Cake

This year, the Spawn declared that she wanted an Anpanman cake for her birthday. Anpanman, in case you are not familiar, is a Japanese superhero for the toddler set, and the Spawn is a fan. Anpanman's head is round; the design would be, as they say, a piece of cake. Here is my reference photo, taken from one of her picture books:

The other requirement from the Spawn was that the cake be vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. At first, I declined, but once I got started I realized it was possible - just not as she might expect.
I have, in the past, baked cakes from scratch. This day, however, I also had to open presents with the Spawn in the morning, take her to day care, rush off to the grocery, bring morning snacks (cut fruit and cheese) to the day care for birthday celebration (for almost 30 kids), AND bake and decorate the cake before picking up the Spawn around 5:30. I may be crazy, but I am no masochist. Boxed cake and frosting mixes for me.
I had intended to bake the cakes between dropping off the Spawn and going to snack time; but when I learned that snack time was at 10 am, I realized I would not have time to go to the grocery, wash and cut the fruit, and bake the cake before then. Instead, I started baking right after returning from snack time: two 9" rounds of chocolate cake. I did have the forethought to put the butter out to soften before even driving her to school.

With the cakes out of the oven, I mixed up the frosting. I had purchased one box each of vanilla and chocolate frosting mix - basically powdered sugar and flavoring, to which one added butter and milk. I knew that the chocolate was going to be too dark for Anpanman's golden brown complexion, so planned to use the vanilla to lighten it until I got to the right shade. I ended up using both whole boxes of frosting. In my experience (which proved right), a single box of frosting is only barely enough to cover a two-layer cake, particularly when the cake is darker than the frosting. The half-and-half mix of chocolate and vanilla turned out just the right color, I had about 1.5 cups of frosting left over, and it covered the required vanilla and chocolate flavors.
Once the cakes had cooled, I laid the bottom layer onto a sheet of parchment paper as a work surface. This also allowed me later to much more easily transfer the completed cake onto a cake stand - all I had to do was trim off the excess paper and slide the whole thing onto the stand. Getting the first layer off the cooling rack and onto the work surface was actually much more tricky than the second, as both layers were on the same cooling rack, so I couldn't lift-and-flip it onto a plate. Take note: get separate cooling racks for each layer.
I shaved off the "dome" from the bottom layer to make it flat on top, then spread Mama's Homemade Strawberry Jam, conveniently cooked and jarred the previous weekend, over the now porous top. It was a pretty thin layer, but the jam was so flavorful that it really lit up the taste of the cake. Strawberry flavor complete - Neapolitan Achievement unlocked!

Using a plate, a sheet of parchment paper, and a lot of luck, I got the top layer into position. I then carved the edges of the cake to make them flat. This helps in using less frosting to fill in the gaps and make the sides flat and vertical, but does make the sides crumbly, so you have to make sure your frosting is soft enough to spread properly.

With the basic cake taken care of, I turned my attention to the decorations. The E-i-C had discovered, in the depths of Google, a great many Anpanman birthday cakes made by doting mothers across Japan. One particularly clever baker had used canned peach halves for Anpanman's shiny round cheeks and nose. I stole the idea.
Is food coloring going out of fashion? I was completely unable to find Red No. 5 on the shelves of any of my local groceries. It's OK, though - I had a great Plan B. Or should I say, Plan BEET:

I peeled and cubed a beet and simmered it for a while in water; strained out the liquid, and used it to dye the peach halves. I dyed the nose a little bit longer for a redder hue. I left one unneeded peach half undyed for comparison in the last photo above.
The one flaw in my plan was that I did not drain/dry the peach halves enough. What you see above is about all I did. I should have put them on a stack of paper towels, on a wire rack, over a dish, for a couple of hours in the fridge. As it was, they slowly, continuously leaked pinkish juice onto the cake, which I dabbed away periodically throughout the day. Luckily, the frosting (being mostly butter) was water-resistant.
Referencing the original artwork mentioned above, I drafted my design on a sheet of paper, rubbed over the cake tin for the correct 9" circular size. While I was unable to find food coloring at the store, there was a good assortment of gel decorative icing available. I used black.

I had brought the Spawn with me on the grocery shopping trip in which I bought the cake mix, frosting mix, and icing; while at the cake decoration section, she pestered me to get all sorts of rainbow colored and glittery doodads. Most of them I refused, but I did recognize a role in my design for the chocolate sprinkles. I used them to fill in Anpanman's happy smile. (It looks pretty good from afar and in these photos; up close it kind of looked like he was ODing on coffee grounds.)

We went out to dinner that evening at the Spawn's favorite restaurant, and returned home to share the wonder that was the Anpanman Cake - baked to Her Majesty's specification.
Happy Birthday, Spawn!