Gimme Sympathy...

For I am now in the twilight of my life. Ok, not really but I did just have a birthday last week and I now feel like an adult (or at least less of a kid). And adults need plans right? Goals? I'll get back to you on those. For now, I'd rather bake and create pretty things out of sugar paste and ignore all of the boring "life" stuff.

Being me, I couldn't really think of a better way to mark my quarter century than to bake my own birthday cake. One of my college roommates was in town and we threw a little bash over the weekend complete with board games and baked goods. It doesn't get much better than that. I bought a glass cake stand to mark the occasion - woo!

The cake is a pumpkin cake with cardamom cream cheese frosting. I happen to love anything that is made out of pumpkin. Actually, I love anything rich in beta carotene. In fact, when I was a baby I ate so much of the stuff that my skin turned a bit orange. Oh, and I had bright orange hair. Like an orangutan. True story.

This cake combines three of my favorite things - pumpkin, lotus flowers, and the beach. Everything on it is edible (although I'm not really into the taste of fondant, so I guess it depends on your definition of edible). The lotus flower and lily pad are both made of fondant. I used flower petal cookie cutters and a paring knife for the flower petals and shaped them on a foam egg. I used a pizza slicer to shape the lily pad and a paring knife to cut a slit in it.

The sand is made of ground up gingersnap cookies with shredded coconut mixed in. I made the shells out of white chocolate which I marbleized w/ pink tint and poured into wilton shell molds.



Also, as a little birthday present from the powers that be, Metric released their new album Fantasies today. For the record, I have a huge girl crush on Emily Haines. Like seriously, I want to be her best friend. Not in a creepy way, I just think she's one of the raddest girls out there and her voice is absolutely mesmerizing. I've been really excited about this album for months, and now that I have it I'm off to listen to it on repeat for the rest of the evening.

I'll be back with some cupcake photos soon. In the meantime, check out this music video for the song Sympathy. I've been in love with this song since they released an acoustic version from Cochella last summer.



This post brought to you by birthdays, sugarcraft, and the sweet sweet sound of Emily Haines' voice.