Birthday parties for small children call upon a rare blend of courage, organisatonal talent, tolerance, and willingness to get in there and join the revelry! They can often leave the adults stunned by the volume level, and mess, and generally gob-smacked by the sheer exuberance of small children rampaging in sugar-crazed delight. I cope by preparing well, making sure I have
everything organised....Hmmm control-freakery coming to the fore. Sigh... But there is a moment of these chaotic events that i simply loathe--the cutting of the cake. its the expectation surrounding the production of the
Piste de Resistance that gets me cranky. That its mummy's job to produce an
amazing cake that is the favourite TV character, animal or mystical creature produced in a ton of coloured icing sugar. I like baking, dont get me wrong, its not really the cooking and cake decorating that worries me, its the expectations surrounding the cake as a performance measure of motherhood.
And so this year I tried something different: the cup-cake-pre-portioned birthday cake: and it worked a treat! Just imagine, no knives invovled, the child can take control and hand out the individual cakes, and no trains/fairies/cinderelllas in sight! I could sit back and take the photos and enjoy watching everyone eat their cake. And we even managed to not use plates.
nice one. love cupcakes, they always taste better! funny though how the same tasks have different meaning for different people. one of the things i love about the girls birthday is the ritual of choosing a cake (it can take months of deliberation). its been a tradition i did with my mum and now they do it too..pulling out to womans weekly cake books and agonising over them. They are always really incredibly impressed, grateful and generous with their praise of my creations. But plates required! glad you all had a hoot of a time.
ReplyDeleteahhh, yes. i can understand why it could be a great delight to many. And its something I think my mum really enjoyed doing too. I'm not sure why Ive developed a cake-phobia! LOL. I will have to pack myself off to a shrink and work through this block
ReplyDelete;-)
you're a brave woman! i like children in small groups, and one on one they're lovely, but the idea of a children's birthday party terrifies me!
ReplyDeleteit's good to hear it all went well :)
Yes, I did not know about that phobia!
ReplyDeleteI like cakes better- if little I like if they are all different and one can have bits of each, but love the thinking about which cake to have and the specialness of it...But really in bday parties for kids whatever is easiest is the best, as they will have a lot of fun- lately Luna just wants ice-cream cakes, which are pretty easy to make (melt, mix and freeze!)