Cake Decorating?

My friend, Jana, and I had this great idea of learning about cake decorating. I took all the Wilton classes before Taneal was born, so I know a little. Since Jana wanted to learn some things and she has three children and I have four and doing anything this summer includes all of them, we decided to bake them all little cakes and let them do some decorating as well.

Good idea? NOT!!!!!!

It was chaos at my house! The kids were having so much fun decorating, or shall I say eating the frosting.The kids were all oblivious to the chaos, and were having a terrific time. Somehow I managed to forget that small children can't sit and watch instruction and then do it on their on. They ALL need hands-on help. However, they quickly adjusted to the fact that there were only two very pregnant and tired moms and seven children and they were just going to have to experiment on their own. Between the plops of greasy frosting on the floor and the cake decorating tips being licked and sucked and then squirted onto the cake and the vast sharing of germs, all was well. Jana and I finally sat back and just starting giggling wondering "what were we thinking?" It was worth the mess because the kids had so much fun, but I don't think I would be willing to do a repeat.

The kiddos seriously had a great time and were so proud of their finished cakes. Josh, Jana's oldest, decorated his cake for his mom. He wrote on it, "happy labor." Jana had to ask him if that was really what he wrote and he confirmed that it was. He couldn't understand why we were laughing. We tried not to, but, well . . . I don't know. We were so caught off guard it was funny. He is such a thoughtful boy.

Danielle proud of her cake!

I made templates and then put them in a Ziploc bag for the kids to practice on. It was easy to wipe off and practice again.

Camie practicing and then showing off her finished cake.

Taneal hard at work.

Spencer was even interested. He didn't decorate his own cake but enjoyed squeezing the frosting out and tasting.

Josh with his "happy labor" cake.