The birthday cake...

...was interesting. My Aunt Judy used to make her girls Barbie cakes for their birthdays, and I always wished I could have one, but my mom didn't do cake. She did taffy, and my grandma would do the cakes, and though delicious, they were ordinary. I decided to go all out for Tilly since it was a BIG year and try to make a Barbie cake. I contemplated buying the special cake pan that makes the skirt for the Barbie, but Hyrum thought I could do it with stacking my own cake pans, so I ended up with a jimmie-rigged version. I used 2 regular cake pans and a bundt cake pan. I cut the rounded tops off of all and stacked them, but they still weren't tall enough for the Barbie. Drat! So I started stacking pieces of the cut-off tops around the waist to make the dress taller. Oh boy. (Now do you get an idea of why Hyrum dislikes my cooking? I'm all about substitutions and creative solutions.)

Once I got it tall enough, I had to slather icing on it to cover all the imperfections. So now the icing had crumbs all over in it. But hey, sprinkles can cover crumbs, right? I sprinkled the cake, then envisioned strawberries in the shape of hearts all over the cake. I looked at the clock and it was past 8 pm. (I was decorating this cake after we got back from Wildlife Safari while Hyrum barbequed for the party...I had no time to spare because, like always, this was a last minute thing). I had no time to be creative and a perfectionist like I always am, so throwing caution to the wind, I hacked apart a few strawberries, stuck them up in what I noticed later was crooked lines, and tossed on a little piping to make it look less boring. It turned out okay for my first time, but a disaster compared to what I was envisioning in my head. Just don't look too closely at it. A brief glance at it looks the best.
Lest you didn't believe me about throwing out the perfectionism, I didn't even decorate the back of the cake. My sister said I should have piped a rear-end on the back since I left her bare-bottomed.

Talea managed to blow out the candles before Barbie's hands became melted plastic.

And here's the final reveal of how disastrous this effort really was. "It was the thought that counts" is what I keep repeating to myself.