In honor of the new puppy, Taylor decided to have a puppy birthday party theme. Sounds simple enough unless of course dad wants to bake the cake. Well the end result was worth the effort if I don't say so myself, but it came at a cost. Well my first thought was to cut out the shape of the dog, but if you've had carrot cake before you know it's going to crumble at the edges after you cut it. So with that plan out I turned to plan B. I'll draw him on the cake; my mother seemed to doubt my technique but with determination I set out to show her what I could do. So I baked a carrot cake from scratch.... none of that stuff from a box; the cake came out great. I got a good picture of a bulldog and painfully cut out each detail of him and traced a portion onto the cake with a toothpick. I had the perfect lines to trace with the icing. Well this was a shortlived victory... what do you know but the cake sank. Turns out when you make Fresh Carrot Cake, the wettness of the fresh carrots you shaved on a cheese grator make the cake a little heavier. So at 3 in the morning I resigned to get some sleep. I got back up by 8 and was back from the groccery store by 9 or so... It was time to turn to the box for help. I quickly whipped up a batter and got the cake baked.

Well even after allowing it to cool, would you believe it the cake sank in the middle. Thanks to some clever thinking from dad, we shaved some shims out of the original cake and puffed up the middle. What a save! So armed with a bunch of shakers, pastry bags, and icing tubes we tested a few techniques on the back of the cake. Once we found what worked, I set off drawing. Well you can see the end result. Well we will have to see what next year holds in store.

For now our little girl is 6 years old and she had a great birthday with her friends and family to celebrate.