En Famille: Penny's Rapunzel Birthday Party

Penny adores Rapunzel, and Tangled, and so on the spur of the moment, we decided to go with that as a theme for her 2nd birthday party.

Mostly I wanted to see if the dream I had in mind for her cake could actually be made by human hands. It would be a foot and a half tall. It would feature Pascal the chameleon. It would be Rapunzel's tower, in cake form, a feat not so much of baking as of engineering. Could it be done?

It could! But only by the incredible talent of Holly Johnson and her Awfully Nice cakes.

Yes, that's a cake. And no messing about with Rice Krispie Treats. It's all cake, right up to the tower room, which was hollow icing.

With such a cake, the rest of the party paled into insignificance, but we had a few other Rapunzel touches, like these lovely balloons.

And, as a last-minute addition, while collecting the balloons from the party shop I noticed a Chinese lantern for sale. Well, Rapunzel couldn't pass up the opportunity to set one of those off!

And how did Penny enjoy it?

At dusk in the freezing cold on New Year's Day, and tired from some hardcore partying, I was afraid she might not get what the lantern was supposed to be, or not be interested.

I needn't have worried. She got it! "Rapunzel's lantern! Inna sky! Lantern!"

She loved it.

"Bye bye, lantern! Bye... wait! Wait! IT'S GONE! No - hey back!*"

(*This is what Penny says instead of "come back")

The lantern didn't listen however and just wobbled off into the great unknown. We spent the rest of the night worrying it was going to crash-land and cause a fire (it didn't).

Penny was quickly distracted with cake.

It was such a shame to have to cut into the magnificent tower. But we had something to keep a little longer - lovely little Pascal, perched on a rock. I handed him to Penny. "We can keep him for a while after we eat the cake!"