First, The Birthday Cake

Since Sam, Isaac and Alex were turning three, I thought they should have a say in what kind of cake they wanted. So I asked them.

Sam wanted vanilla with vanilla frosting. Alex wanted chocolate with vanilla frosting. Isaac wanted chocolate with chocolate frosting.

Of course.

Luckily, I had lots and lots and LOTS of help with the cakes and the frosting.

Alex, Isaac and Sam "help" make their birthday cakes. (I got a lot more done while they were napping!)

Then Tigger hopped on by to help with the frosting.

Sam ~ His expression in this photo just cracks me up!

Now I'm not a big theme party person, but I did want to do something fun. So, since we were planning to celebrate the boys' birthday with a trip to the pumpkin patch, I decided to make their vanilla and chocolate cakes in the shape of pumpkins.

I saw a pumpkin cake on Pinterest that was made using two bundt cakes, one upside down on top of the other. I made a much smaller version by using a mini-bundt pan that made 12 cupcake-sized bundt cakes.

Put two of them together like so:

Add a little orange frosting, a Tootsie roll stem, and a leaf and tendril made from a green fruit slice candy.

And, voila! You've got the cutest little pumpkin cake ever!

I'll admit that these were a little tricky to frost. I found that putting it on my finger worked the best. After all, there is a hole in the bundt cake!

They were a little tricky to eat, too. Everyone had their own technique.

Alex chose to politely eat his cake with a fork.

For Isaac, it was all about the frosting.

And Sam just picked the whole thing up and ate it like an apple!

In the end, the cakes were cute, but more importantly, they were delicious! Seems my helpers were pretty good help after all.

Happy third birthday boys! We love you and we're so glad you are a part of our lives. A crazy, noisy, messy part -- that we couldn't live without.

© Trippin' Mama 2011