Please allow me to whine for a moment:

I made this cake for my youngest DD's 1st Birthday. It was actually the second of two for her (ended up having two smaller parties in two separate cities instead of one big one). The the bottom box and top cupcake were dummies, the middle box is Orange Butter Cake. Worked on this all week, with lots of stress, as those of you with small children know, making cakes with a 1 y/o and going on 3 y/o means stress and lots of late, late, late nights! Thought I was a genius by pre-cutting the fondant sides for the actually cake, so I could just put them on once the cake was baked, only to have the cake not rise high enough. I didn't have time to bake a new one to replace or to add another layer, and cutting the fondant down to make the box shorter would have looked silly, so I had to dowel the crap out of it, then lay the fondant top on top of some cardboard that went on top of the dowels to give the illusion of a "full box". Got most of it done, then had to transport it four hours to my parents where I could finish it up, adding the RI accents on the bottom (my absolute favorite part), and the dots on the middle tier. After I finish it up, the "cake adrenaline" I'd been running off of for the past two weeks went away, and I just zoned out and never took pictures of it myself. My Grandpa took several, and emailed me the best one, and it's good, but doesn't really do the cake justice. Oh well. At least there were some pictures taken.

Sorry for the whine and "pay attention to me" moment, but I had to vent to people who would understand.

If you would like to see it, here is a link to the cake:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1151434

/end whine

Fabulous cake!! But...holy cow...it's so beautiful, how in the world are you gonna top that for her 2nd birthday?????

The cake came out great! Be proud of it! I know it sucks not getting the perfect picture but its not a bad one.

what a beautiful and special cake you did for your little one!!! I know it is not easy doing cakes (or anything for that matter) when you have little people under foot....beautiful under any circumstances!!!!

Wow!! What a cool cake!

Kathi

The cake looks great! The photo really isn't that bad, better then many I have seen. Once again, great job on the cake!

Thank you everyone for your nice comments. It's always such a boost to get aknowledgement from such talented people!

kwdonlon - lol, I think next year I might have to channel Duff and add some moving parts, fireworks, or something!

I tried to fix your photo for you. Let's see if I can get it posted.

That is a really beautiful cake. So many wonderful details, I can't pick on one, they are all great.

Thank your for the picture editing estherhead, it does improve it a bit.

superstar, thank you for your nice comments. I wish I had a close-up of the bottom; the "tissue paper" and RI accents were my favorite.