I'm not complaining, I enjoy the chance to be creative on my birthday and of course I love cake :)
This year, he has asked for an Octopod cake which is being designed in the back of my mind at the moment. I'll do some sketches and start making up fondant icing by the end of next week (I hope!)
Mum always did great cakes for us growing up. There were a few favourites from the Woman's Weekly cook book- The train, the ghost with the light, fluffy marshmallowy icing and half empty egg shells as eyes, the swimming pool or lake with jelly water, and the chocolate upright piano come to mind. My all time favourite though was a big Snoopy cake mum made when I was maybe 7 or 8- I'll have to check the photos & count the candles!
This is one of the ways my mum really inspires me. She is amazing in the kitchen and truly puts her heart and soul into nurturing those she cares about through delicious meals and treats. You cannot leave mum and dad's house after a meal and not feel completely satisfied!
I'm not that kind of whiz in the kitchen yet but definitely hope to get there one day, and not surprising to anyone who knows me, I have found the best place to start following in mum's little footsteps is through baking!
Since having the boys I have really got into making fun cakes for their birthdays.
Caelan's First Birthday July 06
it was massive... 3 big cakes at least, from memory... Just a simple butter cake with butter cream icing covered in crushed up peppermint crisps
The following year, I gave myself a bit of a break and did a very chocolatey cake, simply decorated with dump trucks, violet crumble and maltesers....
Then I got creative again for Caelan's 3rd birthday and his Mickey Mouse party...
I bought a Mickey Mouse silicon cake 'tin' for the main cake and did a few dozen cupcakes with ears. I also bought a mini bread loaf in the shape of a Mickey head for the fairy bread on the right, it's only about 15cm long so I had to make about 10 of these mini loaves!! It would've been more logical to use the cookie cutters I had also purchased (left of pic) to just cut regular bread to fairy-fy but the bread I made WAS yummy and I might use the tin again one day!
Then of course came Aedan's first birthday in August '09...
A simplified version of Caelan's name cake done with butter cream and smarties! We didn't need as big a cake this time round so it was nice to keep the tradition but without the enormousness of before!
Then came Caelan's 4th birthday in July 2010...
As Toy Story 3 was released only a few days before his big day, that was the theme for the year. (And it's still going!!)
First came cupcakes to take to kinder to share with his friends....
Then, the Big Kahuna! We took a bunch of friends and family to see the movie on Caelan's birthday then celebrated in a party room at the cinema with this:
This was the most work I'd put into a cake yet! Also the first time using fondant & it was awesome!! It was like working with perfectly soft fimo! (You know, that modelling clay that you bake in the oven?) I bought the toys on ebay & some cool space-themed candles from the cake shop and everything else I made by hand. The bed heads were cookies and the bed and floor were a very rich chocolate mud cake. It was probably the sweetest cake I ever ate! The hardest bit about this cake was Caelan crying when we cut it, but he did enjoy eating it for weeks as we froze left overs while we went on holiday 2 days after his birthday!
Next was Aedan's 2nd birthday in August.
Wags and Dorothy for my little Wigglet.
Again, I chose to simplify my efforts from the previous month's effort and did a simple fondant design for him. It was still a bit fiddly, especially trying to do the colour swirls for the base, but again, it was so much fun to do and I just loved seeing the excitement in his face each time Aedan saw his cake!
And this one, I did for Brodie, my friend's son who was put onto Lazy Town and Sportacus by Caelan! (Caelan lived in his Sportacus costume for over a year!!)
So there we have it, my creative cakes to date. It's another fun little hobby of mine and after writing this blog I'm all inspired for the upcoming Octonauts cake challenges over the next couple of weeks :)
The paper macheing has grown here too, I've actually started a little business. I've got business cards on the way, email address, web domain and business registration all sorted for " A Plethora of Pinatas" .... I'm very excited! I will blog more about it next, but now I must sleep :)
