Birthday cake, Pingu, edible food colour, small children, what could possibly go wrong…? The winner of our Creative Writing Competition – Amusing Cake Story, Tracy Tomlinson tells us
We hope her story makes you laugh as much as we did!
The Pingu Family Cake
“It was coming up to Lloyd’s 3rd birthday and he didn’t want any of the cakes that the supermarket offered: No clowns, footballs or Spiderman for him, it had to be Pingu. I thought it would be way too difficult for me at first, but then I realised that most of the cake would be a white iceberg with just four small penguins sitting on a sofa at the top. How hard could that be?
The cake didn’t come out quite a planned but the sugar frosting covered the bit that didn’t quite rise and the bit that stuck to the tin. The sofa was relatively easy too. A huge lump of orange icing shaped into a rough sofa shape and that was done. Pingu and his family, hmmmm.
First I had to make the black icing which was harder than I thought. Grey, gunmetal, steel, dark grey even very dark grey but not black. I had used two tubs of the very expensive food colouring but never quite achieved the midnight colour promised. Whatever, very dark grey would do.
A few carefully place white bits on a basic sausage shape with wings and Pingu’s family was complete. I placed the family on the sofa and left the cake ‘ready’ for the next day.
Disaster, 10 minutes before the cake cutting with 8 excited 2 and 3 year olds anxiously awaiting Pingu I went to place the candles. The weight of the sofa had caused the iceberg to collapse and Pingu and his family lolled on the sofa like avine inebriates. Daddy Pingu had completely lost his head and Mummy Pingu’s white bits were stained orange. No matter, the children ‘ooohed’; they didn’t see collapsed cake and inaccurately coloured penguins. They saw the real Pingu in his
rightful setting. So believable were my penguins that tears were shed at the thought of them being eaten. Foolishly, I persuaded them that they could eat Pingu, it was OK, it was sugar, it was fine. I didn’t think it’s SUGAR! They are THREE! What about the E-NUMBERS!Pingu and his family and the cake got everywhere. The kids ran riot and there were more tears. The mummies were upset and started to take their children home. Eventually there was only my hyperactive 3 year old running around for 2 more hours before he collapsed like the non-duracell bunny.
To add insult to injury, my phone kept ringing the next day with mums phoning to complain that their kids wee had gone blue! I vowed never to ice a cake again, but just a few short months later it was my daughter’s birthday and she wanted a princess cake. How hard could it be?”
Tracy Tomlinson
Thank you Tracy, we loved your story, I’m sure some of our readers have had similar experiences….it’s one of the best ways to learn!
Good luck with all your future cake endeavours.
Lindy