Easily Pleased is Good

It was positively the most worthy of the title "flop" of any icing I've ever made. Or seen. My first attempt at making icing here in France, it was completely the wrong texture, kind of lumpy and granular, too thick, and kind of buttery tasting. The sugar is a different texture here (yes, even the powdered sugar, which is called "sucre glace"). The butter is different, the cream is different, everything is a little different. If things weren't different, why would we bother coming, right?

Anyway, I was feeling very insecure about this icing, but three little girls were arriving in an hour for Emily's birthday party, and I had to put something on top of the chocolate cake, so I spread it over as best I could. I decorated it with Smarties (the European equivalent of M&M's but without the M's, NOT to be confused with the stuff they call Smarties in the U.S.), weakly etched Emily's initials in the middle of the cake with more icing, and showed it to Emily.

"I LOVE IT!!!!" she beamed. Hey, it was pink and purple, it was sugary, and it was covered with pink and purple sugary things - what else could possibly be left to be desired? My eight-year-old girl is easily pleased.

Jumpropes: another easy way to please for 3 euros. Burning off energy at the party:

(the friend on the left is swinging the jumprope around for all the others to leap over)