Cake #1: Abby Cadabby

Ella has been celebrating her birthday in high fashion this year. She has had three parties to commemorate turning 4, each a little different from the other. On Tuesday, we celebrated with family and friends at Disneyland. On Thursday, she had an ice cream party at school with her classmates. And on Friday, we had a bigger birthday party that included everyone. She has recently rediscovered Sesame Street and is very into Abby Cadabby. One of her birthday wishes was to have an Abby Cadabby cake. No cupcakes, Mom. Just an Abby Cadabby cake. So I visited a local bakery who is known for making wheat- free/gluten-free cakes. And after looking through many books, I decided that I could make a cake that would be better than anything that I was seeing. So I went online and found a great mold from Wilton and took on the task of making Ella's cake.

I was not sure how the wheat-free cake recipe I had would do using a cake mold, but it actually was no different that traditional cake ingredients. I greased the pan REALLY well and then lightly dusted it with rice flour. Once the cake came out in one piece and I sighed a giant sigh of relief, I went buttercream crazy. It was actually a lot of fun. The directions that came with the mold were fairly easy to follow. Naturally, being a perfectionist, I had my issues. I had tried to save money by using food colorings that I already had rather than the suggested ones made by Wilton. And the pink ended up looking a lot like Madonna Inn pink, rather than Abby Cadabby pink. (You can take the girl out of San Luis Obispo, but you cannot take the Madonna Inn out of the girl!) And I was not happy with how the eyes turned out. Like I said, I am a perfectionist.

We took the cake with us down to Disneyland and enjoyed it with everyone at the hotel. The cake was delicious. I used the Vanilla (Butter) Layer Cake recipe from Annalise Roberts' Baking Classics cookbook. The frosting was traditional buttercream. The best part was that I served it and no one knew that the cake was wheat-free until I told them! Actually, the BEST part was seeing how happy the cake made her. It was all worth it!