This is a
retrospective post, and not about the healthiest of family food, but one I simply must share.
While the creative flair of motherhood has taken many journeys from
sewing, knitting and even scrapbook paper types of decorating, I never thought
I’d try cake decorating. I guess until
it came to my own kids birthdays.
I wasn’t
until Summer’s 3rd birthday that I gave it a real go. She wanted a fairy garden party and a cake to
match. After what seemed hours of
internet searching and creative visualisation I came up with the plan.
A green garden filled with colourful flowers, butterflies, ladybirds, leaves, toadstools and of
course a pretty fairy on top.
The cake
itself was Summer’s requested chocolate cake and the icing was buttercream with
fondant decorations. I found a fantastic
buttercream recipe for the Thermomix at Gastronomy which includes copha so it holds well in
warm weather and is great for piping, etc.
I’m a little reluctant to use food colouring so the colours are quite
light on this cake (but watch this progress in subsequent cakes!)
Summer was
delighted in her cake and the requests for further cakes rolled on from here….
The next
cake was my niece Layla’s 3rd birthday. She was having a ballerina party so I had the
perfect cake in mind. A more formal
design something like I remembered from the old Women’s Weekly Children’s Cakebook. Pale pink with dainty ballerinas. It was a basic buttercake inside made as
always in the Thermomix but my favourite part was the layers inside. Three layers filled with pink buttercream so
it looked really pretty when sliced.
My assistant in the kitchen Miss Summer! |
The third
cake was more Finn’s 1st birthday and we went with a theme that
suited him and his name. A beach scene
with a dolphin in the waves and a retro surfboard on the beach. And this cake was my favourite. An Orange and Chocolate Almond cake. Quite rich yet not too heavy but just devine
in taste. And the colours of the
chocolate was set off well by the blue icing (and notice my depth of colour
getting a bit heavier!)
From here
the latest creation was from a friend’s little girl Alexis’s 3rd
birthday. Her request was a Dora cake
with a strawberry and cream filling. I
could envisage the design immediately.
Bright, bold colours (way heavier on the food colouring than I’ve ever
dared to go!), with flowers and colourful dots for Dora to explore through, with
Map of course. My biggest worry was the
strawberries and cream inside and would it stay fresh if I made the cake the
day before. With some trusty internet searching
my fears subsided and the outcome was just fine.
Another happy birthday girl!
Another happy birthday girl!
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