So the phenomena of the “cobbler’s children have no shoes” is definitely a theme in our house this birthday season.  In case you’re not familiar, the saying refers to someone who is so successful at something they don’t have time to provide that same service to his/her own family. I guess one could extrapolate it to “the baker’s children don’t get cool birthday cakes.”

So, anyway, my daughter’s birthday rolled around a few weeks ago and I was swamped with orders.  On the day of the party, we awoke and frantically tried to figure out a cake that would be easy, fast, and fun for her celebration at the pool…

This is what we came up with. She really liked the idea of an unconventional shape (a half sheet cut into fourths and stacked high), and I liked the fact that I could slice and serve it easily.

The cake was vanilla birthday cake flavor with multi-colored sprinkles folded into the batter.  The filling was blue (her favorite color) buttercream sandwiched between each of the 4 layers. The effect of melted candles I did using melted white chocolate  ganache pooled and drizzled over the edge of the cake.  The melting ice cream cones were added to the top to give the cake some more height.

Keeping with the ice cream cone theme, the mini ice cream cones are rainbow cake pops dipped into white-then-blue melted white chocolate and sprinkled with nonpareils and a topped with a red candy “cherry.” Hannah and I made them after watching this great tutorial by Cookies Cups and Cardio.  (I wish I would have taken a picture of them with a bite taken out!)

We also made cookies in the summer pool party theme…

Despite the obsessive planning I typically do weeks in advance for most of our birthday parties, we were able to pull this one off in 1 day with minimal effort. Most importantly, the kids all had a great time.

It’s so nice to have a child who’s finally old enough to help with the decision-making and execution of her own party treats…especially one who’s always ready and willing to help.

Happy 9th birthday, my darling…you really are my star and inspiration!