Friends of mine, Tatyana & Rodrigo, are having their sons’ first birthday and Tatyana asked me to help with the cake. Well I looked at some of the illustrations that she sent me by email from Internet pictures and I said, ‘Is this all you want? You want me to do the whole cake? I got a bigger idea…’
Of course Tatyana probably had so much more to worry about getting her child’s first party together so she freely gave up that project.
The following pictures are the result of watching too much Ace of Cakes (on food network DVD’s my dad sends me here in West Africa) and a Marshmallow Fondant Recipe I found on the Internet (they don’t sell it here locally in Liberia Monrovia, that I know of!). This was actually my first attempt to make a cake of this nature with ‘homemade’ fondant…and let me tell you this West African humidity almost melted it off!!! (the party was outside)
[Click pictures to make larger]
Chocolate chips represented coal in the second train cart, the little ball/truffle things were made by Tatayana (tasty!) and the whole cake is edible. Mostly just cake, buttercream frosting, MM Fondant, and food coloring for the fondant. Those were the only colors available to me and I had to be careful because they effected the texture of the fondant.
If you would like to look at all the pictures of “how to have a Birthday Party for a Brazilian in West Africa and get a cake made by an Alabama/Georgia boy”… I stole all my pictures from Ali (THANKS!) she also has extensive photo albums of our time here that you might be interested in.
One of the nice things about being here on the ship in close community is that some of these families I have known for a long time, and over the years as the family grows you become an Uncle to many cute children by default. (not to make my niece and nephews back home jealous). Its just the ‘way’ of community and a ‘right of passage’ of sorts that really make me enjoy my time here.
Happy Birthday Estevam! [Sunday August 30th] GO BRAZIL!!! (check out Estevam’s Birthday Suit)
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