So, yes, Mim turned six with much fanfare. There was a family party where he and his birthday twin Auntie Jennie celebrated their birthdays. The menu included hot dogs hamburgers, french fries and chocolate cake. His choice as Auntie decided to skip her birthday this year 😉

On Sunday, we had Timmy’s birthday party with his friends. He asked for a Lightening McQueen cake, no shock there. This will be the third year in a row he requested a Lightening McQueen cake. The first year, we couldn’t get one, the grocery store didn’t offer a Lightening theme. Last year, we found one at Sam’s Club. It was 3 times as much cake as we needed, but Mim was stoked because it came with a functioning McQueen on top. The black frosting used for the road, was a little much though.

We’ve been watching a lot of Ace of Cakes lately, so this year I got brave (or stupid I wasn’t really sure which) and rented a Lightening McQueen cake pan from my local cake and candy supply shop.

The baking and frosting process was an adventure. I overfilled the pan, so the cake erupted all over my oven and took twice as long as I thought it would to bake. BUT, it came out of the pan almost flawlessly. I’m a function over form person, I will pick taste over aesthetics any day, so I made a pure butter cream frosting, no shortening for me. Pure buttercream tastes better, but it is also softer, so it doesn’t hold it’s form as well as a frosting made with shortening. Add to that the 100% humidity and things were a little squishy on the frosting front.

All that said, I don’t think it came out half bad. Most importantly, Mim loved it.