Up, up, and away!

It's my daughter's 9th birthday today!

As per usual, my kids always take something into school to share with their friends and classmates for their birthday... Cupcakes has been the usual request, and I've always been delighted to make them (like, seriously, you have no idea how much pressure I put on them with choosing the theme in advance). But this time (I assume because she liked the Top Chick biscuits) my daughter asked me to make biscuits for her instead of cupcakes.

I suggested that because it was for her birthday (and because I had the foresight to order this particular cookie cutter from eBay a few weeks ago), I could make balloon biscuits for her... And put them onto (cake pop) sticks! Luckily, she is at an age where she is open to a persuasive argument put forth by a slightly obsessive mother as long as it's combined with bright colours and the threat of having to sleep in the garage.

I wasn't sure if baking the cake pop sticks would work, but it did! I then outlined them with melted white chocolate, and coloured them in with different colours of royal icing. Look, I even lined them up to match the original balloon photo above! It's not a problem. I can stop any time I want.

The one thing I hadn't counted on was how long white chocolate takes to set compared to how short my patience is. Husband once remarked on the dichotomy (whatever the heck that means) of this problem: I seem to have no problem spending four hours painstakingly piping a face onto a biscuit, but if I have to wait five minutes for them to set? "It's friggin' World War 23 because you you took World Wars 3-22 already waiting for the Cookie Cutter to arrive," he says, unaware that saying something like that in the kitchen is a good way to find yourself unexpectedly stabbed.

I inflated the bags so that they didn't stick to the setting white chocolate, and it was a great success. Husband pointed out I could have just put them in the fridge. Somehow, it seems one of the knives has been misplaced. It's currently located in the emergency ward.

And here they all are (finally), wrapped and ready to take to school (yes, in a shoebox), because Nike said to "Just do it!"

As I was thinking about biscuits being 'on a stick', I was reminded of one of my favourite comedians, Jeff Dunham, a ventriloquist who has a character (Jose Jalapeño) who refers to himself as being... "On a stiiick!"

She was delighted to take the balloon biscuits into school on Friday to share with her classmates, teachers, friends, friend's siblings, other random children in the playground, her brother, and her brother's friends, because she's such a lovely young girl whom I love and enjoy having as a daughter! :)

So, to our only daughter who has already spent most of her childhood...

 Trying to master this expression:

Happy 9th birthday Tamara!