I keep dreaming that I’ll make a beautiful cake, worthy of a site like Foodgawker. But I seemed destined to make cakes decorated with gummies – fish, bears, worms – all gummies.

My grandkids, and my kids and their spouses were all home last week so we decided to celebrate little Clare’s birthday early. (By calling the soon-to-be-six year old “little” does this resign me to being “big Clare?”)
Clare and I actually have birthdays that are only a few days apart and because they live in Florida we have to take our cake occasions where we can find them.

So I whipped up a chocolate cake from scratch and the other grandchildren frosted and decorated it with gummy fish, and other candies. The cake was nothing to blog about, even tho I got the recipe from a reputable magazine. But Clare still enjoyed the attention and the candle-lit fun.

A few days later Clare and I decided we needed to invite three neighbor children for cake to continue our birthday month. After we visited a very large garden in 90 degree heat, Sophia (7), Clare and I headed to a grocery store to pick up items for dinner. While I picked out some salmon, Clare wandered to the bakery counter next to us. She fell in love with a “rainbow” cake.
I rarely purchase cakes, for a whole host of reasons, but this time I thought, “It’s going to be nearly 100 degrees this afternoon and we’re trying to get to a movie.” So I gave in.

Of course, we couldn’t leave the cake a plain rainbow. Sophia and I put a bowl in the middle of the cake and then crushed Oreo cookies and put them around the edges of the bowl. Next we took the gummy worms that I had in my pantry (doesn’t every grandmother have gummy worms on hand?). And the girls adorned the rainbow cake with worms.

The “garden” needed an edge so M & M’s provided that. And when they weren’t looking, I stuck a clown head in the middle.

When we finished, the girls and I headed off to see the Lorax in 3D in a nice cool movie theater. As we wore our dorky glasses and giggled at all the antics, and hummed with the music, I realized I was happy I wasn’t baking in my hot kitchen.

And there you have it – a really ugly cake that brought smiles as we again lit candles and enjoyed the moment together.
I love having a birthday month so that you have several chances to get it right. We’ll see if I do…