The Birthday Farmaaish

My mummy comes from a family of bakers. The famous HMS Bakery in Vizag was once owned by my grandpa. So it was but natural that some of those baking genes (and secrets) were automatically passed on to the genext. We grew up eating cakes that would put even Betty Crocker to shame. And when my kids grew up celebrating their Happy Birthdays by cutting cars, castles, insects, animals, books, fruits, flowers, toys, robots, my baking skills were put to test. But once that now-i-feel-shy-to-cut-a-cake stage was reached, all my baking skills were put to rest.
However, two years back, when we shifted to Bhubaneswar I had a whole new batch of ‘grand’ kiddos to experiment with. Only I hadn’t realized that age can also wither one’s abilities and custom can also stale those infinite ideas. So the first year when I promised a car for one of them, it was such a disaster that ultimately I ended up squashing the entire cake, making a neat round and presenting it as a ‘Ball Cake’.
A few months later when I asked another of the kiddo what she’d like she said ‘Mujhe na, woh khalaab waala ball cake nahin, ek achcha waalah doll cake chaahiye’.
I regretted having opened my big mouth for I soon realized that what once seemed easy now was actually a phenomenal task. But a plomise is a plomise! And all my efforts were not in vain. I did manage to dish out a doll with a straight back but ended up for two days on the bed with a bad back. Anyway, here is the result.

P.S. If you need a step by step method on how to make this cake, here is the link.
http://nargisnatarajan.sulekha.com/blog/post/2010/06/the-birthday-farmaaish.htm