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Tomorrow is Elliot’s 30th birthday.

This past weekend, I threw him a surprise 30th birthday party. I’m honestly shocked I was able to pull off a surprise of this magnitude, without him having a clue, when we both work primarily from home and spend 90% of our time together.

He absolutely loved it. I am so happy that he enjoyed his party, as it’s probably the last birthday party he will get for a VERY long time.

Although his party was last weekend, he turns 30 tomorrow, and naturally, I’m baking a cake. I’ve really enjoyed baking lately, for a few different reasons.

1. It’s the end of summer and I avoid baking during the summer at all costs. Ya girl does not add heat to her home in the middle of a heat wave. I’ve missed it.

2. It’s almost fall and I’m getting ready for pumpkin EVERYTHING. Especially my favorite pumpkin cupcakes! Fall baking is life.

3. For me, baking is kind of therapeutic. It’s a task that I get to do leisurely, for nobody but myself, and the results are fun to share! When many of my regular tasks (and full-time job) are in front of a screen, it’s nice to step away and just work with my hands for an hour or two. Sometimes I like to put on some chill music or Gilmore Girls in the background and just forget about everything else for a bit. It’s definitely something I do to relax and fill my cup.

In the last month, I’ve baked “healthy” zucchini muffins, beer bread, and I’m working on Elliot’s homemade birthday cake, the famous Lemon Oreo cake that made its debut for my dad’s birthday in July.

Not only did it make one heck of a debut, but it led me to the rude awakening that I have become a baking princess.

It’s true. Over the last 2 years, since I started learning to bake from scratch and decorate cakes, I’ve accumulated several tools that absolutely change the game when it comes to creating lovely and delicious cakes. Many of them are pretty inexpensive and are found on Amazon, but they make such a big difference.

This realization hit me like a ton of bricks a little over a month ago and I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated my own kitchen so much.

Here’s what happened.

When I made this cake in July, we were on vacation. We arrived on Saturday and weren’t celebrating my dad’s birthday til Thursday, so we would be on vacation for almost a week by the time it was time to enjoy the cake. I planned to make the cake while on vacation, which is fine, but it limited the tools I could pack with me. Let’s be real, it’s not like they make travel-sized KitchenAid mixers. I prepped what I could ahead of time, baking and freezing the cake rounds (thank GOODNESS I did), so they could be safely transported down to the Outer Banks.

Well.

We stayed in a big beach house that was, sadly, lacking in kitchen utensils. Also, the stove liked to change temperatures on its own, so I had to watch that thing LIKE A HAWK when making the lemon curd filling.

YES. There’s a lemon curd filling and yes, it is what dreams are made of. Except making it was almost a nightmare because it almost burned 3 times. Yayy…

Then, the mixer. UGH. I honestly forgot these things existed. It was a super-basic mixer, like the one I had in my college apartment where, wait for it, I had to spin the bowl MYSELF. I know, it’s ridiculous. I have methods to how I mix and scrape and multi-task when making frosting and I did not account for having to stand there the ENTIRE time, spinning the bowl fast enough to whip the butter, but also slow enough to prevent the bowl from flying off the base. I’ll tell ya, I’ve never appreciated my KitchenAid more.

After twice the time I accounted for, I had frosting, I had lemon curd, and I had my cake rounds. I just had to frost it, on my own, without a cake spinner (or a lazy susan).

I KNOW.

I found myself trying to “spin” the cake out of habit, which A. does not work when on a piece of cardboard on a countertop and B. led to my hand slipping and poking directly into whatever part of the cake I had just finished perfecting.

Infuriating, I tell you.

In full disclosure, it was fine. It was more difficult, but the cake turned out great. I’m 100% being dramatic here, because, well, I can. And I absolutely have become a cake princess and I wouldn’t change a thing, because I’ve learned so much and been able to make all kinds of cakes for friends and family and I truly love to share homemade treats with others.

That being said, I’m listing below some of my baking must-haves. These tools are super handy when it comes to decorating and really presenting a beautiful cake. If you’ve ever been interested in elevating your cake game, I highly recommend grabbing some of these tools.

Bekah’s Baking Must-Haves