Ummm....yeah..... You read that right So a customers comes in this morning and says well, I have a cake I would really like made but it's kind of unique request. At the time I was thinking "yeah yeah, I've heard em all!" But I guess not! She wants me to make a cake for their daughter, who will be turning seven, that she's adopted. She doesn't want "you're adopted" actually written on the cake but she wants something that signifies adoption/family and that she was adopted from Florida. I can officially say I've never been this stumped in my entire cake decorating career as far as ideas go. So...... anyone??

I don't know if this is suitable to the occasion, but I couldn't resist telling my story. My niece and her husband adopted two boys from Kazakhstan. While we were waiting for the boys to get here, my niece became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby girl about 1-1/2 months after their arrival. We went from 0 kids to 3 in 2 months! It was glorious!

The boys were 1-1/2 and 2-1/2 years old when we got them. Since they arrived in the San Diego Airport on November 8, we call that "Gotcha Day".

Every year we celebrate Gotcha Day by taking a huge bag of popcorn to their elementary school after-care program for all to share. We also have a special evening with their favorite foods and tell stories of how their papa brought them all the way from Kazakhstan to our home.

Perhaps something along the line of "Gotcha Day" might work?

Another idea might be something similar to the Wilton "Family Tree".
http://www.wilton.com/idea/Our-Familys-Branching-Out-Cake

You could make a 2-D topper with a Florida Palm Tree, lots of sunshine and other Florida looking things and have the mom/dad/daughter in a bunch of dates hanging from the tree.

That's all I can think of.

The magic day that brought us together is something to celebrate today and forever!


I was adopted myself and every year we celebrate too. I think its so sweet she is getting a cake to celebrate the day!

High Five, Honeybees!

Though I have never had to opportunity to make such a cake I have heard of others doing so. I don't know how to suggest 'googling' it but you have been given some good ideas

May I suggest a cake similar to this: http://www.sanitaryum.com/2010/06/22/generally-so-awesome/fail/adoption-cake-fail/ but maybe replace the cat with the state animal of Florida perhaps

Could to do a map of north Americe ( not to scale) make Florida big and BC big and then have like a 3D palm tree in Florida and a 3d house in BC then draw the dashed line on the route from Florida to BC...something like "it took a few thousand miles but your home now. " I think map might sense to a 7 yr old. I can't tell from your post if the child knows they're adopted or not. If the do you can be silly with the Florida stuff but if they don't I would keep it very simple.

Apti - that's a beautiful story!! (brought tears to my eyes ) Thank you for all the wonderful ideas, I'm really excited for this cake now that I know what I might do! I love the idea of a family tree, and maybe a map of some sort, beautiful!!

When I googled "adoption cakes" it came up with some pretty strange ones, I LOVE all the ideas on here. This cake was kind of feeling like a very daunting task for me because I had NO idea what to do but that's completely changed around now

Thank you for sharing all your wonderful stories...

shuswapcakes~~You have gotten some great ideas! I think your cake will be fabulous! (BTW, the safe assumption is that a 7 year old girl will be fully aware that she is adopted. The paperwork is killer and takes nearly a year!)

I'm like a proud soccer mom when it comes to the kids. I practically stop strangers in the street and tell stories about them. The boys have been here 9 years as of November 8, 2011. The oldest is 11, the middle, 10, and their sister will be 9 in January. Here's some photos of each one with the 3-D cookie I made in my 2010 ICES (International Cake Exploration Societe) class with Susan Carberry.

I'm training them up to be good little decorators and have worked with each one on how to read recipes/measure ingredients/check the cake/safety/food handling, etc. etc.

Can't wait to see your cake!!!!!

http://christinascakes.shutterfly.com/pictures/324

I did one of those and it had an apple tree on it and said "you've been picked!" I thought that was pretty cute Also, you could use pea pods instead, or something like that...

Good luck!

Karen

I was going to suggest a family tree cake (maybe an orange tree) with each person's name on the leaves, with of course her name on one too. You could write "Welcome to the family" or something like that.

Does it mean the child doesn't yet know?! Not sure which direction this is gonna go, but how about a love theme, like a red heart cake, white arms extending outward with the words "We love you this much" I saw that cake somewhere I thought it was adorable. I also once saw the wording like - Some grow in their mother's stomach, but you grew in our hearts, or something like that. Would love to hear where you take this!