Ladybug cake ~ for the sugar and spice crowd

I initiated it, I did.  "Come on, sit here.  Let's look at pictures of ladybug cakes together."  Oy.  Not a can of worms, but page after page after page...after *page* of ladybug cakes thanks to Google Image and a six year old that thinks a long period of looking is fun.  It was.  It didn't end with one session.  There were many requests for looking at cakes.  We saw pink ladybugs, flat ladybug cakes, a green ladybug cake, orange ones, even a large white wedding cake with dozens of itty bitty sugar ladybugs cascading down one side.  In the end, she picked the one she wanted, not the one I wanted.  Have you ever seen a 46 year old pout?  

 I used this cake opportunity to try out a new recipe from a new cookbook I received for Christmas.  If you collect baking books, this is a good one.  I varied the yellow cake recipe just slightly and lemon'd it up.  Sofia's request ~ lemon with cream cheese frosting.  

Later, after the party, as the night was winding down, she asked, "May I please eat an eyeball?"  Then it became a cake mutilation by two girls.  Is this the new Sugar & Spice and everything nice? 

She was absolutely tickled...with the cake, with her party...with her turning seven years old.  There is nothing like having children to know that the saying - How time flies - is so true.  Love of children is absorbed instantly, given quickly...lasting forever.   I love my babies like nothing else I've known ~ being their Mother makes me glow inside ~ as I know other mothers feel about their own...and can understand how vast the love.

How time flies.

xoxo