August Birthdays

August in my family is a very busy one, and I have found a few other families that have months in their calendar year that are just as crazy! In the month of August, there is 1 Anniversary and 4 Birthdays. So ever since I was a teenager my Mom, my sister & I have always just had one big family celebration. We have a big family dinner together, my Dad cooks ~the poor guy, and we make up the menu! Each year we all switch around what part of the meal we pick, to keep it fair. Two years ago my sister & her husband blessed our family with a new daughter and added another birthday to the group so in a few years we'll add her to our celebration as well. We want to be sure that she has her own spotlight for a while before she shares it with us.

So since I have been making cakes and getting more adventerous with decorating them I volunteered to make our cake for our big party this year. I spent a few days trying to figure out some things that tied us all together besides being Mother & child. The three of us love to sew, cook, bake, travel and we love the West Coast.

When I was younger my Dad was transferred to Vancouver, British Columbia. We lived there for just under 3 years before we were transferred away to Montreal, Quebec. Over the years we have gone back for a visit and maintained contact with close friends we made while living there. My sister & her husband were lucky enough to go back to Alberta to live for a few years also.

I got a plan together for our cake, I bounced some ideas off of Ryan and set to work. I found some images that reminded me of our time in BC and had them printed off onto Fondant sheets and used them to create a quilt. I thought it would be easier to make the cake look like a bed with the finished quilt over it than to try and make a quilter's frame, since it will look more like a finished product to me that way.

I also wanted to add some letters to the cake as well. I have 2 reasons for wanting the Airport Codes on the cake, one because we love to travel, and two because my husband Ryan is an Aircraft Engineer, and my sister's husband Ian, is an Air Canada Pilot. So I thought it would be fun to add in the Airport Codes for some of the airports in the West as well. I cut out the letters in Fondant and attached them to the cake board.

Our boys love to help me in the kitchen so they helped me fill it, dirty ice it, make the "pillows", and cut out some of the letters. They are so proud of their hard work and tell everyone they see that they helped and what they did!

I love the finished product & so did everyone else!