Why I Bake Cakes

I made my first cake for my oldest son, Dylan when he was 3 yrs old. He is now 16. I think in the beginning I just wanted to see if I could do it. Then it very quickly become a much loved tradition with my little boy. He loved watching me make the cakes as much as he loved eating them. Except I do recall one cake that he would not even touch and this cake was entirely his idea. He even helped me make it. We had crushed up chocolate oreo cookies and put them on top of chocolate icing to look like dirt and mud. Then we had Monster Trucks driving through them. He loved the cake. Well, he loved looking at the cake, because when I cut him a piece of it, I noticed he was just staring at it. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "my cake has mud all over it". And he never would take one bite of it. I felt terrible that my child actual thought I had put mud on his birthday cake.


Dylan is almost 11 years older than Gavin, so he has had the most cakes made for him. When Gavin came along, I kept up the tradition and started making his cakes too. Then 2 and half years later comes little miss Faith.


I had prayed and asked God for a little girl since I already had 2 beautiful boys and here she was. But this beautiful little girl came with colic, something I had not ever experienced before. My boys both began sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old. Faith screamed all night for 4 months. She was an angel during the day, but I had a 2 year old at home with me as well. So sleeping during her naps did not always happen. Life was hard for a while and I was completely overwhelmed and sleep-deprived. When the boys birthdays rolled around that summer, I decided to order them a cake instead of making it myself. I was also thinking it was probably time to give up that tradition now that I had 3 kids. It just took too much time, time that I did not have to spare.


The day of their party, (I was bad and very tired, so I did a combined party for them that year), I noticed the boys looking at their cake. Dylan was telling Gavin about all of the different cakes I had made for him over the years. That being Gavin's 3rd birthday, I had only made 2 previous cakes for him and he could only remember 1 of them. Dylan was going on and on about how cool all of his cakes were and that they were a lot better than that one. Gavin got very upset and said, "Moma I want you to make me a bunch of cakes too". That is when I realized how much those pain in the butt birthday cakes, that I would spend half the day making, really meant, and I knew I had to keep making them. I told them that day, that I would make their cakes from then on.


And believe me, the first decision they make about their birthday is not who to invite or even what present they want, it is  instead all about the cake. They LOVE it! They love watching me make it and then they can't wait to show everyone that walks in the door. Usually right after their party, they are trying to decide what kind of cake they want for next year. It is because of how much they love it that I have now become so obsessed with cakes. Honestly, I think this is the only thing I do that actually impresses them. These cakes have become very sweet memories for me and my children that will stay with us forever.