On Miles' birthday, he woke up to the floor of his room full of balloons. He came downstairs and immediately spotted his present that I had not yet wrapped because it was charging: his very own tablet! So he didn't get to open it, but I don't think he really cared. He said, "This is my tablet? No more fighting for tablets?" Exactly kid, exactly. It was the only thing he asked for for his birthday. And we were definitely tired of the boys fighting over two tablets. First world problems. Anyway, he was really excited about it, so he watched cartoons on it while he ate breakfast.
The mail came while he was eating and we found a card from Grandma & Papa Greer and another from Grams (Great-Grandma)! They each gave him a gift card to Target so he could pick out his very own present. So a few days later, Dave & I took him to Target and he picked out a Lego Ninjago set (mostly for the mini figures). And Miles made Daddy put it together.
Anyway, after breakfast, Miles wanted to snuggle and play a little on his tablet. We're always up for snuggles! Then he wanted to read the new Piggie books I had just bought through Scholastic. They're his new favorite!
I ordered a Lego Minifigure cake pan and Legos mold/ice cube tray from the Lego website, with the goal of making a large Lego Batman surrounded by chocolate Legos. I just have to say, Lego is awesome and I'm so glad they make such cool products, especially baking stuff. I made all the chocolates on Thursday (21st) and threw those in the fridge. I chose to do red, purple, yellow, and green. They were super easy and came out looking like actual Legos! I made all the fondant on Friday. I made a ton of black, which required an entire large container of black gel food coloring. The fondant looked purple and so I had to keep adding and adding to get it looking black. Then I made a bunch of yellow, a little white, and peach color for the face. Once those were finished, I put them in the fridge to use the next day. Finally, on Saturday, I baked, assembled, and finished the cake! I used my recipe for a dense cake box cake which uses sour cream and pudding mix. It always works out and tastes great. Unfortunately, the Minifigure cake and the small round fell in the middles. It was probably because I opened the oven when I thought they were done, but they were still doughy in the center. But it worked out. The two squares turned out perfect, which was awesome. The Minifigure did not bake evenly and was overcooked along the face and of course around the hands and feet, but it didn't really matter since it would all be covered in frosting and fondant. Still tasted great.
While those cooled completely, I whipped up some buttercream that I chose to color yellow. I added in some almond extract and it really made a difference with the taste, especially with the white cake. I laid out the squares next to each other, made sure they were the same height, and then frosted those.
I then drew and cut out the cape out of paper towel, rolled out some black fondant, laid the paper down on top, and used an Exacto knife to cut the cape out. I then laid that onto the cake. Next up was transferring the Lego Minifigure onto the cape and rectangle cake. I did decapitate him, but it wasn't anything some frosting couldn't fix. I covered the Minifigure in buttercream, rolled out more black fondant, and placed it onto the Minifigure one section at the time starting with each arm, the legs, and the chest. I was really glad I had bought a new Exacto knife because it really made the process so much easier. I had never used one before, I always opted to just use a knife, but this project really needed a tiny, super sharp knife.
The body was finished and then I sat and stared at the head for a few minutes. I had to figure out how the heck I was going to make a Batman head. I had baked the small round cake for this purpose, but I still didn't really know how I was going to do it. I started cutting it up and finally figured out the ears and the connecting lines to the head.
Once that was done, I rolled out the white and peach fondant, cut out some long pieces, and placed them on the face. Then I rolled out more black and placed it on the entire head. As I did this, I realized I had forgotten to give poor Batman a nose. So I shaped some fondant and placed it under the black sheet of fondant, then finished fitting it onto the head. I used my Exacto knife to cut out his mouth and eyes. Then I made him some eyebrows out of black fondant and shaped those onto the face.
Finally, I rolled out the yellow and had to shape the oval by hand, then used a ruler to get the right thickness of Batman's belt. I whipped up some royal frosting, which is the kind of frosting you use to put gingerbread houses together. It hardens really well and is piped easily. I opted to use this instead of food markers because I just didn't want to spend more money than I already had, but it was at this point I was really wishing I had bought one because piping is super hard, especially when you haven't eaten all day and your hands are shaking. So, needless to say, I was not happy with how the black piping turned out. The bat symbol, which I had to do completely by hand, wasn't big enough, the belt wasn't centered and the lines weren't even, the mouth was meh. It was at this point I realized how much pain I was in from bending from the waist for hours without a break. My back hurt so bad! But I still had to place the Legos and write Miles along the bottom. So I quickly finished those last details, and then laid down. I spent the rest of the evening laying on a heating pad and could barely move without being in a ton of pain. Luckily it was gone by the next morning. That cake killed me.
Miles was really excited about the cake.
On Sunday afternoon, we cleaned up the house, put up the decorations, and got everything ready for the party. I made party favor bags that each had a little bag of Lego candies, chocolate coins, Lego Batman stickers, a punch balloon, and a Lego Batman or Batgirl mask (that I made out of foam sheets and elastic".
I put a table up in the front room for the kids to color Lego guys. I made little crayon holders out of Legos, and Jett made some letters that spelled out Legos to put in the middle of the table.
I had little bowls of Lego candies on the tables and had themed paper products for the cake. I made Miles' name out of Legos for the middle of the table (thank you YouTube). I also bought a really cool Lego Batman banner that looked awesome, and Dave helped put up all the decorations.
I had planned a couple games, but the kids seemed to be completely content playing with the toys in the playroom, so I decided not to worry about it. Everyone seemed to be having fun. Grandma & Grandpa Ybarra, Dan and Little Liza, Mary and her kids Aaliyah, Eli & Olivia all came to the party. Sadly, Abby & Liev were both sick, so the Wilsons couldn't come. Miles was sad when he heard they couldn't make it.
We ate cake and had Miles' favorite ice cream: mint chocolate chip. Miles ate a lot of ice cream.
Then we had presents. Grandma & Grandpa got Miles the Lego Batman movie (which he's watched at least 50 times since then), The Elliotts got him a sticky slingshot toy, and Dan, Sofia and Liza got him an Amazon gift card.
It was a successful party and I was really grateful so many family members could make it!
