Ben is 6

Actually, he turned six on Easter and wanted a birthday treat for the whole church's Easter breakfast.  I baked 7 loaves of paska, a rich yeast bread flavored with lemons and oranges, with icing and sprinkles on top.  Ben was sold on the icing and sprinkles, I was sold on the easy bake-ahead-and-freeze factor.  I never took any pictures of the bread, for some reason.

Then there was his requested birthday cake.  He wanted a chocolate cake covered with white icing with green around the edges.  As far as I could tell, he was describing a layer cake that was totally iced (he wasn't impressed by the paltry amount of ganache that was "icing" my birthday cake; never mind that it was a delicious cake).  I made a wacky cake in 2 round pans.  I put peanut butter icing between the layers for some extra flavor, and iced the whole thing with cheater Italian meringue. Then I tinted some Italian meringue green and experimented with piping it.  

The blank spot is for the 6 candle (re-used, of course).

It worked pretty well, although the lines softened after several hours. What did not work was my vintage cake cover.  It was too small!  Which led to a strange contraption on my counter involving my dishpan and several dishtowels.  

Fortunately, Ben loved his cake, and it tasted good, so everyone was happy.

I was even happier when I bought a cake stand and dome.  The dome is actually acrylic because I like its shape and I was nervous about a large, fragile glass cover. I'm planning to use the cake stand for more than just cakes, and I want the children to be able to use it, too. (The cake stand debuted on Mother's Day with the poppyseed violet cake, when I realized I wanted to tell you about piping Italian meringue.)

There were presents, too, and quite special that his sister thought of him and bought him gifts with her own money. 

It's a joy to have a big boy in the house!