Noah's 4th: School Celebration

Since Noey's actual birthday fell on a Tuesday, we had a small celebration for him in school that morning. The theme for the day? Why, dinosaurs, of course!

It should have been a simple celebration, but there were two things I really wanted to do for Noey on this day. First, I wanted to make his cake, and second, I wanted to make him a special shirt to wear. And with the goody bags that had to be packed and the additional jellies that I wanted to bring, I was looking at quite a bit of work on my hands!

For the cake, a good friend had sent me a link to a very do-able dinosaur shaped cake that had me, the very occasional baker, thinking that maybe this time, I could pull off a cake of my own for my little man, and avoid paying through my nose for yet another fondant-covered cake. I brushed aside the fact that I haven't baked a cake, like EVER, and just kept my fingers crossed while I looked up some really easy chocolate cake and buttercream recipes.

So I thought I was all set for the big day, only to find, a mere 2 days before I had to start baking that the large size cake board that I needed was out of stock islandwide. Yikes. I couldn't find anything bigger than 16" at Bake-It-Yourself, Phoon Huat or ToTT. Gim Hin Lee had an 18" one which might have worked but would have been a bit of a squeeze. I nearly made the trip down to Haig Road to get it, except that I had just bought some cardboard for a game idea that day, and in a flash of inspiration, decided to use some to make my own cake board. Of course, I then realised that I was out of aluminium foil, but fortunately that was easily sorted by an extra trip to the supermarket. 

After all that extra drama, the baking and cutting of the cakes into the dinosaur shape was surprisingly easy. I used this simple recipe for chocolate cake and this template from the Betty Crocker site, and this was the result. 

Here are the chocolate cakes, cut out and laid on the board.

After making the buttercream -- tinted a cheery orange -- and decorating with M&Ms with Hershey's kisses for the spikes, this is the result:

Why, hello Mr Dinosaur!

Icing a cake sure wasn't easy though! My cake still had a lots of specks from the chocolate crumbs that got everywhere when I spread the icing. After coming to a lot of grief, I ran to the husband for help. "The trick is to use a lot (of icing)," he kept advising me. In the end, he took over and did most of it. I think he did a great job!

The birthday boy gets to wear his own outfit to school on the day of the celebration. I was trying to order something for Noey when it suddenly occurred to me: I have dinosaur stencils! And freezer paper! Why don't I just get a plain tee and paint on a design instead of ordering one for him? I did overestimate my design skills though, so DD stepped in again -- isn't my husband just the best? -- and designed AND painted the shirt while I was messing with the cake and other assorted must-dos for the party.

Here's the shirt in progress. DD was majorly regretting incorporating all the dinosaurs when he had to cut out all the pokey shapes!

And here's the final result!

Lesson learnt: Paint on a light coloured tee next time -- it's much easier! Getting the design on this black tee took ages and as layer upon layer of colour had to be applied. Too bad black is one of Noey's favourite colours. Really a labour of love, this one!

After checking that the goody bags were ready, I finally went to bed.

Some of the items in the Noahsaurus Rex pack!

Confession: The goody bags are one of my favourite parts of party planning, and I love looking for themed stuff! The class bags had this dinosaur eraser set, a sheet of stickers, and two eggs that "hatched" dinosaurs if you popped them in water. I also included a small box of crayons, some dino gummies, and a small packet of either M&Ms or jellybeans (left overs from my piñata!)

The whole family trooped down to school bright and early the next morning for his school celebration. DD and I really dragged ourselves out of bed after the late night we had finishing up everything! But what made it worth it? His smile in the morning, on seeing his shirt, and this:

Taken right after he had lifted up the cover to take a peek at his cake.

The huge grin that spread across his face, after he had taken a peek inside the box and saw his cake? Priceless.

Happy birthday little man!

 P.S. The cake was cute, but much too sweet! Definitely less sugar in the buttercream next time!