Yo ho let's go!

For the boys' 7th and 5th birthday party the theme was pirate. It tied in nicely with the international Talk Like a Pirate Day on 19 September. It was also a fantastic excuse for all the grown-ups to outdo each other with pirate costumes and antics. I never predicted the theme would be embraced with such gusto nor did I expect so many people to have an abundance of pirate paraphernalia stored away in their cupboards just begging for another day in the sun!

This year I went back to basics. Instead of going for an elaborate picture cake I made a simple treasure chest. I prepared double the recipe of my birthday cake standard, Nigella's sour cream chocolate cake, putting about a third of the mixture in one large loaf tin and the remaining two thirds in another, identical loaf tin. The smaller cake took approximately half an hour to cook while the larger cake took about one hour. The smaller cake became the lid of the treasure chest by turning it upside down and trimming the long edges off of it using a carving knife angled at approximately 45 degrees to the cake. These offcuts were later used to help prop the lid open. The larger cake, right side up (not inverted), became the bottom of the chest. Both the trimmed top and bottom cakes were iced with a delicious chocolate buttercream. I used Arnott's chocolate funsticks to make a border around the top of each cake. The top of the treasure chest was propped open by laying the offcuts from the top cake along one long edge of the bottom cake (the "hinge") and using wooden skewers further in front for added support. I used Chico lollies (pressed face-first into the icing) to make keyholes. To add a bit of sparkle on top, I removed the chocolate from some chocolate coated honeycomb pieces, placed the honeycomb in a sandwich bag and crushed it using a rolling pin. Voila, gold dust! All that was left to do was stuff the chest full of chocolate coins. These were snatched with alarming speed upon cutting the cake!

I was happy with how it all came together and particularly pleased to be presenting a cake containing no food colouring. Aaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggh!

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom

Another year, another birthday cake project...for the boys' 6th and 4th birthday party we went closer to having a theme than ever before: Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom (a funny, cute animated show by the makers and voices of Peppa Pig). We placed bunting around the trampoline, set up various tents and crawl tunnels to represent Gaston's cave, made elf hats simply by stapling cardboard leaves to party hats and crowns out of yellow cardboard. Our frangipani, once embellished with cardboard windows, doubled as the Great Elf Tree. Lolly bags (yes, we went there!) were filled with bug stickers, mint leaves, freckles, a jelly cup, fairy floss and a ladybird chocolate.

For the cake, I stuck with my tried and tested frozen butter cream transfer method. I spent a good couple of nights working on the different shades of icing for the picture of Ben, Holly and Gaston. Over the course of a week (an epic undertaking!) I gradually outlined and filled each character before covering the back of the transfers with the blue and green icing that would form the top of the cake.

I used the same Nigella sour cream chocolate cake recipe as in previous years. I was pleased with the results but once again cursed myself for not getting hold of a narrower tip for the finer details like the eyes and eyelashes. Learning from my last attempt at this method, I managed to get the transfers a bit thinner than the superhero transfers I made last year.

For a little variety, I made lemon butter cake mini cupcakes. Some of these were iced red and covered with upside down dark chocolate chips to suggest ladybirds, the others were iced pink and covered with upside down white chocolate chips to represent toadstools. Overall, the spread would have met with Nanny Plum's approval.

Superheroama

 Another year, another combined birthday party for my boys, another cake-decorating challenge! Ben got in early and requested a Spiderman cake for his 5th birthday. Toby, who was turning 3, kept to the theme by asking for a Batman cake. The bar had officially been raised. My spidersense told me I'd be needing some black, black and more black icing. Holy trip to the cake decorating supply shop,  Batman!

During the compulsory internet research phase of  this project, I discovered that colouring icing black is hard work. Knowing that I'd be using it for outline as well as colouring the inside of the batman logo, I went for ready-made Wiltons black icing. I also purchased blue, red and yellow gel colours for colouring my buttercream icing, as with a small squeeze they produce much truer, brighter colours than floods of their liquid, supermarket counterparts.

