So last week, my very funny 13 year old daughter asked me if she could bake a cake. I told her to go ahead and she pulled a cake mix from the pantry. We didn’t have frosting in the pantry, because since I have taken cake decorating classes, I always make my frosting from scratch. I told her she was going to need some frosting and that I would help her make some. She is so cute; she asked me what she needed frosting for. I told her she needed it to hold the cake together. It seemed like such a silly question, I really didn’t how to answer it.
She mixed up the batter pulled out my giant cupcake cake pan. She assured me that this was the pan she wanted to use and I thought, “what the heck, I’ll just let her have fun!”. I had a meeting to attend and after helping her divide the batter into the two sides of the giant cupcake, I instructed her to put it in the oven and set the timer. I hadn’t had time to make the frosting, so I told her we could make it when I returned home from my meeting.
When I got home, she had already cooled the cake and needed some help leveling it before assembly. I wish I had taken pictures at this point. I started the buttercream frosting and showed her how to make it. We finished the buttercream and she wanted to color it, choosing maroon food coloring.
Once it was mixed in, we found the frosting spatulas-no small task!. My kids take turn doing the dishes, emptying the dishwasher, etc. and each one has their own special place for all of my cooking tools! Of course I NEVER know where that place may be!
My daughter began frosting the middle layer of the cake which only took a very small portion of the frosting. Anyhow, after frosting the middle layer, she plopped the top of the giant cupcake on and grabbed a bottle of sprinkles. She was generously dousing the giant cupcake with sprinkles-sans frosting!
I held my tongue, it was her cake after all. I figured she just wanted some extra sugar! Well after that she grabbed the knife and was about to start cutting into the cake when I grabbed her hand and said, “Hey, wait a minute! What about the frosting? Aren’t you gonna finish it?” She looked at me with disappointment and told me, “I don’t really want frosting on it.” “What?!” Well, why the heck didn’t you tell me that before I made all of that buttercream frosting?” I asked her.
“Because you said I needed it to hold the cake together!” was her answer.
Sierra's giant cupcake
So there you have it. Anybody need some maroon buttercream frosting?
