My grandson turned 6 earlier this
month and I had the great privilege of
making his birthday cake. He watches a goofy cartoon called Phineas and Ferb. They are two young boys who have a pet platypus named Perry. Perry is
also a secret agent, so he has two cartoon personas.
When Perry is a pet he looks like this:
When he’s a secret agent, he looks
like this:
For his birthday, I made a Perry cake that looked like this:
Being able to do these "Grandma things" reminds me of why I moved to Florida from New York State. I made a hard choice that I sometimes bemoan, but never regret. Still, there are things I miss. I think that's fair.
Today I miss iris reticulata, an early spring "bulbous perennial" we grew in NYS. It would not be blooming right now, all things still being covered in heavy snow up there.
Reticulata are a harbingers of spring; a reminder that beauty and love endure through even the coldest, darkest months.
Our reticulata were blue. Not teal like cartoon Perry, not neon blue like my Perry cake, but the color that passes as blue in the plant world. Aren't they pretty?
Beautiful! I love how the earliest flowers give us hope that winter will soon be over. In Ireland what I remember most fondly were the snowdrops....I miss the seasons, but not the misery of endless winter rain and cold!
ReplyDeleteYes, I understand. I'd rather romanticize and miss those things than have to live through the cold and snow. Nostalgia isn't such a bad thing.
DeleteYour cake turned out so well. Great job. The flowers make me feel like spring.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It was fun making it.
DeleteThe wonder on the face of you grandson must have been precious. They don't forget things like that. And it looks like pretty darn good eaten' too.
ReplyDeleteIt looked better than it tasted. He was VERY happy when he saw it.
DeleteWell done! It looks great.
ReplyDeleteThe flowers are lovely. I love signs of changes to come.
Good way to describe it (...signs of changes to come).
DeleteMaking hard choices is never easy and the things we Miss are Fair yet can be so surprising sometimes! There are so many things I Miss about living in The Hood and it seems ironic now that we're living in the Luxury Burbs! Love the Cake for the Grandbaby, some of those cartoons make me wonder if the Creator of them was on some grand Acid Trip!? My Grand-Daughter Loves Sponge Bob Square Pants, among others that seem rather Trippy in their Creation IMO. LMAO
ReplyDeleteCartoonists are a special breed.
DeleteI often share your sense of loss when you write about the difference between your old home and your new home.
Great baking! What's under the icing?
ReplyDeleteAnd now that you show a picture of the iris (you mentioned them in a comment on my blog) I can confirm that we have these too, only a bit later, in late March I think.
I am still at the stage whereby I rejoice in not having to bake imaginative and outstanding children's birthday cakes or organise entertaining and crowd pleasing children's birthday parties (major, major headache every year) but things could change rapidly and over night.
There is a generic white cake under the body. The tail, mouth, and back foot are sugar cookie. I'm very happy that the birthday parties are organized by my daughter. I'm simply "helping out" by making the cake. She's a talented and clever baker and would probably have made a much better cake than mine.
DeleteYes, I was inspired to write this by your mention of crocus and daffodils on your blog.
What do you call these flowers in Germany?
DeleteThe German is Schwertlilie (literally blade lily) oder Zwergiris (dwarf iris), but some call it Siberian or Turkish lily.
DeleteThe early spring flowers always seem to be the most vibrant, or does it just seem that way. That is a beautiful flower.
ReplyDeleteSpending time with grandchildren is what keeps me smiling. They grow up so fast and before you know it, they, too, are walking out the door. Enjoy all the moments.
I'm trying hard to enjoy all the moments.
DeleteThe early spring flowers really do seem vibrant. Whether there a purpose or not (attracting the few bees or birds still around?) I don't know. But now I wonder. Perhaps they only seem so colorful in comparison to the all the gray in the landscape in early spring? Maybe it is the payoff for living through the cold and snow? At any rate, you Northerners are a lucky bunch with so much beauty to look forward to in a few weeks. Post pictures for us Southern retirees.
Those iris look like a generic variety we have here. More wild than tame. I started mine from seeds me Aunt Laura gave me. I think they're beautiful, of course, and even am tolerant of how fast they spread Of course, they are currently covered in snow.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that you grew them from seed.
DeleteWow! That's quite a beautiful birthday cake for your grandson. Well done! I've lived in so many places over the years (NJ, NY, Rhode Island, Virginia, Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington) and there are things about each state that I miss, and then there are things I don't miss at all. Those first beautiful flowers in late winter are the most wonderful sight.
ReplyDeleteYou really have lived a lot of different places!
DeleteThe crocuses will be up here soon - once they break through the 9 inches of snow and ice : )
ReplyDeleteI once made a Barney cake for my daughter although I may have been the only person to recognize him. Tasted good though : ) Yours is quite a good likeness. Impressive!
Thanks! Barney would have been a fun cake to make.
DeleteLove the Perry cake! Wonderful likeness! No wonder your grandson was delighted!
ReplyDelete"... a reminder that beauty and love endure through even the coldest, darkest months."
My maternal DNA haplogroup is H6a1, which comes from the same part of the world that reticulata come from -- Turkey, the Caucasus. They make me think of a flower I would see in Mendocino County in Northern California in the spring. We called them wild irises. Beautiful.
My flowering quince buds are about to open. We've had a few clear cold days and nights, after weeks of fairly warm rain and heavy cloud cover. What a treat to see Orion last night and the crescent moon rising yesterday morning. What a treat to see stars!!!
I love the connection between reticulata and your mitochondrial DNA. I used to have 4 flowering quinces in the front of my house up north, such a joy when they were blooming. I never made anything with the quince fruit, though. Have you?
DeleteAh, yes, I know Phineas and Ferb! My nieces love them. And I recognize that little secret agent critter too. Very clever cake!
ReplyDeleteThose irises are nice -- more blue than the purple ones we have in our garden here in the UK.
Welcome Steve, nice to have you on my page. Blue is a funny color in the plant world. It is usually more purple than blue.
DeleteIn our family the traffic moves the other way. On my birthday one year I received a cake resembling a ski-slope with models of the skiing Robinsons - mine with a detailed matching anorak. More recently a table-wide evocation of the Café les Tilleuls, an outdoor caff in a remote French village which we refer to as the Fly Restaurant; menus that aped the same typeface, the cake decorated with edible flies. Such was my emotion that I commanded my daughter to ignore the usual wine rack and to find a bottle from "under the stairs".
ReplyDeleteTwenty years ago, imagining our coming senescence, we moved out to slow-moving Hereford. It has proved a good decision. But our previous house in Kingston-upon-Thames was only 12 miles from London. In moments of extreme and utterly foolish nostalgia I imagine taking the car out and competing with others "in the know" round the suicidal, fratricidal roundabout at the SE corner of Hyde Park, the ultimate driving test.
Faced with your re-creation of Perry I dare say I would - on behalf of the youngest generation - have ordered up another bottle from you-know-where.
Thanks, Roderick! If it is your daughter who was making those epic birthday cake tributes to you, I salute her. You must have been a great father to deserve such cakes.
DeleteVery impressed with your baking.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to blooms. Not mine, mind you. ;-)