5 trips around the sun.

Sunday was Doodle's big 5th birthday party. As usual we tried and failed to have a small party. oh well! I guess we just like too many people. We have never done separate parties for grown ups and kids. Most of our adult friends are decidedly, how to put this....not really very grown up. And I think they would be disappointed to not find kids, cake and presents.

The cake requested was a planet with an astronaut and a rocket. I baked one double pound cake recipe in a 9x12 pan, one German chocolate recipe in an 8" pan, two pound cake recipes in the ball pan ( one for each half) and another 9" round to put between them. If I never use another Wilton cake pan again I will be a very happy baker. This is the only time I have had a cake absolutely fail. The first round in the ball pan, would not cook all the way through. I baked it 20 minutes longer than the time stated in their instructions at the exact temperature recommended. I oiled and floured the pan and it still stuck. As soon as I turned it over to cool the uncooked inside oozed out and the overcooked outside stuck like cement. Gah! Cake fail! The next attempt I baked it at 15 degrees lower and for ten minuted longer than Wilton recommends. Then I turned off the oven and let it cool in the oven. I did this twice, it worked both times. All of the cakes were baked last week and frozen.1. Base cakes, covered in fondant and painted with powdered food colouring, edible glitter and vodka!
2. Planet ring still on the mold. I streaked the molten sugar with red food colouring and more of the lustre dust edible glitter.
3. Half Frosted ball cake.
4. Covered ball resting. I sprayed it with pearl lustre spray right before we put it on the base.

I had a long rehearsal the day before the party so everything was frosted with cream cheese frosting. and covered with Marshmallow fondant ( made way early last week) and refrigerated. ( I know, I know, never refrigerate fondant. I thought the chance of water droplets on the planets surface was less of a concern than poisoning a party full of guests. We thawed the covered cakes in cardboard boxes and any water damage was invisible. I wouldn't try this with a wedding cake, but for our purposes it worked. I also made the planet's ring on Friday. I used this excellent poured sugar tutorial. The Daddy and the boys made the Space man using uncoloured fondant with a glow in the dark Frankenstein monster as the armature. The rocket was Rice Crispie treats from the failed rice crispie rockets

I waited until the very last minute to stack the cakes. It was really, really warm in the house and I was not certain the planet would stay where I put it. Mostly it went well. I tore the fondant putting the ring on. ( Note to self, make the frosting the same colour as the fondant and tears will be less noticeable.) And I broke the ring in one place. The sugar was just too thin over one of the joins in the mold. But it still looked really cool, and smashing it before cutting the cake was extra fun.1. Cute, but structurally unsound.
2. Cuter, easier, and what I should have done in the first place.

For Favours, we used, used and reused a rocket cookie cutter. First I made rice crispie treats and cut them out in the shape of the rocket. Looked great, lacked structure. So I melted some white chocolate to cover them. Nope. The chocolate would not come to pouring consistency, no matter what I did. Out the window with that idea. Plan B. I spooned the melted chocolate into the cookie cutter, like a mold, inserted sticks and put in the freezer. Worked great except the chocolate pulled up some ugly dark specks from the silpats ( Time for new silpats if anyone is interested....) out they went. I can't serve dirty chocolate. Plan C. Sugar cookies! Again, the rocket shaped cutter, three chocolate chips and some icing. Success! They went in the treat bags with the last of our peanut safe mini Mars bars and a picture of Rocket Doodle. Rocket to Mars, get it? Get it? ok, it was very late Sunday night when these were finished. I was little loopy.


We didn't have any organized games, but The Daddy made an alien box for photo taking and Crusty made a Space toss game from an old ball toss tent and some boy made moon shaped bean bags. Both were popular! The Daddy also organized a Moon Goo experiment that was fun and messy and just a little bit gross. But facinating to kids and adults.
1. Space Toss.
2. Crusty Alien.
3. Front door.

For decorations we gathered up all the Space toys we could find in the house. We made paper chains, hung our cloth birthday banner and painted the windows with space scenes. The Daddy made a solar system for The Branch and Crusty made a bottle shaped rocket to fly around it..
Crusty's Moon Bags. Tiny and so sweet. ( Did you hear him groan when I wrote that ?)Moon Gooooooo

Presents were opened and a good time was had. And we are tired.