Here’s a quick photo of the cake my daughter completely surprised me with for my 40th b-day on Friday - she baked and decorated it by herself, and her eyes welled up when she saw how surprised and pleased I was! I truly had no idea what she was up to in the kitchen, and honestly, I never expected a cake - she’s made muffins and cookies in the past, but never a cake. I think she did a fantastic job, especially considering she doesn’t get to watch me bake or decorate very often because a) I don’t like company in the kitchen when I’m baking, and b) most of my cake projects happen long after everyone is in bed.
Anyway, she baked the two layers in a 10” pan (10” ?); she used Baker’s Joy (didn’t know about parchment paper), she leveled each layer with a serrated knife (didn’t know about Magi-cake strips), she spread the frosting on with 2 bench scrapers and 3 offset spatulas, and she piped the stars and “We *heart* Mom” using a star tip and sandwich bag… actually 3 bags (2 of them broke at the seam while she was piping and she had to start over each time - poor thing). Bless her heart - despite the fact that the cake was made from a boxed mix and canned frosting, and the fact that I’ll probably find chocolate fingerprints in my kitchen for weeks, it’s my favorite cake ever! Very brave of her to make it, and I soooooooo love that she did it! She’s proven to me that she’s ready for Cake Bible lessons!
Oh, big cheers to my youngest daughter too, for making the cutest mini cakes in the Easy-Bake oven - we didn’t get any pictures because we gobbled them up so fast 
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