Now I know

Now I know that making the beloved Polar Bear cake really requires my undivided attention for about 4 hours. I didn't have that today.

Our day today didn't go quite as well as the previous 2. I had two tired girls on my hands the moment they woke up for the day. Addie didn't want to go to school but we insisted since it was her last day. She fought me all through eating her breakfast. Bella woke up early from her nap as I was jumping in the shower and I really could have used an extra 30 minutes to get stuff done for the party. We had a hungry meltdown at lunch when the mac-n-cheese I was making took too darn long for Addie's hungry belly. She and I worked on blowing up balloons during Bella's second nap before the dog barked at a visitor and woke her early again. Dinner was a bit of a disaster with both girls having turned the hungry corner and the tired corner before they sat down to eat. In the video I was trying not to laugh because the whole scene suddenly was very funny to me. I knew it was laugh about it or sit down and cry. Justin got home later and we had the girls in the bathtub at 6:30 PM and fast asleep by 7PM. Then I was in the kitchen until 10:15 PM working on various things but mostly the cake.

I took the filling I had made earlier our of the fridge to warm slightly for spreading while I made the frosting. The first attempt failed...miserably. I think my eggs weren't beaten stiff enough. It was a big bowl of white soup instead of nice and fluffy. I tossed it and tried again but this time I was pretty nervous. My second attempt went well so that was a huge relief. I began assembling the cake and realized too late that the filling was now too warm and wasn't staying put. Lemon coconut was oozing out the sides of the layers. I pulled off the cake layers, scooped the filling out and put it in the freezer to cool for a bit. Sadly when removing the cake layer a crack formed. I tried the filling again later and it worked a tad better but the layer with the crack just kept getting bigger. Out came the wooden dowels. In the end I threw all the fluffy frosting all over the cake to cover all the imperfections, the huge crack, and oozing filling. It will taste good but it's not the prettiest cake I've ever made. The moral of the story is; don't try to bake a cake when you are stressed, tired, and in a hurry! Justin came in and cut me off when the tears almost started rolling again...over a cake. Sleep is very needed!