I came to the conclusion a while ago that although it is a great product for moulding and decorating purposes, I am not a big fan of the taste (or texture) of fondant icing, particularly when used in large quantities. This year I tried a new technique - frozen buttercream transfers. As seen in the third photo, you begin by finding a template for your design (colouring-in pages are great, as are image searches on the internet). I taped the templates to a flat surface (a baking tray), covered them with wax paper (uncommon in Australia, but can be bought at Coles), and also secured that with tape. Using a No. 2 icing tip (the smallest in my set) and coupler on the tube of black icing, I outlined the designs. This took a long time, especially the Spiderman, which would have benefitted from a No. 1 tip as the design is rather detailed! After leaving the outline to dry a bit, I filled the outlines with coloured icing using a piping bag. During both phases, I used a fine paint brush to gently press down on any lifted areas as I went. Finally, I covered the entire area of each transfer with the colour I was using to ice the cakes - a soft shade of yellow. This was to protect the surface of the iced cakes from any colour bleeds once I applied the transfers. I used a small, angled spatula to gently smooth the final icing layer on the transfers before placing the tray in the freezer. Once complete, buttercream transfers can be left in the freezer for up to 24 hours. Before I even started the process, I had baked, cooled and iced the cakes and left them in the refrigerator for the party the next day.

About half an hour before serving, I took my iced cakes out of the fridge and removed the transfers from the freezer. For each transfer, I untaped the wax paper, lifted the transfer up off of the tray and gently flipped the frozen design over on to one of my hands while peeling off the wax paper with the other. Then I placed the transfer onto the cake. Overall, I was very impressed with the quality of the images (I had thought Superman could turn out to be a spectacular fail). The transfers were a little thick and stood up from the cakes, but this could have been disguised with some decorative piping had I the time or any remaining icing! I imagine that with practice, I could produce a thinner transfer.

The boys were very chuffed with their superhero cakes - mission accomplished (for another year)!

Yo Gabba Gabba - again!

As my boys' birthdays are less than a week apart we have a combined birthday party. My way of overcompensating for this is to produce 2 birthday cakes. My youngest son turned 2 and like his older brother, has a penchant for all things Gabba. Having already pulled Brobee out of the bag last year, I decided to go for another character this time around - Toodee. The icing is a combination of butter cream (the darker blue) and ready-made fondant (the lighter blue and the white eyes and fangs). Toodee's eyes are completed with black spots, outline and eyelashes all cut from liquorice strap. Her mouth is also cut from liquorice strap. The cake itself is lemon butter cake - tangy and delicious and a nice alternative to the chocolate Peppa Pig cake.

Peppa Pig

After I made the Brobee cake for my eldest son's 3rd birthday, he got in early with an order for his 4th. He wanted Peppa Pig. Like a good mother, I obliged! Once again, I used Nigella Lawson's Sour Cream Chocolate Cake recipe (1.5 times the original as I made this in a large lamington tin - 33 x 22.9 .5.1 cm)). The icing is a combination of butter cream (the blue background) and ready-made fondant (Peppa's pink head, tail, pinker cheek and white eyes). Peppa's eyes are completed with chocolate buttons. Her arms and legs are made from musk sticks and her feet have been cut from liquorice strap. The outline and Peppa's dress are made from sliced red snakes. It was a hit (hurray!).

Yo Gabba Gabba!

My boys love Yo Gabba Gabba! (as do we) so for their birthday party last year, I made my 3 year old son a Brobee cake. In the lead up to the baking I got very technical with the pattern, researching various images of Brobee available on the web and planning to do some serious scaling and sculpturing to render a close likeness of the character. The day before the party, exhausted sanity prevailed and I edited my original idea into this rectangular cake. The icing is butter cream icing coloured with green food colouring, the furry stripes consist of shredded coconut laced even more heavily with the green food colouring, the mouth is raspberry liquorice, the eyes white fondant icing topped with giant chocolate buttons and the outlines are thin, peeled strips of black liquorice strap. For the cake itself I used Nigella Lawson's Sour Cream Chocolate Cake recipe (1.5 times the original as I made this in a large lamington tin - 33 x 22.9 .5.1 cm). I was very happy with the result, as were my boys.