Birch Tree Cake

A couple months ago I was asked to make a cake for a baby shower for a dear friend of mine. The theme was to be "outdoors in Montana."

 Her mom sent me a picture of what she was thinking, and I ran with it.

 The theme that seemed to play out this past week was delay. The entire timeline for this cake was delay after delay, with a few other non-cake related delays mixed in there. Charlotte didn't help much in the delay category either. She's used to playing by herself so while I started on my forest critter for the cake, she had fun with her play-doh and pony. 

 After a couple hours of messing making and remaking animals, I finished my deer and set of bears. 

 Then I left the kitchen to get ready to serve at a catering event for my sister, and noticed Charlotte chewing on something in the hallway. I returned to the kitchen, surveyed the area, and realized she had eaten the mama bears' head...and then some. (Charlotte looks at this headless bear picture and says, "I ate her head!" She's pretty proud...) I had a little pit in my stomach trying to figure out where to squeeze re-building the bears on my timeline... I finished up at the event around 11 and was in bed by 11;30, with my alarm set to wake up fairly early to work on the cake some more.

 3 am rolled around and I couldn't go back to sleep knowing that I had a lot to do, with not a lot of time to do it, so I pulled myself out of bed and stumbled to kitchen in my footie pajamas and got back to work. By 5:30 I had the outside of the cake done and the bears remade, so I went back to bed for a little while. 

Kimberli and I have been going to the Vintage Fair in the spring and fall for the last couple years and this was their first Christmas themed fair. She won "early-bird" tickets and of course picked me to be her guest, and then we invited our mom to join us too. We spent the morning strolling through the market and then chatting over coffee. I felt so much more relaxed knowing the cake was nearly done. I made the moose while the cupcakes were baking, and I love how it turned out!

 The shower was put together so nicely, with stuffed moose and teddy bears around the room to compliment all the wood decor. It was a perfect afternoon!