Transformers Cake!!!!

Cairo's birthday was earlier this week.  My chunka munka turned 6 and even though Jose is not here right now we tried to not bring the birthday boy down.  My brother in law offered to have a cook out for Cairo at his home and how could I say no?  I said sure, but I'm bringing the cake.  So I made Cairos birthday cake and here is how it went.

I didn't take pictures of the process of baking the cake because quite frankly I'm not that talented to bake a cake made from scratch.  I bought a couple boxes of Duncan Hines French Vanilla Cake Mix and just followed the instructions.

Here is the bottom layer of the cake with the well:

I filled the well with cream cheese frosting.  It's basically whipped cream cheese with sugar:

Added the top layer and ready to frost:

Finished frosting.  Normally I would be upset about the crumbs but since this cake is getting Transformed I didn't care all too much.  I think I need to find some other none stick spray or some other way of lining the pans.  I keep getting this thin cake skin that comes off and makes the cake crumbly when I frost it:

The last few times I've made cakes (I'll post pictures later) I've colored the frosting.  This time I left it white because I decided to try Duff's Cake Graffiti I used the blue and silver.  I really liked the silver, it's totally metallic, I want to make a car cake or something.  This is how it turned out:

I made some buildings out of the extra cake batter, I colored them a gray color.  They looked purple in the kitchen but when I brought them out into the sunlight they were really gray:

I figured the buildings needed some windows, doors and green foliage and I added the "Happy Birthday Cairo!".  I tried to make the letters look Transformery and they kinda grew as I wrote them but I'm ok with how they came out:

I made some blue frosting for the swirlys at the bottom:

Cairo wanted stars lining the top:

I bought some transformers to add as toppers and wah-lah!! :

We tore into that cake, you can kinda see the cream cheese filling:

Cairo seemed to have liked it very much, check out his new Mohawk hair cut:

I was really nervous about making this cake, but I'm really glad I did. Cairo really liked it.  The height of the cake prevented me from covering it while it was in the fridge. I thought the frosting was going to dry out and get hard but I was pleasantly surprised, it was soft and the cake was still moist also...double bonus!  Next time I will make a larger cake.  This cake was enough for 9 adults and 4 kids, I'm glad there was enough for every one, it was a pretty close call though.

Conversations with a 5 year old

On our way to a friends house:

Cairo: Mom, where are we going?
Me: Bertins house.
Cairo: Oh. *pause* Do you even know how to get to Adans house?
Me: Um...no.  We're not going to Adans house.
Cairo: Whose Adan?

I turn and look at my sister-in-law in the passenger side:
Me: Did that just happen?
Sis: Yes.

***
An hour and a half after breakfast:

Cairo: Now can I have something to eat?
Me: You can have a granola bar from the pantry.

He pitter patters to the pantry.

Cairo: I can't see it!!!!
Me: What do you mean you can't see it?
Cairo: I can't see it cuz I don't want it!!!

We give each other a long look.

Cairo: Can I have one of those? *Pointing to my attain bars*
Me: No.
Cairo: What are they for?
Me: They make your pansity feel full so you don't eat later.

He looks at me like "why wouldn't you want to eat later?", head tilt and every thing.

Cairo: Can I have chocolate?

***

Driving to an appointment:

Cairo:  Mom am I a part of you?
Me: Yes a part of me and papi.
Cairo: Oh I get it! So when you die you will keep living in me because I am a part of you and you are a part of me!
Me: Umm yeah that's a good way of looking at it.

This was one of those jaw dropping moments where I didn't know what to say but was shocked at the words coming out his mouth.

Rare Visitors

We got some visitors at my dads house.  Let's just say they're related somehow and depending on what the future holds, I'll reveal how they're related.  They...let's call them Kit and Kat...came over during the day on a Friday.  It just so happens I was there because of some crazy stomach virus, my brother was there because he had the day off and my sister-in-law was there cuz she needed to use the computer.  Everyone was there, my parents, us and Cairo.  I'm not sure that they wanted to see us all considering the timing but we were all there none the less,on the defensive and speculations were flying like bees in a flower garden.

"What do you think they want?"

"You think they want money"

"It's just weird after all this time"

"It's just them two?"

"Maybe someone died?"

It turned out to be a pleasant experience....until we got into politics AND religion.  I could tell that both were very Christian but I was not quite sure what branch they fell under.   Still don't know but I smelled fundi and I didn't like it.

Let me make it clear, I'm all about tolerance and productive dialogue.  I have no problem with sharing notes and comments and being all peaceful but as long as I don't try to convert you and you don't try to convert me, we'll get along just dandy!  These ladies were not into converting but they were into some weird stuff, in my opinion.  We started with politics....generally agreeing with each other I'd say about 80-90% of the time but then the comment was made how children should be allowed to pray in school when they wanted to and that the word "God" should be kept in the pledge of allegiance and part of the oath people need to take in court.

I believe in God, but that doesn't mean every one does.  Plus, my views of God may be very different than others and I'm ok with that.  I'm not ok, on the other hand, with people telling me what view of God I should have and that Religion needs to part of our government.  Sorry, but I agree with the separation of church and state.  No religion has any right to mess with our laws and our laws has no business messing with peoples right to their own faith.

Needless to say the discussion got heated.   They stated how it's because of Jesus Christ that we have Easter and Christmas.  (really?  It's not because Christians made up holidays around pagan holidays to easily convert pagans to Christianity?) What blew mind was when one said "I know some people with money and they're Jewish, you know not even American"....WTH???  Not only were they ignorant of other religions but I was surprised at the their ignorance of their own religion.  It was at this point that I decided to shut my mouth because I knew there would be a lynching.  Then one said, you should never talk about religion or politics at  a party.  Over all we peacefully said our good byes with hugs, but I'd be surprised if they came around again any time soon.  The whole time everyone else watched, it was me and them and even though my dad tried to get into the conversation his knowledge is narrow and limited and kept him on the side lines.

Looking back I think I should have said what I thought, like" you can be Jewish and American! Jesus was a Jew!"  "Those holidays have pagan roots and have nothing to do with Jesus!"  "If I knew I was going to die tomorrow I would not become wicked and go on a killing spree!" Yes, the last thing they said was God doesn't let us know when we're going to die because if he did we'd all give in to our wickedness and sin then ask for forgiveness the day before.

Till next time, I suppose.