Friday, February 5, 2016

A Book, A Cake and an Afternoon Together...



A quiet picture book with soft colors and plenty of white space, Waiting embraces the story of five animal friends sitting on a windowsill, each waiting for something. As time passes, they see clouds and rain, fireworks and snow. Other animals stop by--one for a short time and another that shares a surprise. Waiting is a beautiful book that begs to be read again and again.

Thrilled that Kevin Henkes’ Waiting received a Caldecott and Geisel Honor, my family was determined to celebrate! And since the best celebrations always involve cake, that’s exactly what we made.

The Process
We started by baking a cake in a 9 x 13 pan. While it cooled, we re-read Waiting and talked about our favorite parts, and how we'd re-create them on our cake. Then, we mixed several drops of blue food coloring and one drop of green to a tub of whipped topping. Blue frosting would be an easy substitute, but I’ve noticed my children have a difficult time spreading frosting on cakes so we prefer to use whipped topping. 

IMG_1433.JPGAfter “painting our sky” on the cake, we sprinkled shredded coconut around the pan to make the window panes and ledge. Since the puppy who was always waiting for snow was one of our favorite characters, I brought out the snowflake sprinkles. However, in a house with multiple children, no decision ever seems to be unanimous. Sooo…. we added rainbow sprinkle to represent the fireworks right alongside the snowflakes. Why not? 

To complete our work of art, we put the final touches--animal crackers on the windowsill. 
IMG_1455.JPG

Now that our masterpiece was complete, the waiting was over, and we could dig in! We hope the taste of victory is just as sweet for your family.





No comments:

Post a Comment