The end of June brought about the celebration of my dad’s 60th birthday! My mom asked me if I would be willing to do cupcakes for my the party, and since I was already on a roll with my sister’s wedding showers, I figured what was one more cupcake crazy weekend :0)
My sisters and I put our heads together to come up with some ideas of what reminded us of our dad. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of what we came up with – this just barely begins to scrape the surface!
Baseball – all 4 of us kids played softball growing up and my dad (and mom) spent countless hours practicing with us in the back yard and sacrificing their week nights during the summer to take us to practices and games.
Bible – God’s word was always first and foremost in my parent’s home. I remember many a bible study, teaching and discipling, instructing and guiding happening before an open bible.
Bikes – as a young man my dad biked across Canada from coast to coast! And he continued the passion of bike riding with his family, taking us on annual trips to Toronto’s Centre Island to bike and see the sights.
Books – when we were young, my dad had a serious recurring back injury. He works as a heating and air conditioning mechanic so he has a LOT of hard, overhead work that is challenging for an injury. He’d often have to come home and just lay out on heat and ice, but that didn’t stop him from engaging with his family. He’d pull out Chronicles of Narnia and read to us as we begged him for more. Oh, AND he did ALL the voices ;0)
Chocolate – What goes better with a good cup of coffee than a great piece of chocolate? And my dad has GREAT taste (har har har!) in chocolate! He introduced us to some fine Belgian chocolate and each year would give us some from a local shop. Oh, and don’t even get me started on chocolate covered almonds! Yum!
Coffee – Believe it or not I used to HATE drinking coffee! Now that I enjoy a good cup (or two :D) I can see what I was missing all those years. My dad has inspired many coffee gifts and dates in the house.
Music – my dad is VERY musical. He used to play guitar, and now plays the vocals! He’s the one who taught me what it means to worship loud and unashamed. His favourite artists include Matt Redman and Hillsong, among many others.
I did my best to incorporate these into the cupcakes as much as possible. There was a chocolate cupcake with mocha swiss meringue frosting, and pina colada cupcakes (pineapple with coconut cream cheese frosting – I used this recipe from Glorious Treats – they were so moist and delicious!!).
The decorations were done in fondant with some help from The Man – he did the Bible and it totally knocked the cover off my piddly little book :D
Stop signs and speed limit signs representing 60 years – no stopping him now!
The bicycle in the middle of the cupcakes was made with thickened icing for the wheels and spokes, and some of The Boy’s green licorice for the bike seat and frame. I’m so disappointed I can’t seem to find ANY of my close up pictures of the cupcakes, so you’ll just have to use your imagination on the rest.
