A birthday, 5 years blogging and playing with Harris Tweed

 Big E was 10 last week. TEN!! How is that even possible?!

That also means that since it is 5 years since I started blogging, half of Big E's life is recorded here in some way or another. Hopefully I can keep posting here semi regularly although at the moment I don't feel like I have much to write about...

One of the things I do have to write about is some sewing . I have mentioned before that I set up a small business, Coo Creations, last year. I do alterations etc in the Edinburgh area and it is great but hemming things constantly can be soul destroying so I decided I needed a more creative part to the business. After a lot of pondering I decided to make small sewn things out of Recycled fabric and Harris Tweed.

 I never throw any good fabric away and after doing various commissions for people I have ended up with a stash of tweeds, tartans and upholstery fabric that is crying out to be made into things.

I have spent the last few weeks sewing hearts, notebook covers and gadget cases and am slowly listing them in my new Etsy shop. I haven't sold anything of course but there is always time and this part of the process is keeping me entertained for now :)

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R2D2/Darth Vader/Yoda Cake

I made a strategic error on Saturday when asking Big E what kind of birthday cake he wanted, I googled Star Wars cake with him, big mistake, he immediately knew this was the cake he wanted:

via

Another Star Wars cake, slightly less involved than the ATAT from 3 years ago!

He decided this yesterday morning, 24 hrs before his birthday party...

I set to work though, I made a Victoria sponge for the bottom layer and a chocolate sponge for the middle and top. I made R2D2's head using a pyrex bowl. After cooling the cakes I filled the sponges with buttercream then crumb coated them. I should have let them cool for a bit longer as they started to buldge and slip when I put the fondant on but it wasn't too bad.

I didn't have the right colour for R2D2, these are his party colours! I also ran out of time for the fine detailing,

Darth is also lacking the finer details,

and I didn't have brown food colouring so this is what I managed for Yoda's cape!

The chocolate layer was eaten at Big E's party and hopefully Yoda will still be edible tomorrow for his 9th birthday!

The kids loved the cake and no one commented on the wrong colour of R2D2!

Oh, and before I forget, you can follow along with the blog in the places in the side bar but also now on instagram, it would be great to find some new folk to follow there!

Linking to some of these link parties.

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Frozen Birthday Party

What a crazy week, I have been in party / back to school mode and I think I need a holiday to recover!

Little e was 6 on Friday, how 6 years have passed I have no idea but all of a sudden our little girl isn't so little any more :( She is Frozen daft so wanted a Frozen birthday party for her friends. We had it on Saturday and it was a simple affair - 14 children, 1 bouncy castle, 2 organised games (stick the nose on Olaf and frozen statues, no photos of these as all the kids are in them) and some food.

I had been madly pinning Frozen party ideas which was probably a mistake as my effort looks lame in comparison but here are some pics of the day:

These are 2 marshmallows, a chocolate stick broken in half, some raisins
and a bit of dried apricot cut into a triangle. They went in the party bags.

Frozen Hearts

Food - Melted Snow, Olaf noses, snowflake biscuits, snowballs, frozen hearts and fairy cakes.

Olaf on the beach cake

The cake was a night before job. Little e requested an Olaf on the beach cake so that is what she got! I used this how to to help getting the shape of Olaf's face correct, it worked not too badly. The sand is crushed digestives and I used a flower garland round the cake. If I had had time I would have piped the surf but just stuck on a sausage of fondant instead...!

Finally, here are the labels I made for the various food, if you click on them they will come up full size and then you can right click and save them so you can print and use them as well!

Use this on small bottles of water.
Put it into a word document and make the correct size for your bottles!

carrots!

white chocolate coated strawberries

I put this on the party bags

I made Elsa inspired hair bands for the party bags but I will do a separate post about that.

Now to recover from the party and get ready for back to school tomorrow!!

Linking to some of these linky parties.

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A Cheats Millennium Falcon Cake!

Today is Husbands birthday, he joked that he wanted a Millennium Falcon Cake so he got one, of sorts!

The kids and I were hatching a plan for the cake and Big E came up with this brilliant idea! He got the mini Millennium Falcon on holiday and it was perfect! He also made a car for the top, not sure why!

The cake is a lemon sponge with lemon buttercream and, although it didn't rise as much as it should have, it tasted great!

Husband managed to leave his Quadcopter, and all the new bits he got for it, for long enough to go out for a birthday meal to our favorite local restaurant.

We then had a wander along the canal, foraging plums along the way!

Now to start the prep for little e's birthday next Friday!

Linking to some of these link up's.

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A Rainbow Cake for my Sister

 
My wee sister was 30 last month, gosh that makes me feel old, and I made her cake. Her request, a rainbow cake! I will be completely honest and the amount of artificial colours in this cake scares me and I wouldn't let the kids eat it but it looked pretty!

I made 6 separate sponges (made in batches of 3 then split into different bowls for the colour) and sandwiched them together and covered the whole thing with vanilla butercream. I put rainbow bunting on the top as a hint to what was inside but not many folk guessed and there were a few surprised faces round the table!

It tasted surprisingly good given how many evil colours are in it!

It is almost birthday month in this house, husband and little e a week apart, and husband has asked for a Millennium Falcon cake and little e an Olaf cake. Only one will be getting their request...

Linking to some of these linkies.

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DIY Minion Cake!

Have you seen Despicable Me 2 , if not you really should, it is one of the funniest films I have seen in a long time!

We are all in love with the Minions, so much so that husband requested a Minion cake for his birthday.

I cooked the top of the cake in a small pyrex bowl (then flattened it a bit and after looking a Minion pictures I should have left it more rounded...) and the rest of the cake in a small cake tin. I decorated it with yellow marzipan and fondant.

I am not sure any of us will want to cut him later!

Linking to some of these fab parties! 

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DIY Lego Head Cake

Big E was 7 on Sunday, how that happened I have no idea, but he requested a Lego Head cake for his birthday, which was a relief given that last year it was an ATAT!

I made 2 x 20cm deep chocolate sponges , cut them in half, layered them with Jam and butter cream, stacked them then iced them with yellow fondant.

The face is painted on with the gel food colouring and the nobble on the top is a slab of fondant.

The aspect ratio is wrong (this lego man has been eating all the cakes...) but the birthday boy was pleased! If I was making it again I would use a smaller cake tin!

Now to try and find a home for the mountain of Lego he got...!

Linking to these fab link parties!

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Star Wars ATAT Cake

Me: Big E, what type of cake do you fancy for your birthday, how about an Angry Bird?

Big E: Hmmmmm, maybe

Husband: That is a bit easy, how about a Star Wars cake

Big E: Brilliant Idea, I want an ATAT cake

Me: What is that then? (my memory of the films was poor...)

Big E: A big robotic dog thing that walks and everything!

Me: Not sure I can do that...

Husband: Of course you can!!

So, for Big E's 6th birthday he got an ATAT Walker cake!

Husband made the legs and I detailed them and did the cake bit. It turned out a bit rough but they were dirty and bashed up in the films!

I'm in this film!!

 For his party we put two indoor fireworks on the front...

Fussy but you can see enough :)

The kids loved it!

I dread to think what he might request next year...!

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