It’s the 4th of July, people! The birthday of our nation. Freedom isn’t free; it is secured for us by our brave men and women in uniform. Get out there and celebrate the liberties that this great nation affords us. I know that I am.

Having the family over for a traditional barbecue with hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, and potato salad. You know the works. In addition to all this great food, Amy and I decided to celebrate the win of LSU in the baseball College World Series. Oops, you need to hear the back story on this.

For Father’s Day, a couple of weeks back, Amy found a LSU silicone cake mold. She decided she would make an LSU cake–purple, gold and white icing that would be a masterpiece–for Father’s Day and we would bring it to my dad. The College World Series was set. LSU vs. Texas. Good timing right? Uh huh. Well needless to say the cake flopped literally. Somewhere in the mix (pun intended), non stick spray did not make it to the party. The cake stuck to the mold and we had a shattered dream of showing off our cake baking skills for the LSU baseball game.

OK, back to today. Try number two. Non-stick spray made it to the mold, the cake baked flawlessly. Now for the icing. Since it was a 4th of July party, naturally red, white and blue were the theme colors. Base coat of white. Check. Red for the L. Check. Blue for the U. Check. And red and blue stars for the S. Check. OK, I need to explain before you see the final outcome. First, neither Amy or I have done this before. The real cake decorator in the family is Brandi. Anyway, we did our best and had fun doing it!

One thing I can say for sure. The tools make ALL the difference. We bought the grocery store decorating icing in a can with specialty tips. Should do the trick, right? Wrong. Very much like professional photography, the tools DO make the difference. We had the “point and shoot” cake icing tools when we needed the professional camera with lighting. You be the judge. I am sure it will taste good but you can tell that a professional did not decorate it! Have a great 4th of July!