"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

I cannot believe that in exactly 1 week Caitlyn will turn 4.  Caitlyn is so excited she can hardly wait and keeps begging me to tell her what she'll be getting for her birthday :-).

Not so long ago Bianca decided that even though it is still months before her birthday, she wanted to start planning it - the invite list, the games they'll play and of course what cake she'll have.  And so she dug up a book that I've had for a while (so long I can't even remember where I got it from) - Debbie Brown's 50 Easy Party Cakes (yeah right!  Easy!!! [insert roll eyes here]) (Definitely not easy in my world...).  So anyway, Bianca was paging through it and at first was all determined she was going to make and decorate her cake, but I think since then she's decided it would be my job.  And of course then Caitlyn had to page through the book and immediately decided she wanted this cake:

And she's absolutely set on it.  Sigh!

So last night I finally set about making a practice cake.  You know just in case it turns out a huge flop and then I can't only start the night before her party.  So best to practice a bit before and know what is involved.  Oh my goodness!  This cake is fiddly.  I managed to bake 2 bowl shaped cakes that I managed to put together to resemble a round ball and then it was time to role the thin pink strands that go around the ball and that was pretty tough - thicker in some places and thinner in others.  And it felt like it took forever (not the best decision to start at 10pm).  And then the kitten.  Why do they always make it look so much easier than it really is?  By the time I was finished I had this tiny little thing on top of this big round ball - almost looks like a mouse a bit.  And the eyes are not quite symmetrical.  And so by 1am I finished and stumbled off to bed and this morning Caitlyn got up - all happy and well rested and said "now that wasn't so hard, was it?" (if only you knew my girl, if only you knew...)

Edited to add:

As requested - here is my first attempt.  Excuse the second photo it is very blurry (but then it was 1am in the morning...)