Celebrating A Winter Birthday
By Esther Leisher
Here is one of the ways I used the cake I described in Recipe for a Non-Wheat Cake. Mark has a winter birthday and for his ninth birthday I wanted something unusual. The ninth year brings a significant change. Gravity seems to take hold of children inwardly about that time. It is a time to dig in the earth, build a shed, be practical. Children want to know that they are part of the everyday world. A story about how a star came to earth is not okay any longer, nor is anything too sweet or dreamy. On their birthday they want their friends to come for sledding, to play games or have a treasure hunt. Somewhere around nine or ten they get very sensitive about anything they consider "childish."
Keeping that in mind, for the celebration of Mark's ninth year, I made a cake that was an edible snow scene (made with whipped cream frosting, described below) with children playing. It had a "frozen pond" surrounded by snowy hills, with small wooden figures in bright colors, skating, skiing or sledding.
This broad landscape was built on a rectangular piece of cardboard (~16"x19") covered with aluminum foil (dull side out). The central interest of the scene, the skating pond, had skaters on the aluminum foil "ice". (Place the skater into a small chunk of cold butter, or use a bit of clay or gum to hold the skater upright) The cake, covered with whipped cream "snow," became the hills surrounding the pond, a place for figures of skiers and sledders.
To make the hills, I cut the cake (double recipe) into various-sized chunks, using several layers when necessary for height, and arranged the chunks around the pond. After arranging the cake pieces and covering them with whipped cream "snow," I added the figures who skied or sledded down the hills toward the pond. Their bright colors stood out against the white "snow." There it was, a winter scene! It even had an angel, and it was edible (except for the wood people, of course)!
The figures that I had collected over the preceding months were utterly charming, rather reminiscent of Switzerland or southern Germany. None of them were expensive. Beginning in November when Christmas things filled the import stores, I had collected what everyone else thought of as charming Christmas tree ornaments: skiers, skaters, sledding children and even an angel on a sled. Some of them had a package on their sled, which is fine for a birthday. You can take off the holly or red ribbon so it doesn't look like Christmas. I couldn't resist the little soldier and guard house, nor some other odds and ends, so I gave the soldier the job of guarding the skating pond and used the others around the edges of the snow scene. None of the figures were larger than three inches, and I cut off the string each one had for hanging on a Christmas tree.
I expected Mark to treasure the little figures after the winter scene cake was cut and eaten. He did, but not in the way I expected. With the joy of bestowing something really special, he gave the little wooden figures to the children present. We come into the world to give, not just to receive, and giving should be a part of every birthday celebration. I think Mark enjoyed bestowing the little wooden figures on his friends more than any other part of that special celebration.
During the Christmas shopping season look for those little wooden Christmas tree ornaments of children playing in the snow. Import stores are your best bet. You are not likely to find them at other times of the year. And good luck with the cake. Life is still incredibly wonderful even if you cannot eat wheat. I say that after something like 25 years without it. --Esther Leisher
