I think the term you're searching for...

I think the term you’re searching for is ‘point blank range’. Yep, that about sums up this cake.

I think the little deer hunter and deer figure are designed for a larger sheet cake… in fact, when I saw them on the website, they were featured on a sheet cake… with yellow frosting, no less, and the cheesy little ‘Field and Stream’ plastic placard that came with the set.

But, I really don’t like making sheet cakes. When I do, I usually end up frosting them in the pan because I can’t seem to get the stupid things out without them ending up looking like an earthquake landscape. You know, what with that giant crack right down the middle and all?

Plus, I’m a lazy froster. There, I said it. Laaaaazy. And there’s just more to mess up on a larger cake.

So, for Davis’s 7th birthday cake, I stuck with my round, layered cake (chocolate, per his request). And what else could I have put on the cake to honor my own little ‘gun nut’? I mean, I *looked* for a gun cake pan, but all those Google searches turned up nothing of the baking variety. (However, if I’m ever convicted of a crime, my internet search history may certainly yield interesting results. ;)

When I got the cake frosted, (with the requisite rocky stream down the middle of the cake… no earthquake here, people!), I realized that I had to position the deer and the hunter in such a way that that poor deer doesn’t even have a sporting chance. And that tiny little plastic tree just doesn’t offer much in the way of camouflage. Come to think of it… why didn’t that deer hear the hunter sneaking up on him?!! Turn around, Bambi!!

Plus I didn’t even have room to put the plastic “Field & Stream” logo anywhere on the cake. Pity.

And yes, I guess that I *may* have over-used the chocolate rocks just a tad… but what can I say? They look like REAL ROCKS!! And they taste like M&M’s… I’m tempted to buy some just to have my own candy that the kids won’t eat. “Mommy, why are you eating the rocks out of that dish with the candle in it?!” The flip side, of course, is that I also run the risk of my children eating rocks off the playground, in the hopes that they’ll taste like M&M’s.

Anyway… all that matters is that my boy has made about fifty-seven trips out to the garage refrigerator this afternoon to ‘check on’ his cake (and possibly to sneak a rock or two), and every single time, he has come back inside, given me a hug, and said, “Mommy, I love my cake!”

That kid can just get me right in the heart when he gives me that sweet smile. Every damn time… at point blank range. ;)