The youngest love of my life (I have three, one old and two very young) just turned 5 this last week. Five! I love that little man so much that my heart turns itself inside out when I kiss him at night after he's asleep. You have to understand, he has these chubby, pink cheeks still and these little lips that pucker out when he sleeps. The other night he yawned and held his hands the same way he did when he was a newborn and I almost cried.
The funny thing about children is that they can drive you to the edge of sanity during the day but revert to their completely innocent, angelic selves when they sleep. I love it. I try to make it a point to visit my children in their room after they've drifted off to dreamland so I can take in all of their subconcious purity and innocence. It's in that moment that I realize what a miracle it is to be their mother, whereas I'm so busy mothering during the day that I forget to stop and reflect on that. But it truly is nothing short of a miracle to have the chance to be the mother of my children. And this last week, I took the time to reflect on how amazing it is to get to be the mother of this little man.
This debonair (and completely mischieviously manipulative) little man is really into legos, superheroes, and ninjas. His interests du jour are therefore Ninjagos. Oh, it makes him so happy. He wanted a Ninjago party for his birthday but we had to scale back on plans this year. It was problematic, to put it simply, trying to figure out a cost-effective way to throw a party when we have such cramped quarters. It was decided, and then pitched and accepted, to have just a family party. But it had to be a ninjago cake.
My mother and I had this idea to make ninjagos out of cookies using these completely adorable Ninjabread Men cookie cutters. My mother's friend, A, gave them to him for Christmas and he was excited from the moment he opened his gift. We used them to make sugar cookies then made a simple icing from powdered sugar and lime juice. We finished the decorations with royal icing. I love them! What do you think?
We used the Sour Cream Fudge cake recipe that the girls used for cooking club (post here) and it, once again, didn't fail us. The frosting also came from "Joy of Cooking" but I must perform my civic duty and warn you that we had consistency issues with it. We had to literally pour it over the cake. It scored extremely high marks for flavor though!
We used royal icing to "glue" the cookies to the cake but also had to use toothpicks to prop them up from behind.
The cake and cookies were delicious to the very last crumb! And believe me, there were none left over!
If you make this cake, just make sure you top it with some re-lighting sparkler candles for your own little ninjago to practice "fulfilling his potential" with and you're set to make some smiles! Ninja, go!
Aaaaahhh. <sniff>
The cookies and cake look amazing! I can't believe he is 5! And he is so adorable! Having this new baby in....17 days...makes me look at my older kiddo in ways I haven't done in a while. It really is amazing to see them grow and be there own little person.
Posted by: Christina Martinez | 2013.01.13 at 09:32 AM
I love the cake! Happy Birthday to your baby!
Posted by: Cari | 2013.01.13 at 11:02 AM
Thank you both! The cake was fun and it was kind of fun to have cookies and cake at the same time!
Posted by: Titania | 2013.01.13 at 02:00 PM
The last lipstick I used was Peach Peony by Maybelline. I found it at the Dollar Store and I love it!Mama Laura recently posted..Birthday wrap up: FOTD
Posted by: ARM Cortex Development Board | 2013.01.15 at 04:46 AM
I think those ninjas looked good! and the cake was DELICIOSO!!!! Just to think about it make me hungry :-)
The Imp looked so happy, especially when he was opening the presents. It was a HAPPY day!
Posted by: melva | 2013.01.25 at 01:09 AM