Thursday, July 8, 2010

Birthday Fail #1

The countdown has begun...

T minus 8 days until Gillian Grace's first birthday party.

The staging room {aka our guest room} grows more cluttered with party paraphernalia every day. I can hardly walk in the room without fumbling over something. There are decorations that need to be made, bows that need to be tied, favors needing to be packed, labels needing to be printed, and tablescapes needing to be perfected. But yet with my plate already full and nearly overflowing with tasks, I decided that yesterday was a good day to try a new recipe. And, for her party no less!

Now what on God's green Earth would propel me to add something else to my ever increasing "to do" list, one only knows. Blame it on a temporary lapse in judgment, or a supermom complex, but after finding a recipe online for cake balls {a name I'm not terribly fond of}, I convinced myself that they were an absolutely necessary addition for GG's party. With a recipe that calls for pre-made and store bought everything, the recipe should've been easy as...well, you know...cake!

But as the cake ball preparation began, everything suddenly took a downhill turn.

The recipe calls for crumbling the cake while still warm into a bowl. Easier said than done. While my fingers fumbled to crumble the steaming hot cake, I tried my best to remain standing despite my 11 month old's best attempts to bring me down to her level by continually fumbling over my feet. Mixing the frosting with the crumbled cake seems like a no brainer, but after stopping to fumble with the straw on someone's sippy cup, I completely lost my train of thought, forgetting that I'd divided the cake into thirds to try different icing combinations and no longer needed the nearly full cup of frosting as written on the recipe.

Instead of ending up with a paste, I had soup. Cake soup to be more precise, the cake was swimming in frosting! Sadly the wannabe cake balls' final destination wasn't our tummies as originally intended, but rather the trash by way of one kitchen-sized Hefty bag.

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Birthday Fail/Fumble/Flub #1.

If you Google "cake ball recipe" you're bound to come across this description:

...usually chocolate outer coating reveals a rich, moist, cakey interior ---the perfect proportion of cake to frosting...

Needless to say, I'm not expecting any phone calls from Martha Stewart asking for my baking tips. Try as I might, yesterday's baking was just a fumbled attempt at cake ball supremacy. And though I may be a little dejected, I am certainly not defeated. The oven and I shall live to fight another day!

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Oooh, cake!

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I've hit the jackpot!

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Aren't you gonna stop me, Momma?

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Licky, licky, licky, I'm not picky {When it comes to sweets that is}!

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Ewww, yuck! Better luck next time, Mom!


{Today's post was part of Word Up, Yo! brought to you by Liz @ A belle, a bean, and a Chicago dog. This week's word of the week was...you guessed it...fumble! Click below to join in some Word Up fun!}

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Oh and don't forget...a little clicky clicky below, puh-lease!

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19 comments:

SkinnyMeg said...

Haha! I love the picture of her licking the lid!!

Kristin said...

Good word of the week post!

I have an Oreo Ball recipe if you would like it. It's oreos and cream chesse mixed together and then dipped in baking chocolate and then you add sprinkles. We do it for holidays/birthday parties and it's sooooooo yummy!

Same Sweet Girl: Memoir of a Southern Belle said...

Oh Shannon!! Hahaha!!! I've never HEARD of cake balls but it sounds kinda neat!! So sorry that you "fumbled" it all up. It's the thought that counts though right?! I wish wish wish that we lived close so I could make cupcakes for her party!! That would be soooo much fun! :D

Kat said...

Look at how happy she is just to have a cake in a trash bag. So don't stress because she will love anything!!

liz said...

Wow, did you rock the "fumble" or what?!?! I love how Gigi knows where to find the goods. And now I'm off to order Maddie's party supplies.

Anonymous said...

Oh my! I was thinking of those cake-balls, too, but it just seems difficult to do with a little one tugging on you!

Mary M. B. said...

You are so funny! I remember the Cowboy themed birthday party for Bud....a cookout, cowboy hats for all, cowboy cake and cowboy cookies, cooking hotdogs over an open fire, small brown goodie bags tied with jute and of course, the pony rides! The ponies arrived 30 minutes before the party and were unloaded and led to the trail that was set in the back of our property.....I looked out the window and saw the most enormous horses I had ever seen in my life! I mean these 2 horses were so big that I wondered how the kids could even straddle them as the horses were so wide and the kids' legs were so short! In the end it all works out! The kids loved the big horses and even the parents were riding! Evidently the "ponies" were on strike or in dry dock!

Unknown said...

Cute blog! Newest follower! Thanks for sharing it with us during Welcome Wednesday. Come by each week, for I know our readers will really enjoy your blog:)

Jaime & Kristin
Take It From Me

Melissa said...

Super funny little photo essay!!

Unknown said...

LOL!!! I'm sorry it did not work out, but at least that is one less thing you have to do right?!?

I will also be glad to have my guest room back when our party is over!!

Brittany Ann said...

I can't imagine making these with a little one underfoot! Although, I have to admit, I did make several batches, none of them looked as good as Martha Stewarts. They tasted good but appeared as a hot mess.

And seriously, what is with the name?

sara said...

Don't beat yourself up! These sound very similar to the cake pops you see a lot on blogs - I've made these 3 times, and they still don't turn out so well. It's hard to get a really good mixture of the hot cake crumbs and the frosting!

Love the pictures that go along with the story!

Jennifer said...

The funny thing is....that amongst all of the things on your 'to-do' list for GG's party, you still managed to find the time to document the whole ordeal for us!! I just saw a the cake balls on another bloggers site just the other day. I will send you a link, they looked so yummy. At least GG got to eat some icing :)

collin said...

So cuteeeee baby. I loved it.

Take the Caring For Toddlers test and find out how good are you at caring for toddlers.

Sweet Southern Prep said...

GG is too cute, as usual! Sorry your first attempt wasn't successful. Here's hoping the next time goes well. :) We need a great "after" pic of the successful ones.

Jenn said...

So cute!! Love that she's testing you. :)

I just a fork to smash mine up. Don't know if it'll help but tried the hands and it was too messy! I had problems with them getting too soft while i was dipping.

Natalie said...

Here are some of my cake ball tips I've learned along the way...I let the cake cool some & then add the icing, but I never put a whole container, usually about 1/2 to 3/4 of the container. Before you coat them in chocolate or almond bark, let them firm up in the refrigerator and then dip. Hope this helps!

Anonymous said...

Aw. Love that you documented it! She will love anything you make (as long as it's sweet huh?)

Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam & Dylan Too said...

I keep meaning to attempt those, but I'm anticipating a fail!
Those pictures are adorable!