Barn cake lessons

As you know, each kid of mine gets three parties to accommodate three sides of the family.  Three parties equals three cakes.  Three cakes equals three times the mixing, baking and decorating.  Three times the mixing, baking and decorating equals me being really, really tired of cake!

Here's the cake for party #1:

It took two batches of chocolate cake to make this: the sheet cake underneath, and then three small cakes to make the barn. It was a ridiculous amount of cake, and far too much for 20 guests to eat.

I learned my lesson, though, and completely changed it up for party #2.  Instead of doing a two-batch cake, I made on sheet cake with the Wilton Rocking Horse cake pan. I've had this pan for years, but this was the first time I've ever used it.  Because the cake was made from scratch, it started falling apart when I was decorating which left a lot of crumbs in the frosting.  Not cool!  So while this is not the nicest cake I've made, it certainly was tasty.  And despite the crumbs in the frosting, all the kids really seemed to like it.

The cake for party #3 was the simplest and easiest. It took only one batch of cake batter to make this barn, and I used a Big Top Cupcake Mold to get it done. This set of two pans makes a good barn, and this was by far the easiest cake to make/decorate. 

I'm happy about that, because it means that I learned some valuable lessons from cake #1 and applied them to subsequent cakes and parties. Lessons such as 20 PEOPLE WILL NOT EAT THE EQUIVALENT OF TWO SHEETS CAKES AT MY DAUGHTER'S PARTY, ESPECIALLY IF THEY FIRST ATE A FULL MEAL AND APPETIZERS. 

And: party guests certainly won't fill up on cake when there are five other desserts being offered.

And one more lesson:  I am really, really tired of cake.

Bring on the ice cream!