I officially have a teenager! And for MONTHS now, he's been asking for two things: 1.) an iPhone, and 2.) a vintage Apple logo cake. One for two isn't that bad, right? RIGHT??? Hahahaha. Poor Ethan. I know he was secretly hoping, deep down inside, that we'd cave and surprise him with a phone, but as he should know by now -- I
always have tricks up my sleeve. {
Fun fact -- Scott didn't realize until a couple of days before Ethan's birthday that all this time we've been talking about an Apple (as in registered trademark) cake, not an apple cake. Hahahaha.}
Ethan's birthday extravaganza was kicked off a little early on Friday, when Alex just couldn't wait any longer to give him the present he picked out. :) Saturday morning, we continued his birthday tradition of Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, and then I finished up the cake and came up with a last minute brilliant idea of a "Treasure Hunt" for finding all the rest of his presents. It was a hit. I knew he'd love it, and of course, he did. Hahaha. I thought he'd open each present as he went, but he wanted to save them all up, and as soon as he got to the final gift -- the piece de resistance -- I
knew he could tell what it was.
To his credit, he patiently opened the other (lesser)
gifts first -- and even genuinely appreciated and liked them -- but once
he got to the showstopper, he was pretty much giddy with glee. As in, I
don't think he even heard us singing Happy Birthday to him, because he
was too busy stroking the case of the brand new iPod touch -- in GOLD --
that he has been desperately trying to save up money for ever since he
heard about iOS 10 coming out. Because he's my technology boy, and
that's his thing, and apparently the new operating system is REALLY important to him. ;)
{His cousin Jonah had this piano book at their house when we went over on Memorial Day weekend, and Ethan learned the Imperial March from it while we were there. We've been hearing him pound it out everyday since. I thought he might like to expand his repertoire. Hahaha.}
{I thought some Harry Potter piano music thrown into the mix would also be a fun surprise. And it was! I knew he'd be excited about it. He has done such a phenomenal job of teaching himself how to play the piano, with VERY minimal help from me.}
{Oh he's pretty sure he know what it is, alright...}
This gold color is sparking some SERIOUS joy for son number one. :)
After singing and cutting into that cake {
which ALWAYS pains me after so much work},
he spent the rest of the day getting to know his iPod, playing a little
Hedwig's theme on the piano, and figuring out his new games. It was a
pretty stellar day. Which is good, because he's a pretty stellar kid. :)
He just can't quite put down his new toy...
Still can't...
AND...still can't.
And just like that he's 13 years old! I can hardly believe it's true.
{
Anatomy of an Apple cake as follows...}
After Googling lots of images and trying to find tutorials, I used 3 layers of round cake, then created a paper template and cut out the "apple," using the chunk out of the side as the leaf.
I crumb-coated it and filled it with a creamy cocoa frosting (which was divine) from my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook -- which I've had since my freshman year of college -- then after popping it in the freezer, I finished it off with a coating of cream cheese frosting. Also divine. And also from Betty. ;)
Ethan helpfully printed out the vintage Apple logo, and I mixed up my rainbow colors. It's a good thing we've done THAT a time or two here before. Hahaha.
Then I got to work decorating. I used silver sugar crystals to cover the sides, because I didn't know how well I'd be able to continue the icing stripes over the edge. To be honest, getting the sugar crystals to stick evenly may have been the harder route. Hahaha.
Fun fact -- that leaf was precariously perched and not very balanced. And it MAY have fallen completely on it's side a couple of times...
Happy 13th Birthday, Ethan!!!
