There was a little cake batter left so I baked it up for a cake for MonkeyBoy to decorate, since he loves to help. He had great fun decorating his very own cake yesterday.

I made a smash cake (little cake just for the birthday child) earlier this week for a friend’s little one’s first birthday photo session and then I repeated the cake later in the week for his birthday. I also made some coordinating cupcakes.

Then for another friend, I made Mickey Mouse themed cupcakes and a cookie cake.

Finally, I made some soft blocks for a baby shower gift. I was so excited with how these turned out. I made them extra tactile by putting things inside them, one had a bell, one had crinkle paper, and one had a squeaker. These were made with fabric scraps that I brought home from my mom’s stash. She had some wonderful fabric to choose from and I hope to go back and borrow some more soon.

MonkeyBoy decided that he wanted to get in on the crafting, so he stole my bag of stuffing. Using kitchen tools from his play kitchen set, he emptied a bunch of stuffing onto the hallway floor, telling us that he was making a polar bear.

MonkeyBoy was wanting to help, so as I tackled cleaning the kitchen I set him at the table with some leftover cake scraps and my icing bags so that he could experience the joys of frosting for himself.

And here’s the cake I made…

I offered MonkeyBoy an extra clown cookie and he refused it, instead whining “I want a clown on a motorcycle!” If he’d requested that before they were baked I could have pulled it off, but he was out of luck since they were already made and I had no dough left over. I’m not exactly sure why he thought the clown needed to be riding a motorcycle, but he sure was insistent that I’d done it wrong.

In typical obstinate-boy fashion, MonkeyBoy refused to look at the photographer so I’m not sure we’ll end up with any smiling pictures of him from the photo shoot. But I did catch a couple of him playing in the bounce house and sitting down in a too-small-for-him Bumbo.

I made jack-o-lantern shaped cake balls as my contribution for the food. I think they were gone in about fifteen minutes.

Even though MonkeyBoy’s birthday isn’t for another week or so, we held his birthday party today. We always do a pool party for him on the last day of the season, sometimes that day falls within days of his birthday, sometimes it’s a little bit farther away. The weather couldn’t have been nicer, sunny and high 90s after a week of rain and 60s. I had planned on making another monkey cake this year, but three days ago MonkeyBoy decided he wanted a Bob the Builder Cake. So I came up with this one this morning. The cake actually had his name below Bob’s head, but I smudged that out for this blog posting.

The favors were cake pops straight out of Bakerella. I even made red velvet because her pictures made me hungry for it. The recipe calls for a 9×13 cake. Well, despite having an entire closet devoted to cake making, I don’t currently own a 9×13 cake pan. So I had to improvise with a gingerbread man pan.

After making the cake, the next step is to crumble it up. I felt a little macabre. And it reminded me a little of the armadillo groom’s cake in Steel Magnolias.

The pops ended up being a big hit as favors at the shower. I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of them! I do have this one of MonkeyBoy enjoying one of the “mistakes”.

Here’s the main cake for the baby to be, who will be arriving sometime this fall. His nursery is going to be dots and stripes, so I incorporated that into the cake design.