Halfway through our car ride this morning E made an announcement.
Mama! I forgot to tell you! It's Carler's birthday this weekend! He's turning six. We need to have a party for him. Enchy and Creety and Creecraw are all coming. We need to bake a cake!
"We do?" I asked, amused. "Well, you can't have a birthday without a cake. What kind of cake does Carler want?"
His favorite color is red and he wants a cake with two kinds, a chocolate-and-vanilla cake, and it should look like a fire truck. Carler loves fire trucks.
(Coincidentally, I'm sure, yesterday I chauffeured E to a birthday party with a fire truck theme. The cake had a chocolate tier and a vanilla tier and looked like -- a fire truck. Just a coincidence, though.)
Halfway through the car ride home this afternoon E told me that she had invited more kids to Carler's party. Kralu and Krackalu and Kleeklee are coming, too! So it needs to be a big cake, okay?
I love baking with the girls so I agreed to this proposal when it was first raised this morning. But now the guest list is lengthening and poses a serious question:
how big does a fire truck cake need to be to feed four people who are made and a dozen who aren't made?
And perhaps a second one:
where do you draw the line between nurturing imagination and covering your kitchen in staintastic red food coloring?
I know it's a long weekend but if anybody will be in the area on Sunday and in the mood for dessert, give us a call. If you won't be around, don't worry - there will undoubtedly be pictures.
