William The Great Turns 7

A couple of weeks before his 7th birthday, William and his mom were having a conversation that went something like this:

Mom: William, what kind of decorations would you like on your cake? Please let me know soon so I can tell Tita (Aunty) Leeann.

William: It's my birthday Ama (Malaysian word for mother). You have to surprise me.

Our friend Irene searched for stuff that interest her son but he seemed to like an almost endless variety of things. She had finally figured out what her son liked the most when she talked to his teacher.

Magic. Yes, he is into magic these days. According to his teacher, William  pretends to be a magician and gets excited when they conduct Science experiments.Why? Because he always relates them to magic tricks.

So I was a good Aunty again :)  I browsed the web to get an idea of what a  magic cake looked like.I found hundreds. I discussed the design  with my sister. We decided to go with the magician's hat design. It seemed appropriate for the birthday boy who loves to do magic tricks.

I went home after the dinner we had organized for William and Ginger and started to make magic.

I baked Vanilla cake in  three 18 cm pans. I cut each cake horizontally. I placed the cake on a cardboard base. I filled each layer with vanilla butter cream.

The cake went into the fridge after the first frosting. When the icing had hardened, I applied the second coating. This time I used black butter cream.Well, this was the closest shade of black we could come up with after an hour of blending colors. Having a limited supply of icing colors made it impossible to achieve the exact shade I wanted.

I smooth the cake with spatula.There is no air conditioner in my kitchen and the frosting melted in just a few minutes.

I placed the cake on the black felt paper which served as the brim of the hat. Then I placed it on a bigger base covered with red felt paper.

I wrote the inscription on top and the number in front. I couldn't wait to learn how he would react upon seeing this.

The decoration would have been more beautiful had I used fondant to make the dice, playing cards, paper money and trick stick but no ready-to-use fondant is available in Bangkok.Well, not that I know of. And my time was limited. I only had 3 1/2 hours before bedtime. While I made the cake, my sister, whose arts and craft skills have perfected through the years, printed the paper decoration.

I  attached red ribbon to cake. I did it too early though. (The cake was needed at lunch time the following day). The wet marks showed in just a matter of seconds.

WE DID IT! My sister said William was speechless when he saw the cake.Even his classmates went crazy over it.  I was glad he loved the surprise we made for him.

Happy 7th Birthday Will!