CJ's cakes

Since some of you have not known me very long, I wanted to share some past cakes that I have made for CJ. I am as far from Martha Stewart as they get. I am totally DIY though. My theory is that as long as the cake is good and the person who is receiving it likes it, then it's all good. Maybe one day I will actually take a class somewhere and actually learn how to decorate cakes the proper way...lol !
I have to share the cake that we did for CJ's 1st Birthday party and the story that goes with it. I know that CJ is now 4 but I was thinking back to his previous birthdays. I am proud to have made 3 of his 4 cakes so far. However, the first one started as a disaster and thankfully ended up pretty darn good, if I can say so myself.
For those of you who don't know, CJ's first birthday was on the beach and the theme was Carolina Panthers. Yes we were still in RI...Jose has always been a huge fan ! Being in RI though, they had football cakes but the Panthers was not one of the choices they offered so we knew we would have to do some of it ourselves. I had decided that I didn't have the time nor the energy to do the whole thing so we went to BJ's to order the cake already made and then we would add the Panthers things. Since they do other teams, I told the lady at the bakery that I just wanted the football field with no defining teams or colors, just the yard lines and end zones and grass. Just the field as it is. Apparently I didn't make myself clear. This is what we picked up from the bakery the morning of the birthday party.

Yes ! I did cry and then resorted to laughter at how anyone in their right mind could ever justify this a "football field", nevermind charging me for it ! So we got to work on it...Jose & I to turning this horrible excuse for a cake into a nice cake for CJ's party. After a couple of hours, this is what we had. Not bad for two people who had no idea what they were doing.

This was CJ's 2nd birthday cake. We had only been in NC for a couple of months. Neither Jose nor I were working. We were really strapped for cash so this was total improv. I made cake out of box mix and use regular frosting. I used his toys and cut outs from a coloring book to decorate the cake and extra candy we had to make a border. The road was actually made out of frosting mixed with hot chocolate mix...now that I think about it, that was darn creative! I really like the way that it came out and the best thing was that CJ did too.

I didn't make CJ's 3rd birthday cake. We celebrated it in RI and just bought one instead since it was easier.
And last but not least...here is his 4th birthday cake. Construction themed of course and CJ couldn't have been happier with it. And that is all that matters to me.