Mr. Peacock!

Last Tuesday, my son came to me and asked if I'd make a birthday cake for his friend. He said she'd never had a homemade cake, only a cake bought from the store. I didn't have much going on that week and no cakes were on the schedule... so I said yes. Then he began telling me he needed it by Friday... and that she really likes peacocks. Oh yeah... and that he'd like it to be a checkerboard cake!

Ummmm... I began to sweat just a little. (Bless his heart, I'm sure he didn't realize how much work this cake was going to be.) I'd never made a peacock cake before, but I thought it would be a fun cake to decorate. Plus I could put on my blog. Ohhhhhhh, the things I'll do for my my son and my followers! ;)

If you've ever decorated a fancy cake, you know it can take quite a while to do. It's usually not a project you can finish in a day or two or even three. I began thinking about ALL those peacock feathers... the head & body of the bird... trying to make the fondant look like feathers... mixing those amazing peacock colors... then there's designing the rest of the cake! Well, I knew I was going to be very busy for the next few days!

My terrific son helped out by baking the cake for me. It was a strawberry and vanilla checkerboard cake. He did a great job and the cake turned out perfect.

In the end, I only had one really late night and finished Mr. Peacock in plenty of time. My son's friend loved the cake! Her family even invited all the neighbors over to take a look. She said the cake was too pretty, and that she didn't want to cut into it. They did finally eat it after a couple of days.

Later she gave me a cute hand written card. In the card she thanked me and said it was "honestly" the best birthday present she'd ever received!
(That warmed my heart.)