The Bracken Family Blog: Quinn's 1st Birthday

Happy birthday Quinn! I know its cliche but we really can't believe how much he has grown and matured over the past year. He brings so much joy into our lives and we love every minute of it. At the one year mark Quinn weighs 19lbs (25%) and is 31" (90th) tall. So pretty much a bean pole. There is too much about him to sum it all up but here are some things worth mentioning.

He loves food, especially fruits and mama's homemade buttermilk rolls. He is starting to read more and often pulls books off the shelf and will read to himself. His favorite books include the "On the farm" book from Gramma, Peedie, and a book about all the different noises dogs can make. (He thinks its hillarious). Quinn has such a fun personality. He'll do things just because he knows it will make us laugh. He has a cute mischevious smile and will often raise his eyebrows slightly if he thinks something is midly interesting but doesn't really want to let us know. He is walking and loves to be chased and to play hide and seek. He also enjoys pulling his blanket out of his crib and walking around the house with it.

His birthday was pretty low key. We just had pizza and cake with the three (four if you count the little one in-utero) of us. I had grand plans for his cake but it turned out terrible and was hesitant to post about it because, well it was just so bad! But now some time has passed it seems more funny than painful and his cake for his 2nd B-day will be fabulous!

I found this great idea for a cake:

I wasn't so thrilled about what she had actually on the cake and besides, that was more than I was willing to tackle, but I loved the idea of the leaning cake with the boy climbing up to reach the one on top. It seemed to fit Quinn so well. So I decided I would do that and just keep the decorations on the rest of the cake simple.

I thought of this about 3 months before his birthday so I defintely had time to prepare. I wasn't too worried about making the cake lean but I was worried about the little boy. I am definitely no artist. So I asked my talented friend Rachel to come over and tutor me on this. We played with mixing colors and with making the body shape. Here was my first mistake. I decided to experiment by using marshmallow fondant. This fondant tastes a lot better than regular fondant and would be fabulous for actually covering a cake. But it is very soft and pliable and not good for making cute little baby boys that are supposed to be climbing up a cake. I ended up having to rush to work and so we stuck what we had worked on in the fridge, me planning on working on it again when the fondant had time to harden a little.

Fast forward 3 months and I haven't touched it. Everytime I looked in the fridge I saw it and felt guilty about putting it off but I had other things going on.

And then we got pregnant.

So we get back from Utah, we are both exhausted and somewhat sick and the last thing I want to do is make a cake. So I make a quick backup plan. I'll use store bought cake and icing (mistake #2) and I'll just work on one of the little boys we had in the fridge (mistake #3).

So the fondant had been in the fridge way way too long! Duh, three months liz! So the little boys were rock solid. But I proceed to make the arms and legs. These looked amazing by the way, I was impressed with myself. But then I tried to stick them onto "the rock". And they got smushed. And so I made another set determined to stick them on with some stiff icing, but things never turn out quite as good the second time. Then I made the hair. Not bad but then it cracked and I ended up piping on the hair which I think would have turned out if I knew what I was doing. But the face, oh my... it looked like a sick muppet. Then the nose dropped off. And the arms dropped off too. And then I left it on the table, and Quinn's arms have grown and he gets a hold of it and breaks the torso in two...so I stick it back together and just pretended the little boy had a cool jagged design on his shirt.

So my sweet hubby bakes the cakes and they taste amazing. Instead of using fondant I use regular icing to cover them...ok not great but still looking good. Then I decide to put blue food coloring in the icing and try out my new piping tips.

So in my head I know this icing isn't going to work. But I was being stubborn, and didn't have much energy or patience to make my own icing. So the blue color was not pretty, and the icing of course was way too soft.

I can just see those of you who know how to decorate your cakes shaking your heads and laughing at me. Its ok, I laugh at me too. So I have swalled my pride and posted some pictures of the disaster. But look at the last picture. My little guy was so happy that he got to eat cake. And he didn't know it was ugly. And that was the whole point, I just wanted to put some effort into the cake to show him how much I love him and to make it special for him. But he got pizza and cake all in one day and thats quite a lot of love, especially when his diapers were a little yucky (ok, well maybe a lot yucky) because of it.

I start cake decorating classes on Tuesday. I definitely need them. Wish me luck!

Freaky looking muppet dude.