Instead of writing yesterday’s post, I drank two cocktails and fell asleep watching Nailed It. That’s how she goes sometimes.

But today, I threw a birthday party. Seven years ago, my husband and I randomly decided to celebrate movie director Roger Corman’s birthday. We pick a movie, I make a themed cake, my husband makes a dinner. It is a fun little tradition. In fact, Roger Corman knows about our tradition and picked the movie one year.

My cakes used to be really elaborate (2014 – 2016 are particularly impressive, if I do say so myself) but then I had a baby and I never quite got back on the cake-making horse:

2019 – Wild Angels: https://imgur.com/a/UJ9o7V3

2018 – Bloody Mama
https://imgur.com/a/N6bOhCq

2017 – The Masque of Red Death https://imgur.com/a/FfXFr

2016 – The Raven http://imgur.com/a/xW860

2015 – The Wasp Woman http://imgur.com/a/GiVcD

2014 – Attack of the Crab Monsters http://imgur.com/a/9peoS

2013 – The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre http://imgur.com/a/b7VTC

Obviously, I can’t just pop to the store for the ingredients to make an elaborate cake, but Dot is obsessed with birthdays after watching a million hours of the episode of Elmo’s World where Elmo celebrates his fish’s birthday (“THAT’S TOO MUCH TAPE MR. NOODLE!!” is seared into the deepest crevices of my brain), so we decided to soldier on. I cut balloons out of construction paper and Dot decorated them. Then, we made a banner.

Red sign that reads "Happy birthday roger corman." 6 construction paper balloons decorated with toddler scribbles

We were low on baking supplies, so I made a Wacky Cake, which is a cake from the Great Depression that doesn’t have any eggs, butter or milk. Dot delighted in dumping in the ingredients and stirring, but spent most of her time sampling the batter. After her nap, we iced the cake in rainbow colours (she was head frosting taster), then put on gold star sprinkles (more frosting tasting – for quality control). We didn’t have candles, so I made some out of popsicle sticks and construction paper.

Toddler puts gold sprinkles on a rainbow cake on a blue plate
Decorating the cake

Dinner was another big treat. We’ve eaten every meal at home for a month, but I’d read that takeout is still safe. So, we ordered some Thai food. Unfortunately, it was 2 hours and 15 minutes late, which meant that first we ate the cake, then I ended up making sweet potatoes and eggs for Dot, and by the time the Thai food came she was teary, and I spent the entire meal saying “gosh, you have some strong feelings about that” and “I can’t let you throw your plate.” Still, she soldiered on and sang happy birthday, while I worried about whether takeout food was actually safe to eat at all, and washed my hands a million times.

Cake on a table with fake candles and the banner above
Happy birthday Roger Corman!

Still, it was probably our best Roger Corman birthday yet. Happy birthday Roger Corman!