We're off to see the wizard

This weekend we followed the yellow brick road to babypuddleduck's 4th birthday.

She is a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz film and loves to wear her 'ruby slippers' (tasteful) and have her hair in plaits 'like Dorothy'.

Thanks again must go to mum who looked after the kids, did the hoovering and worked through a pile of ironing whilst I faffed in the kitchen making a scarecrow hat and a wicked witch 's legs.

The cake was a two tier sponge cake (see my earlier post for a revelation in baking ensuring the edges don't burn!) covered in green and white icing. The green layer had four faces round the outside; the scarecrow, Dorothy, the tin man and the lion. There was the wicked witch of the west's hat and the wicked witch of the east being squashed by the house. The yellow brick road led up to the snowy poppy field white tier where the rainbow in the clouds towered over the ruby slippers.

Toto caused a few problems though. My attempt looked more like a bear and just as I finished the other half looked quizzically and asked if that was going on the cake. His tone was clear and implied that this sorry excuse for a dog just wouldn't cut it. I asked him to help and he crafted a rather cute incarnation of Toto even if he did look more like a sausage dog. When babypuddleduck woke up on her birthday morning and saw the finished cake, her first exclamation was "is that Toto? It doesn't look like Toto. It's not very good is it!". After that I felt we had to keep him!

I'm fairly pleased with the finished result. I still had a few problems with the icing cracking on the initial covering. This seemed to be down to the amount of icing sugar I put down before rolling it out and covering the rolling pin to top sticking. I do have some trex so will try that next time instead of the sugar.

Blasts from the past

I'm moving some of my images here, to a blog post, so that I can update the pages.  These are all large celebration cakes.

The images are linked from Pinterest so I still want them on the blog but not on a page all to themselves.

If you've found this site via Pinterest, please leave a comment to say hello.

Soldier and tent army birthday cake

Jubilee Union Flag Victoria Sponge Cake

Gruffalo Birthday Cake

Woman versus cake

I gave the giant cupcake another go and it beat me.

I did a 6 egg mix which was plenty and made enough mixture for cupcakes too. So far so good. I lined the tin with ground nut oil as advised but given that my previous attempt cooked unevenly I decided to cook the top and bottom separately (on my mum's advice).

I cooked the bottom section for an hour on gas mark 4, turning the pan around in the oven after 40 minutes. I checked the bottom section at 40 and 45 minutes but it was still uncooked in the middle so it was in the oven for 50 minutes in total.

The bottom layer came out of the mould with ease, but was overcooked and crispy on top but seemed soggy on the bottom. Also, there seemed to be a gap in the sponge in the middle when I turned it over.

The top section of the cupcake was a disaster. It got stuck in the mould and broke off. Gutted.

I don't know if it was the heat affecting the second batch of mixture which was sitting on the side whilst the first half cooked - it was 28 degrees here today - or whether it was because I put the mixture into a hot mould but the result makes me very reluctant to try the giant cupcake again.

Instead, I am going to make a Victoria sponge and cover it with raspberries to make it really summery.

Here is the replacement cake: I went into nearly every shop in the village for the raspberries, but there were none to be found, so it was topped with blueberries instead.

Sing for your supper...and your cake

My other half doesn't really like cake. But he's having one for his birthday anyway!

We're going to the in-laws for the usual Sunday afternoon get together so I am sure it will be eaten.

I wasn't sure what kind of cake to make so tried to think of some of his interests. He is in a band, but making a guitar shaped cake was a bit out of my comfort zone so I opted for a simple musical theme with white icing covered in musical notation.

The main cake was covered in rolled out royal icing. My first attempt at covering a cake and I don't think I did too badly. It could have been a bit tidier and squarer but I think that will come with practice. The music is the actual "That's Life" musical notation.

The mini cupcakes were much easier to ice and decorate. I used a tube of black writing icing from Silver Spoon. See mom, all those music theory lessons were worth the money as I can remember how to do a trebble clef, bass clef and various different notes.

Gruffalo themed party

Baby puddle duck is having a third birthday party and we're theming it on Julia Donaldson's Gruffalo story. 

The main attraction will be the Gruffalo himself. I followed the Jane Asher example for Comic Relief but omitted the red nose and made him a traditional Gruffalo. 

I think he looks mighty fine if I do say so myself. This is the most advanced cake I have ever attempted so really I think I did OK. 

Only thing I would have changed would be to use more green icing for the base. I rolled it out too thin and struggled to roll it out big enough to cover the cake board. 

The cupcakes were also Gruffalo themed and I did one for each character in the book; the mouse, the fox, the owl and the snake.