around the house like I had a motor on my rear end. I felt quite smug that I'd got everything ticked off. I even made the birthday cake and layered it with jam and cream (whipped by hand, thank you very much).
Feeling the efficiency charging through my veins I thought I would just whip up the icing and decorate the cake before the children went to bed.
Hells bells! The disaster that now lies grimly in my fridge is almost beyond belief. I had to laugh....or else I would have cried. It will surely get some laughs in the morning.
I am trapped too. I can't just duck out and get another one, everyone is arriving just after nine.
Have put quite the gallery together so you can really appreciate how bad it is. My fatal errors included:
- not taking enough care
- not making enough icing
- making the icing too thick
- cutting the layers of the cake too thin
- not having a proper plan in my head when I started
- not concentrating
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Please learn from my mistakes.
Before I wheel out the beast, let me firstly show you what I normally churn out. It's not great, but passable.



This is the Frankenstein thing I created this afternoon.....from all angles....it's bad, very.





Then the avalanche....




This is a blurry, unflattering photo of me trying to stick it back together, which I liken to lying down in front of a runaway train to stop it. Notice how close it is to the side of the bench. I'm not sure if I was subconsciously trying to push it off, or the poor thing was trying to jump! See my look of panic.



Let me tell you, there's going to be a lot of wide eyes and hands over the mouth tomorrow when I unveil this baby.
As a social experiment, I don't think I'll give them a heads up. I'll just put it on the table and check out the reactions.

In summary, as we like to say, 'Nevermind, it doesn't matter'.

This is a photo of our house from an angle I've never seen before - compliments of a tiny, budding photographer. (actually looking at it now, I feel I should point out that the tiny photographer is not the cat)


Tonight, at the bottom end of the state, we will be thinking of all those at the top end.  Wishing you a safe and uneventful night.

17 comments:

  1. This, quite possibly, has to be one of the funniest posts I've ever read on any blog. My eldest came over to see what I was laughing at, because I rarely laugh unless something is really funny.

    She exclaimed, on seeing your cake, "OMG! What happened to that?"

    Even the cat photo and comment made me laugh!

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  2. That cake is hilarious!! I really got a laugh out of it.
    The pink icing is a nice colour though, and I know it will taste delicious. In these circumstances you must stick to the mantra "it's not what it looks like, but what it tastes like"... remember that!!

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  3. Can't stop laughing! Have you ever ventured over to the "cake wreck's" blog? Have a look and it may just make you feel a bit better. And besides, it's all about the icing for kids. If the icing tastes ok, then you have nothing to worry about.

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  4. Katie, I have the Cake Wrecks calendar for 2011. Maybe it hexed me?
    I forgot to add that firstly I iced it in a cream colour, thinking I would pipe little pink rosettes onto it. Then I had to mix up more icing so I made it pink, thinking I'd just patch it up and put sprinkles on it.
    When it was half pink, half cream, it looked like a giant neenish tart (albeit one made by a one-armed baker...on his first day in the job).

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  5. I have had a stressful bad day filled with worry and anxiety and the snap of your cake collapse made me laugh.

    The kids won't notice!

    These are stressful times, a cake is the least of our worries.

    xxxxx

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  6. Haha - hilarious post, laughing totally at your expense, sorry!!

    The kids wont care - it all goes down the same way ;) And I bet the Mums get a giggle out of it too!

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  7. Hilarious! Just what I needed on a night like tonight.
    Be sure to let us know the results of your social experiment.

    Too funny!

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  8. At least your woman enough to show us! Thank you for showing us that all bloggers are not perfect.......and for a great chuckle over my first cup of coffee this morning. I think we have all had those cake disasters.....but they always taste wonderful anyway.

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  9. Hilarious! Lucky it was cake number 3 and not number 1 of the birthday week. It will be funny to see everyones reaction.

    Love the cat photo:>)

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  10. The cake is fug but I do love your cake making outfit. grey with stripes cool!
    I bet that cake was yummy and the kids didn't even notice.
    India

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  11. Don't quite know what to say!
    But do look forward to hearing the responses of your guests as they try to find the 'right' thing to say.

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  12. India, I have my bikini's on with a singlet over the top and a beach towel wrapped around my middle. Although I could do with some ab crunches, I am actually pushing my belly out a bit to keep the towel up. It's a good look all round!

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  13. I was actually thinking you might be wearing a beach towel - good combo though. I hope the kiddies devoured the cake - did you see that beauty on Faux Fuschia's blog? I think she was taunting you with its perfectness - ha ha.
    India

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  14. Ohh, so so funny! I just can't stop laughing. I hope you got to see everyone's reaction at the unveiling, hilarious. Cakes always taste great, that's all that matters. Cheers Robyn

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  15. I bet it tastes just yummy! ;-)

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  16. Hilarious! Loving the whirl of wit in a time or culinary & cyclonic crisis!
    Sophia, Paddo

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  17. Thanks for the laugh - although that said I think we have all been there at some point!
    (from the mum of a 3 and a 6 year old)

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