Sean's 1st Birthday Cake

Someone dear to me called and asked if I could bake a birthday cake. A little boy named Sean was turning 1, and his parents were planning on throwing a dohl party.

Dohl (read: Dole) is a major event for us Koreans. It's a term that refers to a baby's first birthday celebration, and it usually involves a lot of friends and relatives gathering together in a big party setting. Sometimes the parents dress in the traditional hanbok, but the baby almost always wears it. There's a fun little game called the Dohl-jabi, in which the parents try to predict their baby's future by what item he or she grabs. I'm told I grabbed the string, meaning I would live a very long life. Ha-ha. All fun stuff.

Dohl is major. Dohl is important. Dohl is also particularly memorable. In my dohl pictures, I'm decked out in baby hanbok with gold rings on all my ten fingers. All ten, folks. Dohl also features specialty rice cakes and fruits and plenty of food for guests. Add in dohl photo shoots, the imported hanbok from Korea, and etc., the first birthday party can get pretty expensive.

Nowadays the popular trend among Korean parents seems to be more and more elaborate dohl parties. The bigger and fancier the better, is the idea. I'm all for celebrations, but I personally don't see the point of spending a couple grand just to throw a party my child won't remember but through pictures.

Sean's parents felt the same. They were a young married couple, and an even younger parents. They didn't have much. Even I could imagine the stress behind wanting to throw the best dohl party on a limited budget. Especially with 45+ people coming and watching.

That's why I was so honored and thrilled to bake their boy's birthday cake. In my brain, it all worked out perfectly: the parents don't spend extra on a cake, I get to practice cake decorating, the baby gets his cake, and all of you get to read about what went down.

And trust me, a lot went down.

I definitely felt the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. This time, I thought I'd do things right.

I started with a cake sketch.

After a week of brainstorming, I was envisioning a two-tiered rectangular cake with cookie cutout decorations. I wanted the very bottom tier to be the ground level, so to speak, with cars and buildings and buses and racecars. The top tier would symbolize the sky, with fluffy clouds piped on top of the frosting. I knew from the beginning I wanted a giant 1 on top, but the idea do surround it with stars came later. The airplane was also a very last-minute (but very welcome) add-in to the overall cake decor.

I used an alfajores recipe for these cutout cookies. They were sturdy enough to be "glued" to the cake, and also sturdy enough to attach to lollipop sticks with some candy melt.

If you're using any type of cookies or other add-in decorations to a cake or cupcakes, my suggestion is to prepare them at least a day in advance. These cookies were baked and decorated on Thursday night. The cake layers were baked on Thursday night also, but assembled and frosted on Friday.

Prep work makes things so much better, especially when you're on a schedule.

I had to assemble and finish the cake at a different location, and I brought with me:

- decorated and finished cutout cookies
- candy melts and lollipop sticks
- 2 13x9 inch sponge cake layers, wrapped and frozen
- 2 9x9 inch sponge cake layers, also wrapped and frozen the night before
- 2 batches cream cheese frosting
- food coloring
- raspberry jam
- cake decorating tips and bags and spatulas
- serrated cake knife
- cake turntable
- silver rectangular cake board

Some of the main problems I ran into:

- Not enough frosting, hence the uneven edges and an overall ragged appearance of the cake layers.
- Forgot to boil and bring simple syrup for the cake layers. I was running on about 4 hours of sleep, and my brain mutinied on me.
- Overall, the cake looked hastily put together (because, um, it was) and therefore looked extremely unprofessional.

What I learned through this project:

1. A more careful sketching and planning works wonders. On theme, accessories, and batter amounts, planning is crucial. Actually making a list of everything should prevent much of any last minute surprises.
2. When finishing the cake at a separate location, make sure to bring more than enough frosting/decorations. Just in case.
3. Operating on plenty of sleep and nutrition. Nuff said.

After I got home, I passed out and slept for a good 13 hours. But if anyone asked me if I'd do this again, I'd say yes in a heartbeat.

I'd be lying if I said I was fully satisfied with this cake. Knowing full well what I could've done or prepared better, I can't help but to be disappointed a little. But I'm also very grateful and humbled by this opportunity. It's not every day you get to bake a cake for someone's very first birthday. It's not also every day you get to help out some good people in real need.

I'm reminded that baking is a serious craft, and that baking is a serious gift. It's been an amazing project, and one in which so many people appreciated and loved my cake, despite its shortcomings.

I'm also incredibly happy to share this with you, because a part of this blog is learning and growing as a baker, and a big part of sharing is opening up and letting people see how you're progressing.

So for those of you reading, thank you.

And thank you baby Sean, for being here. We love you! Happy birthday!