Laura's First Birthday

No way was I going to buy a birthday cake for my daughter's first birthday party. It had to be special. It's a good and a bad thing knowing how to do complex cakes. At first Alec and I were going to do a tiered cake with gum paste lotus blossoms floating on piping gel water cascading down the tiers. Then we got real, plus we wanted Laura to identify with the cake. So we chose the theme of Patrick Starfish (of SpongeBob Squarepants). We have a large stuffed animal Patrick Starfish, which Laura kisses and sticks her finger into his belly button.
We decided to do square-shaped cupcakes that forms a mosaic of Patrick Starfish. I saw a similar idea with cupcakes in the image of SpongeBob.
The entire process spanned three weeks - cake recipe experimentation, frosting recipe experimentation, frosting color testing, decorating test run, final batch of cupcakes/frosting, and assembly.
Even with both Alec and I working, the evening of the assembly took two and half hours: 9-11:30pm. Alec got to experience what I go through on "assembly evenings" - lack of focus, deterioration of design standards. In the morning, I put finishing touches and decorated additional cupcakes to fill in the gaps in the mosaic. I also decorated a personalized cupcake for Laura - white vanilla frosting, with white jimmies border, a modified star fondant cut-out for Patrick Starfish, with pink "Laura" inscription.
I learned that the "cupcake mosaic" takes at least double the time of a standard order, so I wouldn't do it again unless the price was right.
Of course, it was all worth it for our little girl. It came time to put out the cupcakes at the birthday party. We placed a yellow candle in Laura's cupcake and lit it. Alec and I held her between us, everyone sang the birthday song, and we blew out the candle together. Laura didn't know what the heck was going on. But she did enjoy the first few bites of a darn good cupcake made with love.