Three!

My little man turned three last week. I can't believe how fast these three years have gone! He requested a Lightning McQueen cake for his birthday, which you can read more about below. 

We decided to take him to Disneyland the day before his birthday (while he was still free!). He is a little daredevil. Much of the day consisted of Roy taking him on rides like the rockets, teacups, Dumbo, etc. - all rides that make me sick! Even though I didn't go on all the rides, I was happy to sit back and watch his smiling face. I'm really glad he takes after his dad and doesn't have motion sickness like me!

Now, back to Lightning McQueen. Everything with this boy is Lightning McQueen these days. He watched Cars last summer and it's been his favorite ever since. He was fortunate to get a lot of Lightning McQueen presents for his birthday. 

Now, on to the cake. A quick internet search will give you lots of results for all sorts of fancy Lightning McQueen cakes you can make. There is even a special pan molded in the shape of McQueen so that the actual cake is in the shape of a car. You can then do all this fancy fondant work. Some of these cakes are pretty impressive, but I do not have the time or patience for that. I also didn't want to buy a cake pan that I would use only once.

I decided to make a three layer chocolate cake. I filled it with chocolate custard and frosted it with vanilla buttercream. (Okay, so although I don't want to do a bunch of tedious decorating, I obviously don't mind taking the time to make it taste good). Before I piped the top and bottom edges, I placed edible sugar paper with Cars characters around the sides. This was my first time using this sugar paper, which I got from Whimsical Practicality, and I found it really easy. It peels off of its backing and easily adheres to frosting. I then piped the edges, wrote "Happy Birthday Miles" in red icing, and topped it with a candle that I got from Party City.  It was actually easy, and I'm happy with how it turned out. We invited three of his little friends from church to come eat it with us. While I think Miles might have wanted to eat it all himself, he had fun sharing it and playing with his friends.

Happy birthday my sweet boy! I love every day with you, and I can't wait to see what kind of cake you want next year.