Birthday Cake Traditions

This past weekend we celebrated my two kiddie's 2nd & 4th birthdays.  My kids have birthdays just one day apart so this year we celebrated their birthdays together with one party.  I'll probably continue to do the same until...well honestly, probably for the rest of their childhood.  Since they will have to share birthday parties, I decided that I would try to make their individual birthdays as special as possible by making them their own birthday cakes.  I'm hoping this is a tradition I can continue for as long as I'm alive (talk about long term planning).

L's Buzz Lightyear Cake
Recently, after having watched Toy Story for the first time, "L" has really gotten into Buzz Lightyear.  So I made him a blue fondant covered cake decorated with stars, planets and Buzz sitting in a space ship.  This Imaginext Buzz figure is meant to hold the handles of the space ship, so I tucked in a little happy birthday flag into his hand and it looks like he's holding up the flag.  The candles are Wilton candles whose flames are supposed to burn in the color of the candle but honestly the green and blue candle flames looked pretty much the same.  Instead of buying the fondant like I usually do, this time I made it using a marshmallow fondant recipe, which was softer and tastier, but handled a little differently. I'll have to work out some of those kinks for the next time.

 

P's Max and Ruby Cake
Little "P" totally loves Max & Ruby, a Nickelodeon cartoon featuring a brother and sister bunny.  I've never seen Max & Ruby toys at any toy store but found this cake topper on Amazon with the bunnies sitting in a car on a little plastic hill.  I made pink and yellow gum paste flowers with pearl centers and a green buttercream frosting which I also used to border the cake with "grass".  For some added height to the cake, I bought these twirly candles.

Happy Birthday to my little cutie-patooties!  You're growing up so fast!

Added 3/27/2012
So the day after the party, we decided it was only fitting that we dig into the cakes for breakfast.  Both cakes were a butter cake--it was pretty rich and sweet, but I suppose a special occasion warrants a bit of indulging.