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My Unicorn Cake Story

My Unicorn Cake Story

A few weeks ago, my Granddaughter celebrated her birthday. For 6 months she had been telling me that she wanted to have a Unicorn Party at Nana’s house. A few times a month when I would pick her up for a visit, we would stop in at a local grocery store to pick up food for the weekend. Each time we stopped, she would see a Unicorn Cake in the bakery and say, “That is the cake you are going to make me for my birthday Nana”.

I have not made decorated cakes in years, and the truth is, seeing the beautiful Unicorn Cake gave me a little anxiety. Because of this, I would then tell her that maybe, since she wanted that specific cake, we should buy it instead of trying to make it. I of course have spent time scrolling on social media and have found the hysterical Pinterest Fails photos. Where some person like myself, attempted to make something that they probably should not, and it was a complete failure. I did not want that to happen!

Yes, I Love to Bake!

I love baking, hospitality, party planning, and decorating. I really love it, but now that my kids are grown, the theme birthday parties are fewer and fewer. So, I am a little out of practice. As the party date grew close, I planned for snacks, decorations, and activities. I thought we would keep the snacks simple since my granddaughter and her friends are young. A plate of fruit with Unicorn Fruit Dip. A plate of veggies and dip. White Chocolate Covered Strawberries, with sprinkles of course. And the cake which I would bite the bullet and make.

Let me just say that I like to plan ahead. I don’t like to procrastinate, and I am fairly organized at these types of events. The Tuesday before the party, My Son and Daughter in Law came over and worked with two of my other kids to decorate the house. I had purchased a Pin the Horn on the Unicorn game, loads of balloons, and streamers, in addition to a birthday banner. As we sat at the table blowing up white balloons my Son asked what we were going to do with all of them. I told him that these would be clouds for the massive rainbow they were going to create with the streamers. I thought it would be an effective, but affordable decoration.

The Rainbow!

The kids got to work on the rainbow and clouds and truthfully, it turned out better than I could have imagined. My kids are awesome at creating displays and art, so I knew that they would do an amazing job. We hung up the banners, more balloons, put my granddaughter’s life-sized Unicorn in the living room, and we were ready to go!

My Unicorn Cake Story

The day before the party my granddaughter and I spent time making the fruit and vegetable platters and mixing up the dips. Then as I would dip the strawberries in white chocolate, she would sprinkle them with an ample amount of sprinkles. Because of course, sprinkles make everything more amazing! My granddaughter and I both feel very strongly about the value of Sprinkles.

Almost Everything Was Ready

The presents were wrapped the rooms were ready, and all I needed to do was make the cake. I say that as if it were the simplest thing in the world. I should mention also that my granddaughter does not enjoy cake which is funny because her Dad has never like cake either. Because of this I always make him a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for his birthday.

I was planning on making the 4-layer cake completely of various flavors of ice cream, but at the last minute, my granddaughter suggested pink velvet. Then, in a moment of inspiration, she suggested that it be a multi-color swirl cake. If you have a 4-year-old in your life, you know how quickly these changes can be made.  In my mind, I knew there was very little chance she would eat any of the actual cake, but thought, why not? Everyone else will enjoy it.

My Unicorn Cake Story

So, we made two layers of swirl cake, and then I melted, and reset the ice cream in 8-inch rounds. I left the cake to cool, and the ice cream layers to freeze and went to relax a bit. My thought process was that after dinner while my granddaughter was playing with her Daddy, I could easily retreat to the kitchen, make the frosting and assemble the cake. I was WRONG!!!!!

So I started the Cake

I wish I had taken photos of the next few hours, but probably for the best I did not. You just need to imagine as I tell the tale. I had decided to put the cake on a medium sized cake pedestal so that it could be the center piece of the table. In my mind, the cake was going to be pretty amazing, so I was fairly certain I should make it the centerpiece. LOL. At this moment of the ordeal I was filled with confidence!

I laid the first layer of actual cake on the plate and covered it with frosting. Then, the next layer of cake and more frosting. Then a layer of ice cream cake, and more frosting, and then a final layer of ice cream. I tried covering the outside of the cake with a crumb coat, which is a basic layer of frosting meant to tame the crumbs and prep the cake to be frosted. That did not work! AAAHHH! Some of the frosting was freezing to the ice cream, and some was simply sliding off the sides. Not to mention the cake was slowing falling over as the ice cream melted.

I called for both of my sons to come out and help. There must have been desperation in my voice, and they both came running. I needed skewers cut to a precise size to hide in the cake and support its structural integrity. I also needed half of the freezer drawer cleared out so that I could put the cake in to freeze. And of course, since the freezer is brand new (you can read about the demise of my last freezer here), I wanted a towel in the bottom incase the cake got, “messy”.

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We Needed To Support The Structure

My oldest Son measured and cut the skewers to support the cake and put them in. Each was about 1/2 inch too long and stuck out the top of the cake. He said that I could cover them with frosting…. Apparently, the look that I gave him, let him know that it would be a catastrophic event if the skewers were sticking out. We are laughing about it now, but not back then. Then, at the same moment I gave him the look, my daughter in law and granddaughter came into the room to see how things were going. My Son yelled out, “Abort, Abort”, and they quickly ran out of the room. Had I not been slightly hysterical inside, I would totally have laughed about that.

