Happy 9th Birthday, Bart!

Today is my oldest son's birthday. He had been looking forward to this day since, hmm... 18 February 2008! He was a very happy boy and he wanted this special day to last for days, weeks and months, till his next birthday! Haha... Not only was he happy, he was also a very busy little man too! The telephone calls were all for him, first from his daddy, then his sanyi (3rd aunty), afterwards Mama (SG grandma) and finally his Opa. His Meme sent her wishes by email with a very big snowman picture!

Since the birthday falls on a school day, I woke him up, softly singing a modified birthday song to his ears:

Happy birthday to you.

You live in a zoo.

You look like Donkey Kong,

and smell like one too!

His smile was so wide, yet his eyes were still shut. It was a very sweet and delightful sight.

My son is 9! How time flies!

Coincidentally, his school has arranged an excursion for all the children from the primary school to the Bird Park and Lake Garden. That means Enzian and Ludwig go along too. Bart likes to think that this is a celebration organised by the school specially for him. If that makes him happy, why not?

While the boys were out, Johann and I were busy preparing the meals and baking chocolate mud cup cakes. The cup cakes are for Bart to bring to school the next day to celebrate his birthday in class, since 1. they can't do that on excursion day, 2. it's his class tradition for the birthday child to bring some things for the class to celebrate the special day, and 3. he has only invited 3 special friends to his party on Saturday.

We had planned to bake Bart a simple cake instead of buying one, all the ingredients and tools required were bought and prepared. I even borrowed a cake recipe book from Mrs Tan, my dear neighbour, but we faced a major obstacle. I haven't baked a cake before, the one with baking experience was only on his way back from the office, so we weren't confident if we could get by a decent-looking cake before the day ends! Nonetheless, we were determined to conquer any show-stoppers and role-model to our children, "when there is a will, there is a way"! Hehehe...

So while the boys played Mario-Kart upstairs, rather oblivious to the baking buzz in the kitchen downstairs, we performed some magic.

Creaming and decorating the cake was not too difficult, the challenge was to cut the cake into layers, apply cream and then putting the layers on top. We were so afraid the soft cake would just give way while we transferred.

Shaved chocolates as a topping. Already looking good.

Due to our lack of experience, we couldn't decorate the sides of the cake with shaved chocolates anymore since we were already finished with the skirting. So we did what we could to make it look presentable with more cream and cherries on top!

Ta da! Here's the fruit of our labour. Our first cake. The final appearance far exceeded our expectations. Since we had no food colourings, Christophe added concentrated raspberry juice to the cream so we have the birthday greetings in pink.

It really tastes very good, Bart was so grateful and moved by our love and efforts. He has indeed matured overnight! Our time was well-spent. Would you like a slice too?

Happy birthday, my son! I love you!