Super Mario Birthday

Today is my son Thomas' 5th birthday. I can't believe he's 5! His latest obsession is Mario -- as in Super Mario of video game fame. The only video game system we have is the original Nintendo, so he gets to play "old school" Mario when and if he stays in his bed the night before. He would absolutely faint if we got a Wii and then he'd be glued to the TV/game the entire day...which is why we WON'T be getting one!

Anyway, so lately he wants everything to be Mario -- including, of course, a Mario birthday cake. I told him I didn't know how to make a Mario cake and I asked him what was in it. His answer: "A Mario cake has strawberries, spaghetti sauce, fluffy white stuff [cool whip], 1 rainbow jelly bean, 7 cups of flour, 2 cups of brown sugar, and 1 cup of baking soda." Sounds yummy, doesn't it!? I asked him how long we should bake it and he replied "about 15 minutes". And how hot should the oven be? "Hot/Cold."

Well, I didn't exactly follow his recipe, but I came up with my own Mario cake when we celebrated his birthday at Grandma's house last weekend.

It's just a strawberry angel food cake covered with cool whip. I crafted a "warp tube" out of Green Galore cardstock to fit in the center of the cake and found a 3" vinyl Mario figure to put in the warp tube. He LOVED it!

Of course I had to come up with something different for today, his actual birthday. Unfortunately, Mario is not that easy to find and they don't make party plates, cake decorations, and balloons with his likeness. So I took some Super Mario stickers (which I bought off ebay and had shipped from Hong Kong!) and used my circle punches to make little cupcake embellishments.

I sandwiched a toothpick between the two scallop circles to stick it on top of the cupcake. I am happy to report the cupcakes also got Thomas' seal of approval! And though it was kind of a hectic, busy day for me, Thomas seemed to have a super Super Mario birthday!