Have I mentioned my daughter Abby is odd? Well if not, I’m declaring it now, she’s odd!
A couple months before school ended she came home with a book all about the Titanic. Ok that’s not weird, I realize but then she brought more and more books about the boat home, I started to think my kid had a morbid side. What I didn’t realize was that it was the 100th anniversary of the boat sinking.
So then the commercials for the re-release of the movie were on TV, she asked if she could go see it. Since we owned the movie and after we made sure nothing was inappropriate for a 6 and 4 year old to watch, we let both Abby and Rowan watch it. Well now, they LOVED IT!!!! I mean the love story was “gross” but then the boat hits the iceberg and it became the “best mover ever!”. I think they’ve watched that movie 50 times since the first time. They do prefer the second half of the movie and have asked to start it when the boat hits the berg.
Abby took it even farther and started Google-ing the Titanic, she watched video’s about the boat, tried to read every bit of information she could find and I even once came downstairs to see her watching the James Cameron documentary about the Titanic. I think she knows more about the boat than most historians. My little history junkie!
Now I knew we would be home in Canada for her actual birthday and knew there was no way I was going to make her cake. So I emailed my bloggy friend, Juanita Koo of Sweet Things Toronto, and asked her if she would make Abby’s cake. Not only was she delighted to make it, she asked me to come by and work on it with her. Not going to lie, I was so excited! She asked me what Abby wanted and I didn’t even have to ask the birthday girl, I knew…Titanic. I know, morbid right?
Juanita came back with some awesome ideas, some of which we kept and some I thought were hilarious but didn’t think anyone else would get my daughters warped sense of humour. Imagine little lifeboats around the cake LOL, sorry but I thought it was awesome but instead we went with just icebergs. I also told her I’d make the cake topper of the boat sinking into the cake.
A couple days before Juanita and I were to meet up to work on the cake I tried to make the boat topper. I didn’t bring any gum paste with me so bought the Duff’s stuff at Michaels. IT WAS AWEFUL. There was a lot of swearing then decided that the point of not making the cake was to NOT stress over making the cake, so I emailed Juanita and said the boat topper was a no go and she said she’d come up with something. She also invited me for dinner and a glass or two of wine!
I met Juanita for dinner the Friday before Abby’s bday. We had an absolute blast. Now the problem with having two bloggers get together to work on a project with intentions to blog about it…not a picture to be taken! ah well. Juanita made some great adornments for the cake. She had the icebergs, boat wheel and anchor all ready to be coloured and then she made a boat, oh yes she did. That was above and beyond. Now she just made it grey so she gave me some red and black fondant and I gave it more of a Titanic feel and then I got to dust the wheel and anchor gold. But the rest of the amazing cake is all Juanita.
When Abby saw the cake she squealed, we nailed it! The birthday party at my parents was great and the cake was a huge success. A few people mumbled when it came out but I calmed them all by admitting that my daughter has a morbid sense of humour and that it was her most favourite movie. It certainly didn’t stop anyone from asking for a piece.
Thank you so much Juanita, both for the cake and for having me in your home for dinner and letting me play in your kitchen!
And to Abby, Happy Birthday Sweetie, I love you so much!
Thanks for looking!
****
Addendum: I’m sorry if this offends, it was so not my intention. My daughter knows that people lost their lives and she understands how tragic it all was, but she’s also 7 who loves a movie and the special effects of that movie. This post was written in a light fashion, so if my tone made it sound like my daughter doesn’t understand, I can assure you, she does.
