Cakes-- Impressive and Not

It's fall birthday season again around these parts. Last week we celebrated the first two birthdays. The new 10-year-old wanted a volcano cake, and we also happened to be studying volcanoes in school. Therefore, I decided to make his party "explosive" by having the children build their own "exploding" volcanoes during the week. Right after the fiery campfire lunch of hot dogs and just before the cake eating, the kids "set off" their creations.

And here is the volcano cake.

Molten sweetness

When he saw it, my birthday boy's eyes lit up. That made all the effort worth it. But really, it wasn't a hard cake to make, so it was really worth it. Plus all those dirty crumbles are no-bake cookie crumbles, and that makes any effort super-duper really, really worth it. All 10 candles went right in the crater and made a huge flame that looked cool spewing out of the volcano.

The 2-year-old's cake is a little under-whelming. I originally had plans to make two bundt cakes, stack them with one upside down, and frost it orange to make a pumpkin. Life got in the way, and I was too tired to stay up and make another cake. Instead, the morning of the birthday, I was struck by inspiration: my daughter's favorite thing is blueberries. She wants to eat them all the time. Also, I was really tired of frosting already. That could only mean one thing-- blueberry filling.

Pumpkin pound cake with blueberry filling

It's not creative or beautiful, but the birthday girl's eyes lit up as she realized those were blueberries. And that's what it's all about. 

And those are the first two cakes of fall birthday season.