Um no, I definitely did lose it, but that was only during the Hell of using Fondant icing for the first time. Throwing a party for your 2-year old in Manhattan presents a whole host of interesting situations. For one, your apartment is too small for 8 toddlers and both of their parents. And both parents always come because hey, it’s still a party and social-life starved parents want in on the fun too.
School Bus Cake with Fondant Icing
So this means you have to rent space. And then that makes you realize you have to decorate that space. To decorate you must develop a child’s theme. Along with the theme comes party favors and CAKES. And if you want to recreate your own childhood like I usually do, this probably requires MAKING said cake just the way your mom did which usually means homemade cake and icing and a 3-D design. At least that’s what it means for me. This is a challenge if you are not a baker and your hatred of baking actually causes you to have recurrent panic attacks, especially if you wait until 9:00 PM the night before the party to begin baking.
Another stressor can be your husband. They usually aren’t into party planning, and do you blame them really? For the weeks leading up to the party, you’re completely content sharing your plans for the party with him and running the errands and loving being in control. Then a few days before the party, you realize he hasn’t done a friggin’ thing to help you.
On the night before the party while you are rolling out sticky Fondant icing and your cake is crumbling on it’s cooling rack and he’s watching The Hurt Locker on Showtime — you might loose it. You might turn into the devil and force your husband to begin icing part of the cake (the part you know he can’t screw up no matter how hard he tries). Even though, after five seconds you shoo him back out your tiny-ass kitchen by screeching that he should just watch his stupid movie already. While scraping a large sheet of thin Fondant icing from your countertop and praying it doesn’t rip, you quietly rue the day you ever got married and curse the directors of The Hurt Locker for making what sounds like a really great movie, but you can’t watch it!
Then finally, you drop the Fondant on the cake and it’s over. It was kind of worth it. Actually, it was really worth it when during the party your daughter couldn’t stop talking about her birthday cake, eats 2.5 pieces of cake and then quietly hugs you when everyone leaves.
