The Dude Abides

Point Break meets The Big Lebowski

For the past few months my son was set on having a Mad Scientist birthday party. We had been watching fun science experiments on YouTube and researching ideas for transforming our garage into a labratory for his party. But then in the month leading up to his birthday he changed his mind and begged asked for a bowling birthday party at the local bowling alley. I was a little disappointed not to be able to execute the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment on our street, spraying cars and houses with soda. But then the idea of keeping my house clean and not turning it into a science lab also sounded very appealing.

My son has had a love affair with bowling from a very early age as you can see below. At three years old he was bowling in our hallway and told me, "This crown makes me bowl better." What can I say? The dude abides.

With the location and theme out of the way, we started to talk about his cake. At a restaurant later that night he pulled a notebook and pen out of my purse (any other neurotic list makers out there?) and drew a picture of the cake he had in mind, saying, "It's a surfer bowling cake where the surfer is actually bowling on the water and then a shark leaps out of the water at him!" Wow. I had no idea how that would even come together, but I brainstormed for a day or two and searched around for cake ideas on the web. I almost gave up and went to the dark side for help (the dark side being a bakery), but then I figured I could swing something along the lines of what he wanted.

I asked a few friends if they had a toy surfboard that I could use on the cake, but no one had anything like it. Then one friend suggested drawing a board, so I ran with that idea and made my own cake topper using old photos of my husband's long board and of my son surfing.

I used Mod Podge to adhere a couple of photos to stiff cardboard (an old Amazon.com box) and then I carefully cut out the figures with an X-Acto Knife.

I wish I had thought to take photos of the cake as I made it, but I was having a slight panic attack as I assembled it, thinking it was going to look like a Cake Wreck. I just focused on getting it done by that point.

I  used two boxes of Trader Joe's devil's food cake mix and baked them in two jelly roll pans so I would have plenty of space to work with. Then I baked another box cake mix in a 8x8 pan to use for the wave, cutting it to size. To make the wave, I placed a few blocks of cake on top of the sheet cake and frosted it, then I stuck a small sheet of foil into the wedge of the cake so that it would look like a wave, and I bent the foil to form the curl of the wave and covered the whole thing with frosting. I found the little bowling pins and bowling ball at a cake decoration store and used a rubber shark from our bath toys (Yes, I cleaned it thoroughly). The look on his face was priceless when he saw himself surfing on his own cake.

Just a girl and her frosting gun

My son has gone the typical route with youthful obsessions - trains (ages 1 - 3.5 years), insects (ages 3.5 - 4 years) and now dinosaurs (ages 4-6 years). When I asked what kind of party he wanted for his sixth birthday he said without hesitation, "Dinosaur Party." I decided to be one of the first in my child's age group to have a birthday party without supervising parents or siblings in tow, I could already envision the party the way I wanted it to be and then quickly realized the party it was going to have to be. I wanted everything to be dinosaurs, but then reality hits and you are just lucky to throw a few plastic dinosaurs on the cake.

Cake from 2010

About a month ago I scored a bucket full of unused party supplies at a thrift store in the dinosaur theme. I was all set for napkins, hats and a bag full of dinosaur eggs with little dino figurines inside for a treasure hunt. I also knew that last years dinosaur cake was nice and all and was a great use for my many Wilton color gels, but I had to up my game. And finally, since no parents would be here to admire my hard work I could let go of caring about details that only an adult could appreciate. Because lets be honest, all a six year old cares about are frosting amounts per slice of cake and games and pinatas.

I originally wanted to do individual molten chocolate cakes but the molten part of the cake would have to sit for about 6 hours before I served it, so that was quickly nixed. I borrowed my mom's popover pan and thought they could be passed off as a volcano if I turned them upside down. I'll admit I used a box devil's food cake mix here, but I always make my frosting. This is where I can relate to the six year old - I appreciate good frosting!


After the cakes cooled I dug a little well from the center using a fish knife (never once did I use this knife for a fish, so it was nice that I found a use for it finally). My friend from work loaned me her frosting gun and once I got the hang of this baby I wanted to inject everything! You'd like to have a pancake filled with syrup? Let me get my gun! What's that you say? The bakery gave you a doughnut with no jelly in it? Step aside while I load my frosting gun. Of all the kitchen gadgets, this one is my favorite. So I made my favorite buttercream (recipe below) and colored it deep lava red and got to work.

I thinned out a portion of the icing with a little extra milk so it would be runny and drizzled it over the top of the volcano to give it that oozing lava look. I loved the way these came out.

Lunch was simple cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into dinosaurs with our cookie cutters, a rainbow fruit salad and some Trader Joe's cheese poofs.

For games we had a treasure hunt in our tiny backyard with all those dinosaur eggs and a few Easter eggs thrown in for good measure, Fishing for Dinosaurs game where my husband took some old bamboo rods and made little fishing poles for the kids to use to pick up dinosaurs in our kiddie pool, Pin the Horn on the Triceratops, and a pinata filled with all the crap we've accumulated from previous birthday parties and their goody bags. I hate goody bags and refuse to do them, so it felt slightly mean spirited to be sending this junk back home with other kids, but we have no use for that stuff. All in all this was one of those great birthday parties that I'll certainly never forget. Every parent that came commented that these parties should be the new way of doing them, drop your kids off and get a few hours to yourself. I couldn't agree more. it was easy as long as you have a helpful spouse and have pretty much accounted for every minute that the kids are with you.


Buttercream frosting recipe

1 stick of butter (room temperature)
3 3/4 powdered sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter for a minute or two, add the sugar, milk and vanilla till thoroughly mixed.