By Gale Gand, Contributing columnist

It was my twin daughters’ 5th birthdays this past weekend and unlike my mother, who could go to Deerfield Bakery to order the cake of my dreams, I never feel like that’s an option open to me. I always consider doing that, and then I picture the looks of confusion I would get as I walk over to the order counter, as they could never imagine that I would be there for that. Maybe to order some rye rolls or buy some bakery boxes to deliver a wedding cake in, but never to actually place an order for a cake! There aren’t many down sides to being a professional pastry chef but that’s one of them.

So I started the daunting process, even for me, of making two separate and perfect birthday cakes for my girls, each to reflect their wants, needs, desires, favorite colors, current fetishes, basically encapsulating their entire little life in a cake…and oh yeah, it has to taste good to them, too. Do you think I’m putting too much pressure on myself?...Wait, hold on…I have to run down stairs to the kitchen to take a pumpkin pie out of the oven. See, my brother fell off his roof, broke his nose, and pumpkin pie is his favorite.

OK. I’m back now…where was I? Oh right, the birthday cakes. So, I decided on chocolate cake for both and just made a double batch of batter, even though last year I made them each different flavors. I guess I’m getting lazy. So here’s how the schedule goes. Two days before the party I make the cake layers, then let them cool while we go to the zoo downtown. When I get home, turn them out of the pans and wrap them, then chill them to make them easier to work with. While the girls take their bath, I make the buttercream, the kind where you boil sugar and water and pour the blazing hot molten liquid into whipped egg whites (I hate cooking hot sugar when they are around-it just makes me nervous). I know they are going to come flying down into the kitchen after their bath screaming “Can we help? Can we help?” so I have a job and their icing spatulas ready for them. I let the girls help spread the first layer of buttercream on the bottom layers of the cakes only to be covered by another layer of cake so it doesn’t matter how good it looks. By then they lose interest and I am left to complete the masterpieces by myself, which last till late at night. 2:00 am to be exact…hold on, I have to get the other pie out of the oven…I made two so we could have one also. So I go step by step, applying the crumb layer of buttercream and chilling it, applying the final buttercream layer, chilling it, calling the neighbors to see if I can store them in their fridge overnight because unlike every other year, this year it seems to be 70 degrees in November and I can’t store them on the screened porch as usual. And then comes the most important part; the decoration. And it holds a lot of weight, like that big decision of what you were going to be for Halloween each year. I don’t know about you but I planned my costume for about eleven months, as if what I chose to be had some great baring on my future like SAT scores.

Ella’s I knew should be a Panda. She loves them and has announced that since she can’t have one as a pet, and there isn’t one here at either zoo, she will go to China to live with them there. In the meantime, we happened to get a black and white puppy this year, a sort-of Border Collie mix, and Ella has named him Panda, to hold her over for now. She also loves mini M and M’s so I salt and peppered the sides of the cake with those. Done.

Now for Ruby’s…hmmmm, I’m not sure which direction to go and she says she just wants the same one as last year with ice cream cones around it. But that won’t do. I Google “Castles”, “Ballerina’s”, “Horses” (because our neighbor Ellen is bringing her horse, Forest, over for the kids to ride. Isn’t that the nicest thing?), “My Little Pony”, and I’m just not feeling the inspiration…then I Google “Tiara’s”…and I start to feel like there’s something there, possibly, and then I realize it’s coming up to 1:00 am and I suddenly think it’s a great idea. So Tiara Cake it is, which accents of purple and pink hearts and pearls. (She’s always declaring my pearls from my husband are actually HERS!)

So I complete the Panda Cake and the Tiara Cake and call it a night. The next morning I whip up four kinds of tea sandwiches, a massive fruit bowl, and some Molasses Crisp cookies. Add some cider, a dozen balloons, a bottle of Tattinger for the hard working parents and… it’s a PARTY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY you two. Now I need a nap.

Gand is executive pastry chef and partner of Tru in Chicago, a cook book author and host of Food Network’s long running show "Sweet Dreams." She lives in Riverwoods with her husband and three children.