Cake

I don't think I've made a proper birthday cake at all this year. I think I'm suffering cake decorating withdrawals. When we finally get around to having a birthday party for Tom (must send out invites!) there will be proper cake. Better start planning now.

Meanwhile, some past creations:

So, anyone hungry for cake now?

50 Things post No. 47

It's a dead man's party...

"Who could ask for more?
Everybody's comin', leave your body at the door
Leave your body and soul at the door . . ."

Tom's 8th birthday party in fact, he asked for a Halloween themed party and wanted a cake in the shape of Gachnar the fear demon from Buffy. It's nice to know he has such faith in my decorating skills (last year 2 years ago he asked for a Balrog). Yeah, no Gachnar I'm afraid. Instead he's getting this:

The scale is all wrong but I can't imagine anyone is going to care. It's in the fridge at the moment, because when I took it outside to take photos the chocolate arm bones started to melt and sag - had to prop them up with toothpicks and scramble to make room in the fridge. Fortunately they survived the experience - these photos are post melt and re-setting. Phew!

Good day

The beginning of my day:

Adam has been making me awesome breakfasts for almost 20 years, this morning I said I was craving pancakes and bacon and eggs. I got up, had my shower, got dressed...et voilà!

The middle of my day:

I took Caitlin shopping. She ended up with FOUR pairs of shoes. They were: school shoes which cost a bloody fortune, long black boots at 25% off bought slightly big in the hope they'll be good for next winter and 2 pairs of crappy flats from Kmart which cost $5.60 a pair and will probably do horrible things to her feet. She had ice-cream, I had an affrogato and no-one whinged about anything. (My last shoe shopping expedition with kids was an unmitigated disaster.)

The end of my day:

We spent a very pleasant evening sitting around chatting to a big bunch of Browncoats at Di & Bren's engagement party. Here they are doing the cake cutting thing.

They seem pretty pleased with themselves. Congratulations guys :)

This was much easier than making a dragon cake

Dave's 11th birthday party was a big success, the boys all had a great time playing Dungeons and Dragons. I was by no means sure that it would work out today as none of them had ever played before, but all went well under Adam's expert GM-ing and by the time we were half-way through the session they were all asking when they could come back and play again. Actually, I enjoyed it too, it's many years since I last played any RPGs, I hope this will be the start of regular games. My level 1 thief did quite nicely and only came within a whisker of dying once...I think the GM was rigging things!

I spent most of the week in denial about the need to come up with a cake design involving a dragon but was rescued at the last minute by an inspiration that involved much less creative agony. Dave was happy with my suggested dice theme and here's the result.



More gimmick than culinary art, but then it only took me a fraction of the time I'd normally spend decorating which was a huge plus today!

Forging The One Ring was hard work

And it's already being destroyed!
Allow me to present: The One Ring meeting its demise in a pool of lava.

Tom wanted a Balrog cake, I talked him down to something more achievable.

The hazards of cake decorating

It turns out not to be possible to create a birthday cake for one of my kids without lots of tasting and nibbling. Never mind, I only do it 3 times a year, besides it was yummy! Here's the finished product - a Bug Garden cake for David's 9th birthday party tomorrow.