“Cheap beer? Are you kidding me!? The least you could have done was put me next to a nice bottle of Champagne.”
All day Friday, this scene in my refrigerator made me giggle. I imagined spoiled, demanding comments emanating from the princess Barbie cake, her hand raised in protest. Last year on Mini Whipped’s birthday, I wrote about my efforts to create a pink paradise for her starting with pink pepto-bismal colored pancakes all the way through to the triple pink cupcake dessert. This year, I surprised her with this Barbie princess cake. It wasn’t the home run I expected.
Mini Whipped adores pink. She isn’t totally obsessed with princesses (yet) but she is physically moved when watching the classic princess movies. I’ve never been a girly girl. I don’t wear pink and I should probably pay more attention to hair and makeup than I do. The princess culture is a bit bothersome to me as I worry about the message we are feeding little girls about fairytale romance. Marriage, love, and partnerships take work. I am fortunate to have a fantastic marriage and often, it feels like a fairytale romance. But, we also work hard to communicate, compromise, and keep the “spark” alive. When I notice my 4 year-old’s eyes welling up with tears as “prince charming” kisses Snow White awake, I cringe, just slightly. I know, I know… what a wet blanket.
Despite being a bit of a princess grinch, I’ve always been intrigued by the ballgown princess cakes. Mini Whipped requested red velvet birthday cake with princesses on it. I decided to level up and surprise her by making the cake into a princess.
YouTube videos provided enough tips and tricks to guide my way. I used two 6-inch cake rounds and an oven-proof bowl to create the cake mound on the top. This video had some helpful frosting and assembly tips. Mini Whipped has a few Barbies that she rarely plays with so I snuck one to embed in the cake. Unfortunately, my stacked dome was not tall enough to accommodate her long legs, mostly due to her feet that are stuck in ultra high heeled form (urgh). I made the questionable decision to detach her legs to fit in my cake.
I truly thought that the legs would pop off and then back on again later so that I could return Barbie to her play bin. But, I learned that Barbies aren’t made with ball and socket joints. This Barbie became an amputee in order to wear a red velvet cake skirt. I believed it would all be worth it! I tucked her legs in the back of the cupboard, thinking they might be funny cake toppers of their own some day – Halloween graveyard? Diving into a blue “swimming pool” cake?
The big moment arrived. With a table full of family members, I presented the cake in front of Mini Whipped. Grandparents gasped and praised the cake. The birthday girl smiled politely. She did not display the level of awe she shows when Cinderella pulls the second glass slipper out from under her apron. After signing the birthday day, Mini Whipped requested, “can you please take my doll out of there now?”
I whisked the cake off to the kitchen to hide the fact that Barbie no longer had legs! While eating the cake, Mini Whipped offered a number of compliments on the frosting, the cake flavor, and the color. The four-year-old read the room and sensed that we expected her to be more excited and was doing the best to accommodate. She had asked for princesses on the cake. And I didn’t listen.
As is often he case on my daughters’ birthdays, I reflect on the many emotions of parenting. I made a cake that I thought she would adore and I didn’t quite hit the mark. She sensed my disappointment and did her best to boost me up. While I was putting Mini Whipped to bed that night, I told her that I was glad she had such a fantastic birthday but that I was sorry that she didn’t love the cake. She stroked my cheek and reassured, “I did love that cake mommy. I just didn’t like my doll in there.”
As for Barbie, both her separated legs and body are still safely hidden in the cupboard. Mini Whipped seems to have forgotten about her. I’m hoping it stays that way.