Life Cycle of a Birthday Cake
Max wanted a "chocolate vanilla cake with chocolate vanilla icing." We bought a bunch of cake mixes, then realized that swirling two of them would produce enough cake for a small regiment. So we faked it with chocolate sauce.
Figuring out how to mix two icings also required some creativity, but after some back and forth discussion (and a little extra mint extract in the vanilla, to "make it less boring"), we went with polka dots on a chocolate background.
Max loves his cakes to have moving vehicles on them, and he won't stop until we've used every color in the collection. Which is how we ended up with a red sun, I think.
And that's how all good cakes should end!