I have to say that I was a little stressed and really wanted the cake to be amazing but was maybe getting a little too upset. My Son later said that he thought that I was going to cry, and no son ever wants to see their Mom cry. That is why he ushered the girls out of the room, he didn’t want them to see me cry.

I came to a horrible realization…

You might think that things were going to get better now, but they were not. Just as the cake became secured with the newly sized skewers a horrifying thought crossed my mind. The now very large, 4-layer cake, sitting securely on the cake plate, was not going to fit in the freezer. THE HORROR!!!!!

The Gaffer, enjoying a special Birthday Cake Hat made by the Birthday Girl.

The cake plate I had used has a recessed base, so that it is very difficult to put a spatula in. Over the next 10 minutes, my Son’s helped me to flip the cake onto another plate, while I carefully helped the based of the cake release from the cake pedestal. Then, we flipped it over again onto a regular plate and rushed the now horribly dripping cake into the freezer. I did not cry, but fully felt the weight of my unplanned failure.

An hour later, I pulled the cake out and attempted the crumb coat again to no avail! It was still melty and the frosting would either freeze or slide off. Ugh. Finally, I decided it was time to go to bed, and leave the cake until the morning. As I mentioned, I don’t like to procrastinate, and just had to force myself to calm down, go to sleep, and know that it would somehow work out.

In the Morning

In the morning we had breakfast, and made final preparations, and a little tidy up before the party. I sent my granddaughter out to the other room to play. She made up an amazing game called Balloon Rescue. The game consisted of throwing a balloon up into the streamer rainbow about 40 times until it finally was gently caught by the rainbow and stuck to the ceiling. After that, you would use another balloon to do a “Balloon Rescue”. She played this game for hours and loved it. In fact, we are keeping the rainbow up until Easter so that we have more chances to play it.

I sat down with the now very frozen cake and felt devastated. As I talked about in this post, my Love Language is Acts of Service. Because of this, I show my love for others by doing Acts of Service. This cake was an Act of Service that I wanted to be absolutely perfect. This way I could show my granddaughter how much I love her on her special day. This cake was not going to be perfect. I had already run out of white frosting the night before, and so the Unicorn would be Pink instead of white. Also, all of the colors for the mane and tail had come out much more vibrant that I had hoped for. In other words, the White Unicorn Cake, with pastel flowers from the bakery was not going to happen.

My Unicorn Cake Story

Time was Running Out!

I said a little prayer, gathered a glass of hot water and a cake spatula. I went to work, sculpting the misshapen cake back into the proper cylinder it should be.  The patter was the same, I would frost and smooth and then freeze, frost and smooth than freeze. I used hot water, and the spatula to give the cake a very smooth bright pink surface, and then after another session in the freezer, I started on the Unicorn Mane, Tail and Borders. Finally, I finished all but putting the eyes and unicorn horn on the cake and my granddaughter ran into the room.

I of course was ready for the look of disappointment on her face. The sadness that the cake was a failure. But that was not what I saw. Her face lit up with joy, she threw her harms out to the side, exclaimed, “Nana, you did it”, and ran in to give me a huge hug. Then I cried.

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The Joy that Filled My Heart!

I cried out of relief. Out of the pure joy that this tiny human who I love so very dearly, loved my Act of Service. I cried that the cake was not only good enough, but it was perfect in her eyes. I cried because I am so thankful to be able to have a family to love, and serve, and care for. Yes, I am truly blessed, and, in that moment, all was completely right with the world.

My granddaughter helped me affix the eyes to the cake and placed the horn on the top. We then finished getting ourselves ready for the party, I of course, was completely covered in frosting. The party guests arrived, presents were opened, cake was enjoyed, and games were played. It was a wonderful party.

It’s a funny thing about loving our families sometimes. Truthfully, I could make a hundred cakes and put them on display all over the world, and bad comments would not affect me in the least. But when you love your family, and you want to bless them, their thoughts matter so much. Later that night as we were all playing with various new gifts, and replaying many of the games of the day, my Son turned to me and said, “Great Party Nan”. Yep, tears again.

My Unicorn Cake Story

Why Did I Share This Story?

I share this story because I know you probably have had a Unicorn Cake experience and lived to tell about it, as well. Or maybe you have not had it yet. My advice is to allow yourself to see your acts of service, your parties, and cakes, and dinners, and everything else through the eyes of those who love you most. Your family. Will they shower us with appreciation every single time, no. But when it matters most, families pull together, skewer the cake, and then share in the special moments only your family members can experience. I do wish for you that all of your “Unicorn Cakes” will come out sparkly, whatever they may be and that your family enjoys those special moments together.

I hope you have enjoyed my story of my Unicorn Cake. What experiences have you had that almost drove you over the edge? Share in the comments below.

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