Hey Babycakes...

It's 2:25 a.m. and I just finished this cake (photo taken the next morning).  The dishes are all in the dishwasher, and all those little tools are soaking in the sink.  I can't believe how late it is (early?).  I do this all the time.  I decide on a project, think about it alot (kind of like a skier anticipating the course down the mountain) visualizing the most effective execution. THEN my imagination takes over and I get a little creative, or a lot creative, and sometimes just downright gaudy!  I can go long into the wee hours of the morning, and working by myself, the only thing telling me to stop is my aching back.  Luckily, I stopped at the just-right moment with this cake.  My friend Diane (Grandma-in-waiting) provided me a photo of her inspiration cake , and I took a bit of creative license and added more of this, a little that and before I knew it my inner critic was screaming, "STOP!."  It's enough.

This 2-layer cake is French Vanilla with a ribbon of dark chocolate marble. It's frosted in a rose-tinted buttercream, and decorated with fondant cut-outs.  The giraffe just peeks out from behind some jungle greenery.  Flora  never found in nature are splashed all over and the result is a fun cake to welcome my Godson Bobby's and his wife Brianne's first baby, a girl to be named Isabella.

And to add to my baking OCD, I had some left-over sugar cookie dough from yesterday's cookies, and made some more baby feet.  Henry will get one and the rest are accompanying the cake to its destination. 

I used to bake all the kids' birthday cakes.  The most memorable cake for Bobby was a Bart Simpson cake, which, back in my earlier decorating days, was a pretty good likeness to the cartoon character.  On the cake, Bart's text bubble read "Cowabunga, Man!" and I still remember what a hit that was with all the kids, about twenty years ago. 

On nights like this, when I'm bone tired and thinking that it was six and now it's just five hours of sleep I'll get before I have to get up.  I feel like an athlete after a big game.  I've played hard and now it's time to rest and gear up for the next challenge.

Good night, good morning, my friends.