Charlene's 40th Birthday Cake

My sister-in-law's sister, Charlene, turned 40 on Saturday, February 20 and her husband threw her a blow-out, over-the-hill surprise birthday party. But to keep Charlene from suspecting that she was getting a BIG party, we had a combination birthday party/Mardi Gras crawfish boil on the Tuesday before her "real" party.

And you know what? I was asked to bake the birthday cake for the Mardi Gras party!

Wahoo!

I'm very new to cake decorating, so I consider it an honor when someone wants me to make the cake.


But because I'm new to cake decorating problems seem to crop up at every turn. My biggest issue involved the large "40" gum paste topper that I made for the cake. The "40" looked perfect as it dried atop my counter, but as soon as I lifted it and tried to insert it into the cake it began to crumble. To compound the crumbling issue I realized (too late) that I had cut the support wires too short. I wanted the "40" to stick up above the flowers, but no matter what I did the heavy topper kept sinking into the cake. Grrrr…

Once I delivered the cake to the party house, I did some quick repairs and managed to elevate the "40" using some of the pink curly things and a lot of butter cream icing. The topper looked pretty unstable so I quickly picked up my camera to snap a picture, and, and, and…. The stupid battery in my camera was dead.

Stupid camera.

Stupid me.

I knew the battery was low, but I didn't think it would just give out on me like that. Oh well live and learn. You'll just have to take my word for it, the cake looked much better with the "40" not crouching shamefully behind the flowers.

But even with all my problems the birthday girl seemed happy with her cake, and she was completely surprised when she walked into her real over-the-hill birthday party.

As for the crawfish boil, it was a success too. Yummy, yummy crawfish soaking in their spicy bath water. Corn, potatoes, sausage and other veggies too.



Lets EAT!