Jungle Fever

Last Sunday, a very special little boy named Angelo celebrated his 6th birthday.  Angelo is a special needs child.  He is my nephew, Louie's son.  I guess that makes him my grandson??   To some, having a special needs child is a burden but to our family, he is a joy and a blessing.  He has a smile that can literally brighten up your day.  Say his name and he'll turn to you with that goofy grin on his face.  Chat him up and he'll speak in his own special way.  He's actually quite talkative when he wants to be and is always cheery.


Normally his mom, Kay makes his birthday cake so I didn't even offer to make his cake as I knew it was tradition for Kay to make his cake.  The Sunday before his party, we got to talking and Kay asked me to make his cake.  The problem was we were leaving for New York on Thursday and his birthday party wasn't  until the following Sunday, which meant I had to have the cake done in 2 days so she could pick it up on Wednesday.  No problem I said, for Angelo I would make it happen!  I made sure to make everything non perishable since it would need to keep for a few days.  The cake was chocolate and the filling was buttercream.  I covered the cake in fondant to seal in the freshness and make sure it would still be moist and yummy for Sunday.

I had so much fun making this cake.  The only guideline I had was that the theme was animals.  A jungle cake, how FUN! I had never made monkeys, lions or trees before so it was fun learning something new.   The monkeys all had their own fun little personalities which I hope all the little kiddies saw.