Ben's Birthday Cake

     The month of December is a REALLY busy one for us.You see not only do we have all the activities of Christmas but we have 6 birthdays. Dec.7, 13, 19, 22, 28 and also the 31st! The ages they are celebrating are 5, 5, 23, 38, 2 and 22. I feel so bad for them because it's almost like the birthday is set aside for Christmas. So with that in mind I have always made sure the presents are wrapped for the right occasion and there is a birthday cake. We have plenty of cookies for Christmas but birthdays deserve a cake!
     We don't get to see Nicholas who turned 5 on December 7 since he is in Florida however we did send his gifts. Poor Benjamin who turned 5 on December 13th FINALLY had a party. You see it usually snows or his third birthday was supposed to be a big party however we were hit with a major ice storm and most of us were without power for 3-5 days. Chuck e Cheese to the rescue for some of us, lol. I believe last year there was also a snow storm. So this year the weather co operated and the party was a blast! (Literally, they did laser tag)!
     I had just gotten the Cricut cake machine in (great deal) so this is my first attempt using this machine. I used the Buccaneer cart since it was a pirate party. I think there is going to be a learning curve!

     I had my own gum paste (tinted brown) for the skull and cross bones. The blue and white is a sugar sheet that I thought would be good to work with, wrong! it dries too quickly and is brittle. Even though I got it on sale, I don't think I'll use this again.

     I was fortunate enough to find some pirate themed candles to add to this. How cool are these banners? I made a lot of them because.....

     I made cupcake boxes for the kids party at the laser tag party so each kid would have their own cake. Ben's was extra special with the "Shiver Me Timbers" pattern for the cart. I made a little insert for the bottom of the wrapper to raise the cupcake up. The insert was cut from Sweet Tooth Boxes. I forget which cart I used for the actual box. Just a word of warning if you print your own cardstock with the Imagine, it is not waterproof. I placed the cupcakes in the wrappers just prior to bringing to the party.

     Here's the handsome and ever playful Benjamin who is now officially 5! I will show you the rest of our birthday bashes as the month goes on. Off to practice with my Cricut Cake!!!!