My Little Yoshi

Our son often has strange requests. At the age of 1, he began to demand fishsticks every morning for breakfast. He preferred them microwaved. The day could not begin without the fresh smell of nuked fishsticks.
His current fascination involves Super Mario Bros. As a 90s child myself, I can relate. I remember rushing home from school in my Buckwheat "oh-tay" t-shirt to spend waaaay to much time in front of our seven ton TV playing Retro Mario. Only I didn't realize it was retro.
Well, our little one is turning 5 tomorrow. Each year, we do the same thing. We go to Chuck-E-Cheese's. We do not invite his friends. He doesn't want to invite friends because he doesn't like to have "Happy Birthday" sung to him, especially the phrase "and many more...." for some unknown reason. Obviously, he has not completely figured out that more friends = more presents.
Traditionally, if you are a child in our home, you are awoken with cake and presents on your birthday. And so begins my predicament each year, trying to find cakes for both of our children (our daughter's birthday is one week after our son's.) Since I typically wimp out on birthday parties, I try harder to please with the pastery. Plus, I'm a fan of all things frosted.
This year, Conrad decided that he wanted a Yoshi Cake. FYI - Yoshi is a dinosaur on Super Mario Bros. I searched the local Walmart (which I like the call "The Walfarts") and alas, no Yoshi. With few other options in West Texas, I began my Google search, which led me to ebay, which led me to order this:
The cost was about $9 (including shipping.) Basically, you make your cake:
I prefer to spend hours baking from scratch. I don't know why these came out looking like chicken pot pies. I did not cut that slit in the top.

Then you frost the cake. I used this recipe. And I added a little almond extract. And I made it times 1.5. Never hurts to have extra frosting to fill in the gaps, slits, pits, missing layers, etc.

Then you peel the backing off of Yoshi and put him on your frosted cake and he kind of "melts in" to the insane amounts of butter in the frosting. It will probably also melt-in to my thighs.
I forgot to mention that you can have this personalized, but the bday boy wanted it to say "Happy Birthday Yoshi." He also wants me to call him "Yoshi" on his birthday. Go figure. I'm just thankful we outgrew the fishsticks.
Anway, then I put a little color in the remaining frosting, and piped around the edges for a more finished look.


And there you have it! Yoshi's birthday cake! And many more.....