One month before his birthday, I asked Ben if he would like to decide what he wanted for his birthday cake. This would be his last celebration in school, since he would be staying home with me starting March.

Ben: I want a dinosaur cake.

Me: Ok, let me google “dinosaur cake”.

I then showed him images of cakes that were dinosaur related. The 3D cakes that showed up in the results of the search were pretty amazing. We saw a pretty stegosaurus covered in fresh cream, the head of a t-rex in vibrant red and black hues, and cute Barney-looking ones with friendly smiles.

Ben: No, I don’t want all these. I want a cake which you can put toys. Like last time my birthday cake right, I could bring the toy cars home.

Me: Right. You want a cake with dinosaur toppers.

So I sent a message to the Queen Bee herself and told her about my son’s request. I asked if she could make a cake that was exciting, perhaps with a 3D volcano spewing molten lava. She was excited to receive this request and agreed to try to make a standing volcano for a cake that would serve 40. Since she hasn’t been asked by anyone to make this before, we agreed that we would only add it in if the volcanic creation was successful.

On his birthday, this was the final product:

This amazing mom of a baker who has four kids and a full-time job managed to make a solid volcano complete with an orange hued crater with just fondant and rice crispies! Ben was so thrilled by his cake he couldn’t stop grinning the whole time. His friends were equally excited too. They kept poking and probing the volcano, and wow-ing nonstop at the cake. By the time the candles were on the cake, I think it was pretty much covered with 30 sets of fingerprints and lots of saliva.

The cake was a delicious vanilla with strawberry jam filling and the kids ate rather happily, with some asking for another helping. The birthday boy himself had some, but was more preoccupied with running in and out of the toilet washing his dinosaur toppers and keeping them close to him. He didn’t want anyone of his friends to take them from the table.

I also packed 40 party favours that were filled with a capsule of dinosaur erasers, one huge dino egg, a set of dinosaur stickers and a dinosaur spinning top. I got them at wholesale price from Happy Island and that saved me a lot of money. The kids queued up to get their goodie bag from Ben and some shook his hand to wish him a happy birthday. I think he’s going to miss some of his friends when he leaves the school.

After the cake-cutting, the kids went outdoors for some bubble fun and outdoor play, which gave Fatherkao a wonderful opportunity to snap some pictures of our four-year-old with his friends for the last time.

The parting shot? A picture with his best friend ever. They were together at the same infantcare since three months old, and moved on to becoming best of pals throughout toddlerhood in the same playgroup, Nursery 1 and now Nursery 2. I know he’s going to really miss being soldiers with him.

My boy’s all grown up now.