And for Dessert: Diabetes!

     It's no secret that my husband drives me insane.  I mean, I've given y'all several examples on this blog alone of how much he makes me question the reason I agreed to let him annoy me for the rest of my life.  But I think it's also fair to say that I would do anything for that crazy, slightly annoying husband of mine.  And apparently that's a fact he's not only discovered but has decided to exploit.  For example, today is his birthday.  A few weeks ago while I was writing up my grocery list, I asked him and Monkey to flip through my "Taste of Home: Fun Food" magazine to come up with ideas for her school lunches.  While flipping through the pages, she and J came across a rather elaborate picture of a cake decorated to look like the classic game, CandyLand.  J excitedly pointed the picture out to me and requested that I make it for him for his birthday.  I laughed, thinking he was joking, and said something witty that amounted to "no".  But then something happened.  He kept bringing up the cool CandyLand cake, and mentioning how much he liked it, and he'd throw in the fact that his birthday was coming up after all.  So what did I do?

     I made the darn cake for him!  I'll get to how to make your own in a minute, but in the mean time let me tell you what my sweet, but oh-so-chokable husband tells me as I'm buying the last bit of candy to make his dearest birthday wish complete.

Me:  "Hey baby, do you see any rock candy?"
J:  "No; you don't need that"
Me: "It's for your cake.  I wanted to include the Ice Palace, so I was going to use blue rock candy"
J:  "I don't know why you're even doing this"
Me:  "What do you mean?  This is the cake you've been asking for."
J:  "Yeah, I was just messing with you.  Then you ran with it, so I figured I'd let you."
Me: .......................................You can't strangle him in Walmart.  You can't strangle him in Walmart.  You can't strangle him in Walmart!

    Well, regardless of how he finagled me into making the cake, it's made now, so I might as well share a quick how-to with y'all.  Here's what you'll need:

Cake mix (can be any flavor; I used a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens for a White cake)
White icing
Green food coloring
Starbursts
Peppermints
Mini marshmallows
Rock candy (or Jolly Ranchers, crushed)
Lollipops
Chocolate cupcake, iced
2 mini snickers
4 ice cream cones (cut the tops off of 2 of them)
Blue cookie icing
Purple cookie icing
Black cookie icing
Multicolored sprinkles
Chocolate sprinkles
Cinnamon sprinkles
Sour Patch Kids (I used 4, one in each color as the "players")

    Bake your cake mix according to directions on back of the box for a 9x13 cake.  Let cool completely before icing.  Mix white icing and green food coloring in a medium sized bowl, use this to ice the cake.  Top cake with Starbursts, making sure to keep a pattern so no two colors are next to each other.  For "Mr. Mint"'s corner, arrange peppermints (or peppermint candy canes, if they're in season) in a cute pattern, and sprinkle cinnamon sprinkles around them.  Add an area for "Princess Lolly" by using a few crushed Jolly Ranchers to mark the spot.  Next add the lollipops or various sizes (I used 2 Dumdums, and 1 Blow Pop).  Next I added the chocolate cupcake (complete with chocolate fudge frosting and chocolate sprinkles) for "Chocolate Mountain".  I set a pair of mini Snickers next to the cupcake, one on each side, and sprinkled a few extra chocolate sprinkles around the base of the "Mountain".  Next I added a mini-marshmallow "bridge" between two of the rows of Starbursts.  Finally I erected the "CandyLand Castle" by inverting the 2 whole ice cream cones side-by-side, and then I placed one of the halved ones in front and one in the back, upside-down.  Next I added the windows and doors by using purple cookie icing.  Then I topped the castle off with blue cookie icing roofs.  I spread a rainbow of various-colored crushed Jolly Ranchers around the base of the "castle". Next I piped out the "Happy Birthday" on the Starbursts using black cookie icing.  Finally I sprinkled the entire cake with multi-colored sprinkles for good measure.

    There were two big bonuses for this cake: 1)  There really isn't a "right way" to decorate it.  If you look at the way CandyLand has changed over the years, you can really throw any type of candy on a cake and call it good.  2) Monkey was able to help, and we both enjoyed that. :-)

   
     To top it all off, J really enjoyed his Diabetes-inducing CandyLand Cake.  And I discovered that my husband turns into a Disney Princess when he makes his birthday wish before blowing out the candles.

     Anyone else see it?  Anyone?  No?  It's just me?  Fine!  Keep wishing, Babe.  Maybe one day your prince will come (but he probably won't make you awesome cakes).