It’s my youngest’s second birthday!

Everyone rejoice!! haha

She was born six days after my eldest’s birthday so there is no rest in February, but I LOVE celebrating with all the trimmings.

My happy little toddler LOVES turtles and has the cutest little turtle toy with a pink shell so I determined to make her a cake to match.

Now, baking from scratch is nothing for me. But mixing icing colors is always a process, and they almost never turn out the way I want.

I whipped up my grandma’s old applesauce cake recipe and started on hand mixing cream cheese frosting. Everything was going so well until it was time to make the pink.

IDK why I keep forgetting that simple non-corn syrup food coloring doesn’t do pink so well. Coral, yes, barely pink, yes. But it quickly goes from barely pink to red and I don’t like using a lot of food coloring as it is. It’s not good for anyone.

So I ended up making this ugly greyish brownish purple color instead…

I also made coral for accents and immediately hated it.

Thankfully cutting the cake and getting the other colors on was fine. Well, I had planned to cut out two nice sized hearts from the leftover cape scraps but they cracked and crumbled and looked deformed so I tossed one to the dog and set the rest aside for the chickens.

Icing started out alright.

I love green and yellow.

They’re so fun.

I half-contemplated leaving the shell icing-free. It looked kinda cute just that way (plus that ugly greyish brownish purple was haunting me)

Icing the shell was weird but satisfying. My older girls joked that the ugly greyish brownish purple looked more like a real turtle shell and begged to eat all the leftover cake and icing.

I let them have a little but it was getting late and my patience was making my hands hurt.

And like always, when I added the eye and all the little details, suddenly everything came together. I was happy with it.

I’m not a professional cake maker and I don’t pretend to be one. I just love spreading the silliness and joy of making my mom-cakes. Anyone can do it, and it all digests the same way.

So now my silly little turtle-lover is having the best day dancing and jumping around the house with balloons. We’re taking her mini golfing with Grandma after dinner tonight. I probably won’t sleep again until my kids are grown, but who needs sleep when you’re having fun and sharing the love?