Rainbow Cake

 I was feeling very creative for my husband's birthday at the end of last year and the kids were only too happy to encourage me.

 "We" (and I use the term loosely as I did all the work and they did a lot of looking and licking) made this b-i-g cake...

 Which, when cut, had a lovely rainbow inside of it.

Yes it was a bit more work than usual, but it was worth it.

 I didn't put icing in between layers, it actually had jam and cream and I didn't even my layers out with a knife, I just added more cream in between.

Thankfully it froze well because we could only eat it slither at a time.

Kenny the Koala Kake

It was Master 4's birthday in July, but I'm pretty sure I haven't posted the pictures of his birthday cake.

Master 4 is very very keen on koalas.  So keen he has a bucket full of koala toys. 

He refers to all his koalas as "Kenny".  (He has one he decided was a girl and called "Kiki" but the rest are Kenny 1, Kenny 2, Kenny 3, Kenny 4 etc - you get the picture, we're up near Kenny 21 at the moment I think)

For his 4th birthday, after changing his mind several times, he asked for a Kenny cake. (I was anticipating a James-from-Thomas-the-tank-engine cake.)

The first stop for Kenny the Kake was the Woman's Weekly Cookbook.

The colour fur was hard to get and he ended up a light brownish colour.

I also had to make do with the cake tins I had, so he has nice big ears.

The leaves on the tree are mint leaves but they are now permanently referred to as 'gum leaves' in our house.

Large portions of the cake got frozen for later, but it's all eaten now and Master 4 assures me that it was the yummiest cake he's ever had.

He has very happy memories about this cake and every time he sees pictures he decides he's having another one for his next birthday.

(It will certainly be easier than the Transformer that he might want.)

Cupcakes for School

School encourages us to send in things for the girls birthday.
Little Miss's birthday was on the last day of term this year and is always close to Easter.
The girls were already chock-a-block full of Easter Eggs that they'd been handing round all week so I figured a few more lollies wouldn't hurt.

I knew one of the other girls was having her birthday on the same day (they are both the youngest in the year) but I didn't know one of Little Miss's classmates had a birthday the next day (making her pretty much a whole 12 months older!) so she brought in treats too - it must have been a giant party.

I attempted to make cat and mouse cupcakes from the Women's Weekly cupcake book.
Hmmm. If you don't have exactly the same lollies they do they don't turn out quite like the book.
Thankfully Little Miss was happy with them and the girls eyes lit up when they saw the cakes with lollies arrive.
Little Miss was very happy that everyone went for her cakes first, so I was a good cake making Mummy.

A Babushka Birthday Cake

Little Miss turned 7 earlier this year (April, so I'm only running a month and a half behind) and she scoured through the cake books to decide what sort of cake she'd have for her party.

We'd organised a 'baking' party that was held somewhere else (thank goodness) so the theme was pretty open. I was glad we'd decided not to have the party at home because in the week before her birthday I ended up in hospital with anaemia requiring a blood and iron transfusion.
So thankfully I just had to make a cake. (Actually I needed a birthday cake, cakes for school and a cake for each party with the Grandparents!)

I'd suggested a lot of things but Little Miss was wanting something quite complicated. I wasn't sure how I'd go about complicated so in desperation suggested a Babushka Doll cake. She loved the idea as they'd been making them in art at school. I then had to think how I'd make it! My first thought was a big slab and cutting the shape out, but some how I didn't think that would come out right.

So instead I made two round cakes, cut the bottom flat on one and on that same one I cut a curve that the top cake would fit in. I also made the head circle a little smaller than the body circle.

Some white icing for the face.



And then red/pink for the body.
One of LM's friends came over early and the girls had great fun decorating the cake. I decorated the face and tidied up a bit once they'd stuck the lollies on but it was pretty much their work.









It was a HUGE success at the party, when the girls saw it they all loved it (they've all been working on babushka's at school) and apparently it tasted delicious as most of them came back for seconds! I wasn't fussy about where I cut so they all got a big plate full of lollies too.
The girls were very impressed that the birthday girl + friend decorated the cake.
I can definitely recommend this cake - it's easy to do and a big hit amongst the 7 -8 year old girls.