4 Bumps and a Birthday Cake

The Irish have some weird traditions, I have to tell you. Have you ever heard of “Birthday Bumps”?  Birthday bumps are a tradition in Ireland where the birthday person is taken by the arms and legs and bounced up and down in the air with their head touching the floor the same number of times as their years of life. While I think my kids (including the birthday girl)  would have really enjoyed it if we bumped Noelle on her birthday, she’s gotten too big for me to do this without fear of dropping her on her head. Instead, I baked her a cake and let her lick the spoon.

These two were so excited about the cake and the birthday.

At her age (or any age), all you really need to make a birthday special is CAKE. Even though I didn’t know how to change a diaper until I had my first child, somehow I knew how important cakes were going to be to my kids. Before I had my oldest, Emmett, I bought all of the equipment necessary to make a layer cake. After he was born, I studied cake decorating youtube videos so that I would be ready for his 1st birthday.  Ever since, I’ve been making each of my kids a homemade cake for their birthdays.  Sometimes they tell me what flavor or theme they want months in advance, and just as with Halloween costumes, they change their minds at the last minute, requiring me to start from square one.   

This year, Noelle surprised me by sticking to the Chocolate on Chocolate “Lollipop” themed cake which she requested back in October. Paul thought I was going to make the cake look like a Lollipop. I told him that he’s clearly been watching too much of the Great British Bakeoff and who does he think I am anyway?  I made something much, much easier and all of the kids loved it. 

I decided to use a recipe from the amazing book Zoe Bakes Cakes, which I was able to download from the library. Amazingly, I followed the recipes exactly for both the frosting and the cake and I’m not sorry! I topped it with her fave, lollipops and a caramel apple, and a lollipop candle. She was in heaven. And it reminded me how little it takes to make their special day feel truly special. 

It looks wonky here but once it gets covered with frosting it will all even out.

I just spread it on thick and don’t worry about what it looks like. I’ll fix it later.

After smoothing things out a bit.

Don’t you just want to eat this with a spoon?

I made chocolate shavings that I put on the top. I tried to put them on the sides but just gave up. The frosting was too set by then and I was afraid I was going to ruin the cake by messing with it anymore. I bought the lollipops from Ashley’s and the candied apple from Sweettrio in Grafton. Love both shops! So many sweet treats!

 If you want to make this cake, the recipe is here. I scaled the cake recipe down by half to make a 4-layer 6-inch cake and I made ⅔ of the frosting recipe, which was EXACTLY enough. Emmett helped me with the math. Everyone helped me eat the tops of the cake layers after I leveled them. I cannot believe my baby is 4 years old! 

 Happy December everyone! I know it’s a busy time and I hope you are enjoying it.  I’ve been doing all of my Christmas shopping locally which has been really fun. We’ve shopped everywhere in Cedarburg, but also Grafton, Port Washington and other places close by and it’s been a great way to see more of the area. There are so many unique places to shop right here in our community. And for those of you who have shopped with us in Long Grove, Crystal Lake or here in Cedarburg, THANK YOU. It means so much to us that you have supported our family business. Whether you’ve been coming in for decades, or just once, we appreciate you. Happy Holidays!