Daddy Baked A Cake – Happy Birthday Mama! 🎂

Saturday was Ollie’s mama and my beautiful fiancée’s birthday, so we baked her a cake as a surprise.

Before we start patting me on the back here, let’s be real. It’s not like I had some big master surprise plan with all of the ingredients ready and the timing figured out. This was a last-minute, seat of my pants, I hope this works, kind of plan. Plan A was to grab a cake at Walmart when I was grabbing meat for Jess’s birthday dinner. And the only reason I had to do that was because the meat we bought earlier in the week smelled off when she was prepping to put it in the crockpot in the morning.

Ollie and I walked over to Walmart, didn’t see the cake we were hoping for or any meat that really got me excited to cook dinner. So we left with no cake and no meat. Our next stop was No Frills, just a few minutes away and with hopefully more exciting options. At this point I was thinking more about dinner than dessert, I’d put it at about a 90/10 split. And it wasn’t until we had steaks in our hands that I started thinking about a cake again.

Birthday Cake Plan B became a Betty Crocker cake mix and icing combo. Rainbow Bit + French Vanilla.

My first thought was to do a layer cake. But I’d never done that before and had no idea how to make it work, or if we had two pans of the same size at home. I looked at pans, decided not to buy one, and we came home.

This is the part where I tell you that it’s really cute when little kids help with baking – but Ollie didn’t do any helping. He walked around the kitchen and played with utensils while I mixed things in a bowl and went to the pantry and thankfully found matching round cake pans. I will give him some credit for lending some of his milk to bake the cake – but it’s not like I gave him any choice in the matter, so I’m taking that credit back.

I mixed and he watched and I pre-heated the oven and then we got Bubba ready for nap time. And after he was asleep, the cake pans went into the oven.

Tip: If you’re going to bake a cake for your significant other, try to wait until the kid is asleep before you put it in. I thought about putting it in earlier, but then if the timer went off when I was still trying to put him down, the decision between a ruined cake or abandoning nap time progress becomes lose/lose.

When I pulled the cakes out and transferred them to a wire rack I had some breakage issues with the bottom of one layer. So I got out the frosting and placed the piece back on and tacked the edges down with icing. It was shop class meets home ec.

The next step was to ice the whole layer – which I did not do well. The icing was thick, which is great, but with my very limited experience, I didn’t do a great job of spreading it. However, when I stacked the second layer on top and started icing, I did a lot better. Using the theory that stirring margarine helps make it more spreadable, I got a small spatula and stirred the hell out of the Betty Crocker French Vanilla icing. Then I scooped out big globs and started spreading it on top of the cake. It worked so much better! And while I will fully and completely admit that it wasn’t a clean icing job and it wasn’t pretty and I would laugh at the TV is a contestant on a baking show presented what I did – I think I did ok with it.

To finish the cake off I sprinkled some purple sugar on top (I found it in Jess’s baking stash & purple is her favourite colour) and I popped some chocolate chips on as well. Then I rooted through the drawer to find birthday candles and picked out pink and white. With no real fridge space available, I popped the cake on the passthrough ledge for the birthday girl to see when she got home.

And she did. And she was surprised.

After we had steak and mac & cheese and coleslaw for dinner, she cut into and we all had some. Wait, before that, I lit the candles and turned off the lights and sang Happy Birthday while Ollie’s eyes got as wide as possible and he stared at the candles. Then Jess blew them out and cut the cake.

We each had a piece. And then because Ollie was so cute and excited to be eating cake, his mama gave him another little piece. He didn’t finish his second serving, he was giggly and happy and adorable, which is always welcome.

So there you have it, the story of me baking a Betty Crocker cake for Jess on her birthday as a surprise.

Before you go though, I want to tell you how great she is and why she deserved the cake and steak and cider and gifts and hugs and love. And more.

Jess is patient and kind.
She is creative and colourful.
She is a fantastic mother and friend and sister and daughter.
She is my partner whether we’ve got things flowing well or we have no idea what’s coming next or how we’re going to get there.
She is my PVR setter and my cuddle buddy during baseball and wrestling and Drag Race and whatever else we find on TV.
I am lucky to have her by my side.
We are lucky to have her.
We love her very much.
💜