I have a secret to confess. I love planning my kids’ birthdays! It brings me a lot of joy. I enjoy picking out their gifts, making their favorite birthday meal and I especially like surprising them with a birthday cake. Two of my kids have food allergies, so I bake and design the cakes myself. Now that my kids are getting older, they aren’t as excited as they used to be about their birthday. Or maybe it’s just not cool celebrating their birthday with their parents anymore…but I’m sure that’s not the case.
At any rate, their tastes have definitely changed as well. Two of my kids (out of three) no longer want cake for their birthday. One now wants cheesecake and the other cherry pie. I know right! Who’s ever heard of cheesecake and cherry pie for a birthday? It’s not Thanksgiving! I mean, how does one place candles on a cherry pie?! It made me wonder if these were truly my children and if they loved their mother at all.
Thankfully though, I still have one who wants cake for his birthday. As it happens, July is his birth month.
My son’s birthday month
Actually, my son’s birth month was supposed to be September. But he decided to make an early appearance. He initially attempted to grace the world with his presence in June. At which point, he’d been extremely underdone. Thankfully medical intervention and bed rest held off his arrival until July. By then he was more done and didn’t need to spend any time in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).
But I digress, getting back to the matter at hand, my son absolutely loves his birthday! But he’s very particular. In order for it to be a proper birthday, he has some very specific criteria that need to be met. Otherwise, it doesn’t count.
His birthday criteria
Gratefully, he only has 4 simple rules for his birthday.
1. There must be cake (with candles). To the delight of his cake decorating mother.
2. He needs to have a ‘Happy Birthday’ hat. As he’s gotten older, this has been a challenge. It’s not because they don’t have party hats for adults, they do. But he has an unusually large head. Most of the hats don’t fit his head properly. Cone-shaped hats were the best fit. However, the elastic bands (that go under the chin) either stretched too tight to make it uncomfortable to wear or they broke entirely. So now I buy him birthday crowns. They’re still a little small but I’ve developed a hack to expand it so it fits his head.
3. There must be presents. Naturally, what birthday wouldn’t be complete without presents? Is it even a birthday, if there are no presents??
4. There must be balloons. He doesn’t need a gazillion, just a few scattered throughout the room is enough to make him happy.
Of course, to make it extra special, we have him stay in his room, while we decorate. We let him know when we’re done. Then yell ‘surprise’ when he comes out. He loves it! It’s gotten to the point, where he doesn’t need to be prompted to go to his room anymore. He just runs in there by himself, excitedly waiting for us to call him out.
This year’s birthday cake request
As is tradition, I ask my son what kind of cake he would like for his birthday this year. He says Superman cake. No surprise there. This has been his request for many years.
I proceed to ask him what flavor of cake he wants. He says strawberry. This may seem like a simple request. After all, all he wants is a strawberry cake with a Superman design. How hard can that be?? Well, let me tell you!
This isn’t the first time he’s asking for strawberry cake. He’s asked for it once before and the memory of that day still haunts me. Let me share what happened last time.
The birthday cake of yesteryear
First of all, chocolate cake is my son’s favorite cake. So the first year he requested a strawberry cake, I was surprised. But I was also excited he was broadening his horizons and trying something new. He’s such a creature of habit. It was a pleasant turn of events, or so I thought.
In blissful ignorance, I searched the internet for the perfect strawberry cake recipe. Countless hours and a few days later. I had the recipe in hand and a design for the cake. Did I mention how much I love designing cakes? Because I was pretty excited!
The birthday preparations
The week of his birthday, I brought all the supplies. Although, finding the right shade of food coloring for the Superman logo was a little tedious. But I prevailed. All the ingredients were safely tucked in the pantry while dreams of decorating the cake danced in my head.
Two nights before his birthday, I made the cake and the Superman topper. One night before his birthday, I assembled the cake. It was a three-layer strawberry cake with strawberry mousse filling and a simple buttercream frosting. I placed the Superman logo on top and piped the finishing touches.
I need to mention this was all done in secret because it’s tradition to surprise my son with his cake. This is not easy to do because he’s home ALL the time. In addition, our house has an open floor plan. The kitchen and family room flow into each other without a wall separating the two spaces. It’s a great concept, except when it comes to doing anything in secret because there’s nowhere to hide. Everything that happens in the kitchen is visible to anyone in the family room.
Thankfully, I was able to conquer this problem by plugging in my son’s favorite movie. He was so engaged in the movie, he never once looked away from the TV screen.
The night before his birthday
After putting everything away and breathing a sigh of relief my son hadn’t seen his finished cake, I began cleaning up the kitchen. My son (who’s done with his movie at this time) sees me washing the cake pans and promptly tells me he’s excited to eat his CHOCOLATE birthday cake. That’s right. His chocolate cake! Here’s a snippet of our conversation.
My son: Ooooh, I like chocolate cake
Me: Chocolate?! What about strawberry cake? You said you wanted a strawberry cake??
My son: I like chocolate cake
Me: I know you like chocolate cake but you said you wanted a strawberry cake this year??
My son: I like chocolate cake
Me: I made you a strawberry cake because you said you wanted a strawberry cake?!
My son: (clears his throat like he’s about to tell me something deep and profound) well…umm…I like chocolate cake
The birthday eve predicament
He shares this revelation with me with the biggest grin on his face, never mentioning how he’s been requesting strawberry cake until this very second. The very same strawberry cake currently sitting in the fridge, fully decorated and ready to be eaten. The cake no one else was thrilled about eating except his mother. The very same cake currently mocking me.
But I decided to put everything in perspective. It’s my son’s birthday after all. It only happens once a year and he deserves to have the best birthday ever. Besides, he rarely asks for anything and neither does he complain. He’s a pretty good kid and deserves the best.
So, with a deep sigh, I did what I had to do. I did what any reasonable, loving mother would do under the circumstance.
His birthday
That’s right! On his birthday, I served him the strawberry cake.
Because after spending countless hours looking for a recipe, getting the ingredients, making it, and then decorating it. I was NOT going to toss that aside to make him a chocolate cake at 9:00 pm the night before his birthday. It’s true, I love birthdays. I also love designing my kids’ birthday cakes. But, I am not a crazy woman.
Not to mention, the boy loves cakes. ANY cake. I consoled myself with the idea he’d be so excited about his Superman cake, he wouldn’t notice the flavor. Which is almost what happened. He was excited about the cake but he DID notice it wasn’t chocolate. He also may have mentioned…again…how he ‘likes chocolate cake’. However, he ate and enjoyed his strawberry cake nevertheless and said it was ‘delicious’.
Because what you need to know about my son is that he’s what I like to call an equal opportunity cake eater. This means he won’t pass up a chance to eat cake. ANY cake. Just like his mother.
That was the last time he requested strawberry cake. For the past several years, it’s been a chocolate cake.
What have I learned?
So when he insists he wants a strawberry cake this year, you can be sure I’ll be making my tried and true chocolate cake…but I’m going to layer it with a strawberry mousse filling…just to cover all my bases. I’ve learned from my mistake.
This was a delightful story! Thanks for sharing. I totally thought you were the mom who would go ahead and stay up late baking the chocolate cake! But I don’t know why I thought that considering you’ve never come across as crazy in the years I’ve known you 😀
My hubby would probably disagree with that comment, lol