We had our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson over for Easter dinner.
They couldn't come on Sunday, so we had Easter dinner on Saturday. I
planned on making some mini easter egg cakes Friday night, but what
with one thing or another I just didn't have time. I decided to make
the cakes on Saturday morning instead.

I make the mini easter egg cakes using Wilton's Mini Egg Pans. I have
two of the pans. Each makes 8 little 2" x 3" egg-shaped cakes. I frost
each cake and then decorate them to look like easter eggs.

I baked the cakes early Saturday morning with all good intentions of
doing the frosting and decorating before anyone arrived. Then things
got busier than I expected. I didn't even get around to making the
frostings until just before dinner was ready. There was no way that I
was going to be able to frost and decorate the cakes before everyone
left.

Then I got an idea. I asked my daughter-in-law if she would like to
help me frost the cakes. We sat at the kitchen table with 16 little
cakes and two bowls of buttercream frosting (chocolate and vanilla).
She frosted half of the cakes with chocolate and I frosted half of
them with vanilla. Then we piped decorations onto the cakes. Even my
husband and son joined in and piped decorations. My grandson, being
only a year and a half old, didn't do any decorating, but he had fun
watching.

After everyone left with their decorated cakes, I decided that we now
have a new Easter family tradition. I'll make the mini easter egg
cakes, and after dinner we'll all decorate them together.

I think that's kind of nice.

Terrel

--
Spamblocker in address. If you must reply by e-mail,
remove the last three letters of the alphabet and .invalid

In article >,
Terrel > wrote:

> After everyone left with their decorated cakes, I decided that we now
> have a new Easter family tradition. I'll make the mini easter egg
> cakes, and after dinner we'll all decorate them together.
>
> I think that's kind of nice.

I think that's how the best family traditions come to be. They start as
accidental accomodation of need and then are so fun or meaningful
they're kept on for their own sake.

I "do" the winter holidays for my sister, b-i-l, and niece. When I
first started (when my niece was a baby), I tried to replicate the
family holidays from when my sister and I were growing up, including
huge English breakfast with opening of the stockings on Christmas
morning.

Well, what with my sister and b-i-l's perpetual lack of speed at
accomplishing anything, plus their desire to be in their own home for
Christmas Eve, and the extra labor and fuss of transporting an infant
(by parents who didn't get to be parents until their 40s), things had to
shift. So now they come to my house on Christmas afternoon, when we do
the tree and dinner. They then stay over Christmas night, and on Boxing
Day we have the huge English breakfast (well, brunch) with stockings.
It makes Christmas last longer and has become a really wonderful way for
us to do it. This year we got a big snowstorm on Boxing Day, so they
all stayed a second night, and we had even more fun together.

I think by now we'd be disappointed if we went to bed on Christmas night
without another day of celebration to look forward to. :-)

Priscilla
--
"You can't welcome someone into a body of Christ and then say only
certain rooms are open." -- dancertm in alt.religion.christian.episcopal

Terrel > wrote:
I found out a few years ago that these kind of traditions can make it
possible to discuss something with a family member that would be hard
to do normally. In my case it was makiing a couple hundred wontons.
Pretty long discussion.

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 12:19:44 -0500, Terrel
> wrote:

>Then I got an idea. I asked my daughter-in-law if she would like to
>help me frost the cakes. We sat at the kitchen table with 16 little
>cakes and two bowls of buttercream frosting (chocolate and vanilla).
>She frosted half of the cakes with chocolate and I frosted half of
>them with vanilla. Then we piped decorations onto the cakes. Even my
>husband and son joined in and piped decorations. My grandson, being
>only a year and a half old, didn't do any decorating, but he had fun
>watching.
>

Cool! Next year give the kid a cake and some frosting (vanilla)!
What's the worst he can do? Make a mess? ;>

My mother used to make a separate little cake (6-8" diameter) at
babies' birthday parties. She'd give it to the guest of honor in
their "throne" (high chair). Depending on the age, some would poke it
with their fingers, pick the frosting off delicately and put some in
their mouth, and look happily around ("For me??). Others would smash
the cake with their open hands (how cute!). The best, though, was one
of my nieces who was so excited about the decorated cake before her
that she let out a screech, opened her mouth wide, and put her face
right down into the cake!

That was a nice tradition. We're kind of in a "baby dry spell" right
now, waiting for the next generation to reproduce.

PS- put some newspapers down on the floor around the chair first.

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!