The Blue Dinosaur and I started dating the year the movie Jurassic Park came out.
I vaguely remember him telling me about some movie about dinosaurs coming out, and that we should go and see it. Okay, I thought, it might be interesting.
Little did I know how much the Blue Dinosaur would love the movie! When those evil velociraptors would lunge straight at the movie screen, the Blue Dinosaur would jerk his head and body from one side to the other side as if to avoid them. Even during the T-Rex fights, he would move around in his seat as if he was one of the dinosaurs fighting.
Amazing– how a grown man could still love dinosaurs so much.
So when his birthday came later in the year, there was really no question that I should surprise him with a dinosaur cake– a T-rex cake to be exact. I baked a T-rex shaped cake, frosted it with chocolate frosting, and piped a T-rex skeleton in white frosting on top. He loved it!
But he LOVED the blue dinosaur cookies that I made to go with the cake.
I had found a giant dinosaur cookie cutter that measured 8 inches across, from head to tail.
The cookie cutter was blue, so I decided to frost the cookies with blue icing, and add yellow dots.
To be safe, I prefer using meringue powder instead of raw egg whites to make royal icing.
Wilton makes a good meringue powder, and also gel paste food colorings, which produce vibrant colors.
I use the Wilton recipe for roll out cookies, and follow the directions from the meringue powder to make the royal icing.
I keep it simple by just frosting the cookies and piping the eyes, spots and toenails. If I were going to be really fancy, I’d pipe the outline of the cookie first, then thin the frosting and flood the middle with icing. That produces a neater and more professional looking cookie.
He was so surprised to see the cake and cookies. Cole and Kallie, who were only 6 and 8 at the time, were also there. I wrapped each remaining cookie in plastic wrap and gave the rest of the cookies to them to take home to enjoy later.
A few days later, the Blue Dinosaur and I were running errands around town, and stopped by his house to drop a few things off. He walked in ahead of me into his kitchen. I asked him a question repeatedly, to which he repeatedly did not respond. I was getting irritated, as he was just standing in front of me starring ahead into the kitchen. Finally, I pushed him a bit and walked to his side and saw his face. His face looked shocked and horrified, and his mouth was moving, but no words were coming out. He seemed to be looking at something on his kitchen table.
I turned to see what it was. Uhh, ohh…it was my turn to be speechless. He had been carefully saving the last dinosaur cookie, thinking of savoring it later, but the ants had other ideas. Apparently the ants had sniffed out his prized cookie and invited their entire nest to a feast. The bright blue dinosaur cookie was not blue anymore. There were so many ants on that cookie, it looked dark brown. It was completely and thickly covered in ants! It was literally a moving, brown mass with a long trail of soldiers trying to haul their treasure away.
The poor Blue Dinosaur. He was so disappointed he didn’t get to eat his last cookie.
“Don’t worry,” I told him, “I’ll make you some more next year.”
And so I have made him his blue dinosaur cookies for his birthday, for almost twenty years now. I think I may have missed a year or two when we had a full house of teens and toddlers, but for the most part, he’s gotten them.
One year I was so tired that I asked him if it was okay to use some leftover pink icing I had for his dinosaurs. Of course he good naturedly said yes. That year he got giant pink dinosaurs. He said it was ok, but I’ve never made them pink again–I don’t think real men like getting giant pink dinosaurs.
And he gets a special cake for his birthday too. For years he chose Chantilly Cake. The last few years he’s chosen Haupia Chiffon Cake. And to make it even more special, he doesn’t get a two layer cake, he gets a four layer Haupia Chiffon Torte!
I love these dinosaurs– they look so happy walking up to the Haupia Chiffon Torte.
Last week, as I was carrying the giant blue dinosaur cookie cutter from the pantry to the kitchen, the Blue Dinosaur had an eerily similar smile on his face. He knew I was about to start making his cookies.
“Why are you smiling?” I asked him.
He looked at the giant blue cookie cutter and answered, “It’s like seeing an old friend.”
Mmmhmm…we all know that deep down inside, all grown men are really just little boys at heart.
Happy Birthday, Blue Dinosaur.
Long Live the Blue Dinosaur!
