Friday: Birthday Prep, Gabby’s Dollhouse Cake & Dinner Insurance

Breakfast was easy this morning as we finished off the last of the bacon I cooked earlier this week and some toast from a loaf of break I pulled out of the freezer.

If you’re new here, I always cook bacon in big batches because it makes breakfasts so much easier. To reheat it, I simply lay the slices on a parchment-lined sheet pan and pop them into a cold oven. I don’t even preheat it. By the time the oven comes up to temperature, the bacon is hot and crispy again. It’s one of those little kitchen habits that saves me so much time.

Birthday Cake Day

Tomorrow is Daphne’s birthday, so today was all about decorating the cake.

One of my favorite money-saving birthday traditions is how we decorate cakes for my younger kids.

Instead of buying expensive cake decorations, I tell them to gather any plastic toys or characters they already own that match their birthday theme. We wash them well, let them dry, and those become the cake decorations.

I’ve also been known to print character pictures from online, laminate them, tape them to toothpicks, and use those as cake toppers.

I’m just not spending money on decorations that are going straight into the trash.

This year, Daphne wanted Gabby’s Dollhouse, so we gathered all of her Gabby characters.

Because I’d baked the cake earlier this week and frozen the layers, decorating today was surprisingly relaxed.

For the frosting, I use:

• ⅓ cup softened butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Heavy cream until it’s light and fluffy

I doubled that recipe for this cake.

Daphne wanted a light purple cake, so I tinted most of the frosting lavender and saved some white, pink, black, and extra purple for decorating.

After frosting the cake, I lightly sketched the outline of Cakey Cat’s face across the top so my 11-year-old could pipe the details herself.

Then I stepped back.

My 11-year-old and almost-four-year-old decorated the cake together.

Is it bakery-perfect?

Absolutely not.

Does it look exactly like the picture on Pinterest?

Also no.

But it’s exactly what Daphne wanted because she helped make it.

Lunch

Lunch was another reminder that keeping good convenience foods around doesn’t mean you aren’t cooking.

I baked one of Costco’s frozen pizzas, and I will happily defend those pizzas. They’re inexpensive, they’re easy, and they’re one of my favorite “Dinner Insurance” items to keep in the freezer.

We turned lunch into platters with:

• Frozen Costco pizza
• Homemade summer sausage
• Cheese
• Fresh fruit
• Vegetables

I used some of the grilled chicken thighs from earlier this week by making another barbecue chicken salad with my favorite avocado salsa dressing.

A Leftover Dinner Win

This afternoon was mostly spent cleaning bathrooms, catching up on chores, and running a few errands.

When dinner rolled around, I decided to finally try something I’d picked up at Costco a while back: their frozen burger patties.

Believe it or not, I’d never cooked frozen burger patties before.

They’d been sitting in my freezer as “Dinner Insurance,” waiting for a busy night.

While the grill heated up (after, of course, discovering the propane tank was empty and changing it), I reheated almost everything else from Wednesday’s dinner (just layered the cold leftovers onto 1/4 sheet pans and roasted them at 400degF till crisp again:

• Roasted Yukon potatoes
• Roasted sweet potatoes
• Roasted vegetables
• Fresh asparagus
• Steamed broccoli for anyone who preferred that

The burger patties grilled up nicely, although they were definitely a little greasier than my homemade burgers and caused a few flare-ups on the grill.

That said, everyone enjoyed them and they were a quick answer for dinner.

But these earned a permanent place in my freezer as another reliable backup meal.

Looking Ahead

Everything is ready for tomorrow.

The cake is decorated.

The cinnamon rolls are waiting in the refrigerator.

Now all that’s left is celebrating our almost-four-year-old. 🎉