Flaming Eyeball!

Well, the cake (and the party) was a roaring success! I eneded up making a red velvet cake in a bundt pan, filling the center with cherry pie filling and dark chocolate ganache; I frosted the cake with whipped stabilized ganache buttercream and covered the mostrocity with rolled fondant. Now, while this sounds like a simple enterprize, keep in mind that I had no idea what I was planning, and the humidity was AWFUL! I had to keep putting the cake in the freezer to allow the fillings and frostings to play nice (as they would have on a less beastly day). That, and my new silicone bundt pan made the outside of the cake taste like plastic (at least it seemed like it did when it came out of the pan-- it didn't when we ate it), hence the pie cherries-- I figured if I filled the center with tangy fruit and brushed the cake with the cherry juice, it would diminish the bad taste (mustof worked...). And then my large pastry bag broke, making frosting a glazed cake more difficult, and I couldn't find my spatulas, etc and etc.

It all came together in the end, thank goodness... my only regret is that I couldn't locate any of my pastry brushes, either (the kids have been getting into my stuff, gah!), so the brushstrokes on the eyeball were primitive looking, and I didn't bother brushing any color on the iris to make it look more realistic as I had planned. I would have liked to have colored the pupil better as well, but had conerns that if the paint/coloring had solvent in it, it would have burned a little too much (it's hard to tell, but the pupil was flaming). The goop around the cake was jello powder mixed with baking soda and leftover pie filling gel; I sprinkled a little extra baking soda on it and drizzled lemon juice around the fondant right before lighting the cake, and it oozed and bubbled... wheee! So Jacob got the flaming, oozing cake he requested, minus a few details I would have like to have added if I had more time, a cooler kitchen, and an actual plan;-) I felt like I was on one of those Food Network cake challenges... and the cake was AMAZINGLY tasty, btw.
So the cake was cool, and suprisingly edible (once you peeled off the nasty fondant with the bubbly gook on it-- some kids ate it just to be gross, go figure...)

Jake planned some fantastic games for the kids, too: we had a whipped cream pie eating contest; water balloon launching and toss; a relay race involving a hula hoop, blowing bubbles, chewing gum, and a slip n slide; a balloon busting thingey; silly string war; and a PINATA, wheeeee!
...And then of course, a game of my very own creation, in which the children had to see how much garbage they could collect in the yard, tee hee (where ALL were winners, especially ME-- bwahahaaaaaaaa).
It was the quintessential "All American Birthday", and it was awesome!

Thank god the kids were finally old enough, such that there were no meltdowns, no kids asking to go home, crying about which piece of cake they got, etc and etc, yay:-)

Hooray!!!