Butterflies, ladybugs, strawberries ... Oh my!

Two weeks ago today my little princess celebrated her fifth birthday! At the risk of sounding oh-so-cliche, I cannot believe five years have passed already. She seems quite grown up for her age--and as I too was always much too mature for my own good, I see a lot of myself in her. One key difference, however, is that she is much more outgoing than her Mommy...and that's a good thing. Aside from that she possesses much of the personality I do: she's got my love of reading, my romanticism, my creativity, my stubbornness, my affinity for perfection, my willingness to keep trying and--as most who know us can attest--she looks exactly like me ... my very own little clone!

We celebrated her birthday with family and friends and I made this special cake:

Inside was a buttery vanilla cake with layers of fresh cream whipped with Mascarpone cheese and dotted with sliced strawberries that were tossed in some sugar and raspberry preserves. The flowers, ladybugs, butterflies and strawberries on the cake's exterior were all molded from gumpaste and hand painted with some food-safe color dust mixed with lemon extract. The grass and basket-weave design were made of freshly whipped meringue buttercream frosting. All for my little girl ...