Summer birthdays are the best. I sneak out to my garden and snip flowers to decorate those dreaded birthday cakes. 

Speaking of the most dreaded cakes, the hassle of Doll Cakes has haunted me since our daughter was a toddler. 

![image.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmU7EoD6xeEudFU7oBZmbWzriBseRuVjzdaSn6BMTTgJRf/image.png)

Even my adult nieces would ask for one of these cakes. 

![image.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmYYoHWhhdGtiZTFqzh7M4P23rtFQnz2VUn9augnEbYwLN/image.png)

My mother, a great-grandma, has not outgrown this thing. 
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPbn1d2NZ17pbwvA1rHW82a8aBuTtUiN9vtqaH9fCZoVX/image.png)

My old Wilton cake tin is getting a lot of mileage.

We've had some eventful Barbie cakes. First, the jokes about Bondage Barbie when I'm in the early stages of attaching a candle. 
<center>![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmR5ERrXyNJAsCo6bghpT7yNzvAfEtByesFKUadULchy56/image.png)
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmYfDjTaVA3eb263paHuWD1R7H7dMdEuqQPKAuN8frgztQ/image.png)</center>

### A less bondage-y way to attach the candle
would be good. With these cakes, there's no attaching several--much less 80--candles, so one is all anyone gets. 

One year I tried attaching five candles. It didn't go so well. 
***Let us never forget Mastectomy Barbie.***

![image.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQBqoBd29VSMZRKZ3gNfFdi1WDSpNor2kC2rEqgZpEK9w/image.png)

### Emo Barbie
was the result of our daughter's Goth-and-Emo phase, in fourth grade. She did a makeover on this lass:

![image.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUoX2ruF7N64iuqwaZRwegmbxotwZsowPSY1M5FPXw8VS/image.png)

#### Dear God help me remember I must never again 
consent to baking another Barbie cake. And home-made ice cream. Two things I cannot even eat. (Food allergies. *For my life still ahead, pity me.*)
<center>![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmcjifaLKo51XLyXvTEkdjvCZdLh8513BKQTVLxf6pdNu3/image.png)</center>

But, but, I have RUNNING WATER in my house, and a dishwasher as well. Count my blessings, I do!

I hate baking, lost all my love of cooking, but will do it for God and country. 

Or love. 

Or something like that.

#### So many of my peers have no mothers left. 
We are grandmas now and our moms have passed on. Mine is still doing well past age 80, and far be it from me to say no if sister Lori says, "You should make her a Barbie cake again this year."

We are never too old for dolls, toys, and Barbie cakes.

But we do get too old to have our mothers with us.


#### Bring on the flowers!
They're more than pollinator-garden food, more than day brighteners and consolations at funerals.
Flowers are little saviors in so many ways.
There was the cake that fell while baking. Barbie appears to be kneeling. Or to be a midget.
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmcjfgdEEjS3xL3HBUQt56iEGJ3qEFsudf1z9vX85k88gA/image.png)
*Flowers camouflage the wreckage. Home-made ice cream will make the cake.* 

NEWS FLASH
Since the initial writing of this post, I now have ***two*** granddaughters (and a grandson, who, God bless him, does not request doll cakes). "Moana" and Nella the Princess warrior have been added to the Barbie Cake Hall of Fame. And flame.

![image.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQYwAfLEdGA5bXgHBJukURZzKbaeS2CYUp7AYvjSNesPf/image.png)


### #MotherLove, second only to #GrandmaLove, 
drives me to do the dreaded baking again. 

# ~Pinata?
Did someone notice the cat ~pinata in the first photo?
As I baked cakes, my husband put the finishing touches on paper-mache pinatas I used to make.
Truly, a mother's love knows no bounds, nor a father's.
His pinatas evolved and transcended mine, and these masterpieces would be SMASHED with a baseball bat at parties. Like sand castles, like snowmen, some of the best artworks are not meant to last.
Unlike love, which -- forgive the cliche -- is everlasting.

# Long live the dreaded birthday cakes!