My NEW Favorite Cake 'So Far'

Any of my cake making friends interested in making a Phineas and Ferb birthday cake???!!

That is the FaceBook post that spawned this cake. Having never seen an episode of Phineas and Ferb, I was a little apprehensive about this one, but when Kimmy responded with 'Trace is your girl for this,' I couldn't say no. After all, I do love a challenge. Besides, this cake was for my future son-in-law, the son of our friends David and Dana, and we had decided before his birth that he would marry my Emery when they grow up.

I had to google some images to see what Phineas and Ferb even looked like, and I found the coolest picture of a scene from and episode when they were surfing with that weird little platypus character. I knew when I saw it that I wanted to re-create it in cake. I showed it to Ricky and told him I was going to make a cake that looked like that and his response was, 'I don't think that's possible.' My intention was to show him that it was.

This was a chocolate half-sheet cake with plain buttercream frosting. I colored it a light blue, and made the water by tinting some piping gel. The characters were hand cut and painted gumpaste. Not being an artist, or really having an artistic bone in my body, I was immensely proud of how they turned out. I made the beach balls with a round cookie cutter and, again, hand painted them. The umbrellas and words were cut with my Cricut (this is when I knew that I really would love that I had made that investment) and also hand painted.

I couldn't believe how easily this cake came together. Aside from the hours of cutting and painting gumpaste, it didn't take much time to actually put the concept on the cake. I used brown sugar around the sides of the cake for sand, and purchased some chocolate rocks from a local candy shop. Before I even knew what had happened, this cake was finished and, to brag just a little, I was amazed by it. The real test, though, would be what Ricky thought of it. He wasn't home when I finished it, so I text him a picture of it. His response? 'Wow that's good.' That's all I needed to hear. I thought nothing could make me happier than his saying that but I was wrong. The excitement on Cason's face when he saw his cake made my day, and it made every paint-brush stroke worth it. Dana posted a comment about it on my FaceBook after the party, and a day or two later, order another cake for their t-ball party. Later, his dad told me, 'That cake you made for Cason's birthday was the most amazing cake I've ever seen, and all of the kids and parents loved it too.' This, my friends, is what I live for. Or, more appropriately, what I BAKE for.

(Oh, and for the record, I've STILL never seen an episode of that show.)