"If you could relive one of your childhood memories, which one would it be?"
I love this question because it brings about so many fond memories of my childhood! Probably because my birthday is around the corner, the first memory that came to mind was that of my many birthday parties at Christy Cove Park and the amazing homemade cakes that I always had at them! My mom would always bake the cake, and it was most often a Funfetti cake. Yes, that's right! My favorite cake in the whole world was the kind with the sprinkles in the mix that would make colored dots when it was baked. Best cake ever!
As far as the frosting, I loved the matching Funfetti frosting as well. But, there was more to the frosting than just that. As a young child, Mom would buy a package of stickers at the store that matched the theme of our birthday party. I definitely remember a Strawberry Shortcake year, a Rainbow Brite year, and a green M&M year. (Funny, I think my cakes matched a lot of my Halloween costumes as well!) I would then pick which sticker I liked the character's pose best in, and we would give that picture to dad. Dad would then use that sticker as a guide to draw the character onto the cake with frosting. Shane and I thought this was the coolest thing ever!
Then, when I got a little bit older and was no longer into character themed birthday parties, my birthday happened to fall on Easter one year. Well, I LOVE the Hershey chocolate eggs that have the pastel colored candy coating. So, as a surprise that year, Mom made my favorite cake of course, and decorated the entire top of my cake with those eggs. I was so excited! I was such a big fan that this then became a tradition for many years to come.
I remember a couple of random "phases" I went through with birthday cakes as I got older and into my pre-teen/teenage years. One year I was DYING to have an ice cream cake, so of course, off to Baskin Robbins we went. Well, I later found out that I broke my mom's heart by deciding that I wanted the ice cream cake that was in the shape of a fluffy white dog! I swear I wasn't trying to do anything by this...I just thought it was a really cute cake! However, the behind the scenes drama was that prior to my birthday we had recently given back our Bichon Frise puppy that we only had for 2 weeks. After years of begging our parents for a dog, they finally gave in and got us this puppy, which later turned out to be the runt of the litter and to have some severe separation anxiety and behavioral problems! The breeder had told my parents that they had 2 weeks to make sure it was a good fit, and if it wasn't working out, they could return it for a full refund. Well, on the 14th day...Maggie was gone. Looking back, I probably even named my cake Maggie or something atrocious like that. But at the time, it seemed like the right cake to get! I wore an outfit from Wet Seal on that birthday. It was a white t-shirt with pink elastic bands around the arms, and jean shorts that had matching pink elastic bands around the cuffs. I thought I was SO cool that I was finally old enough and could fit into a size 0 at Wet Seal. Yes, this is the same Wet Seal that is still around these days...but my how the clothing there has changed. My mom would not be buying me clothes from there anymore!
The other random birthday cake that I remember was the giant cookie birthday cake from Paradise Bakery.
After leaving home to go to college, the birthday cake tradition changed. We have now shifted back to the tradition that Mom grew up with when she was a child. Mom bakes the most wonderful angel food cake with her famous double boiler icing. The cake has rainbow sprinkles on it and always includes candles to light, sing to, and blow out hoping that your wish comes true.
I had the greatest childhood! All of these memories, stemming just from thinking about my birthday cakes of my younger years! Thanks, Mom and Dad!
P.S. Just thinkin'...I got distracted by my birthday cakes talk, but my birthday parties always had really cool games at them too! In addition to pinatas, we would often play the drop the crayon into the bucket, remember all of the items on the tray, who knows Kelly the best, Red Rover, and scavenger hunt games!
