Not the Cake Boss!

Back when I sometimes watched TV (for those few hours each week when Harrison napped while I was hugely pregnant with Hewitt), I had a thing for watching cake-baking shows. These people are amazing. One show on TLC was called "Cake Boss" and followed a bakery in New Jersey as they made all sorts of specialty-ordered cakes for different occasions. Side note : The Cake Boss made a Coca-Cola cake for the shareowners meeting this year. Another side note : I liked "Ace of Cakes" better than "Cake Boss," but "Ace of Cakes" isn't available on On Demand anymore. Just putting that out there...

Some examples of the amazing stuff the Cake Boss has made...

Garfield and friends

A building

Sushi

A burning building and some firefighters

Anyway, I got inspired for Harrison's second birthday (nearly Hewitt's zeroth birthday) and found instructions on how to make an airplane cake, which turned out really well, if I do say so myself! Thanks again to Grandmom.

For Christmas this past year, Great Grandmama Nell (Chris' grandmother) gave me a book with a thousand ideas on how to make specialty cupcakes. Harrison chose hedgehogs for this year's school birthday party (something else for his birthday party at home).

What the book promised...

What a cute little hedgehog!

What my efforts produced...

Aaahhh! What the flip is that? Borderline horrifying is what it is... Why is their hedgehog so much rounder? Why are their spikes so much thinner? Why are their eyes so much rounder and so much less bug-eyed? Where did they get those nice silicone cupcake holder with little feet on them? Why did I think that adding a red mouth would make mine look better?

Not any cuter when there is a plateful of them.

After some kind remarks about "All that matters is that Harrison likes them" and junk like that, Chris finally acknowledged that they were scary. Huh... Now, I have seen a birthday party in Harrison's classroom at preschool and I have seen the result of Elmo walking in -- serious freaking out. I promise you that every adult in the room had at least one crying kid clinging to them in desperation (Harrison was the one hanging off of me). In those kids' defense, I was pretty disturbed by Elmo, as well. So the obvious questions are...

1. What will Harrison think when he sees these things but is expecting the cute hedgehogs in the picture from the book?
2. What will the rest of the kids think when Harrison brings in scary cupcakes for his birthday party?
3. What will the school administrators think when Harrison's mom shows up with demonic cupcakes for a kid turning 3?

Answer to question 1 is "Wow! Mama made hedgehogs!"

Answers to questions 2 and 3 to come tomorrow around 3pm...