Minion Bob Birthday Cake

Little e was 7 a couple of weeks ago and, after falling in love with Minion Bob after seeing the Minion film, asked for a cake like him.

I made Husband a Minion cake a couple of years ago so used the same method, cook the top in a pyrex bowl to get the curved head and layer it on normal round cakes.

This time I propped the whole thing on a cake pan because there is only so much cake I can eat (no one else in the house is a big cake eater, wierdos!) and decorated over the pan so you can't tell.

The cake was half chocolate sponge and half normal Victoria sponge. Both sponge had raspberry jam in the middle and the whole cake was crumb coated in vanilla buttercream before the decoration. To decorate it I covered the whole cake in marzipan then used coloured fondant for the rest.

It turned out surprisingly well and she loved it. I don't want to eat any more cake for a while though...:)

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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!

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Sugar Free Banana Cake

Sugar free seems to be the latest craze, I stick by the everything in moderation rule but I do try and avoid processed food so removing excess sugar from my baking appeals!

Unfortunately I have had a few bad experiences with sugar free recipes but this BBC Good Food recipe for banana cake looked very normal, it had eggs, flour and butter, just no sugar.

I split the batch in two so got small loaves but they tasted lovely, even the kids like it and it is perfectly sweet without sugar. Also, if you are making this then I would avoid the agave syrup, it is not the great healthy stuff  it is hyped up to be!

I am not sure how long this healthy baking will last though, The Great British Bake Off is back!

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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!

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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...

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Playing Catch Up and a Cake.

It seems like ages since I wrote anything here, probably because it has been! Life has been busy, little e's transition in to school has been fairly traumatic, like screaming when going in and clinging on to the door frame traumatic, although I think the worst is over now, there have been no tears for over a week now... I tried what seemed like everything with her and a combination of this fantastic book

here

 and reverse psychology seems to have done the trick. She was fine when she was in school and then would start crying and not letting go of me when the bell rang so I told her if she could cry so could I. When the bell went and she started to whimper I pretended to cry as well, it made her and her class mates laugh and she then went in fine and has been fine since...! I wish I could spend a day in her head!

Anyway, that trauma has passed (for now) and I am trying to find a new kind of normal. Being a stay at home Mum with no kids at home during the day is strange. I have started to exercise more regularly and hopefully, if I stick with it, it will just become part of the routine. I need to get fit and loose 2 stone before next September when I am my Best Friend from School's Bridesmaid!

Enough waffle about me, now on to cake!

My Nephew was Christened yesterday and my Sister set me the task of re-icing a tier of her wedding cake for the day (not sure if it is a tradition everywhere to keep the top tier of fruit cake from your wedding cake for the Christening of your first child, but it is here!).

My Sisters wedding cake was of epic proportions (glass baubles and twinkling lights galore)...

Photo by Lifetime Photography

Photo by Lifetime Photography

and it was the bottom that was the fruit cake so the Christening cake was HUGE!

I quilted round the outside using this technique and make a teddy and blanket for the top.

My Sister made crispy cake and then they were cut in to squares and iced to make the blocks. The balls round the outside were a good alternative to ribbon (that we didn't have enough of because of the hugeness of the cake!).

Surprisingly the cake tasted amazing given that it was made 4 years ago! It was strategically cut by my Mum so  there is a Christmas Cake sized piece left, my Sister will have to decorate that bit herself though :)

Back soon with pictures of a few dresses I've made (one of which may or may not make me look pregnant which I am definitley not!!).








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Rainbow Dash / Hello Kitty / Teddy Cake!

 My baby turned 5 on Thursday, I can't believe it, where did the last 5 years go?! Anyway, she had very specific requirements for the cake (!!), Hello Kitty, Rainbow Dash, a rainbow, spots on the top and teddy's dancing round the sides!

Hello Kitty was actually fairly easy to make, found a fab tutorial on Pinterest.

Rainbow dash looks rough from this angle, looked much better in real life and I used  Fimo (modelling clay) instructions to make her, it took ages!

 
Little e was delighted!

 Now to deal with the fact she starts school on Wednesday :(

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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!

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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...!

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Woodland Wonderland Tree Stump Wedding Cake

 

Well, the cake was finally finished and the Bride and Groom loved it, phew!

The finishing touches really made the cake, ivy leaves, toadstools and a few cheeky ladybirds.

I carved a small heart in the cake with the bride and groom's initials in it and another with the date of the wedding.

The kids helped make the leaves and they both made a caterpillar who they declared were Uncle Aidan and Sandra so they had to be kissing:)

The cake was really fun to decorate, I loved adding all the wee details, but, I was a little worried about the cakes being cooked in the middle, gluten free fruit cakes are very moist so hard to tell when cooked. All was well though and the cake was enjoyed by all, another phew!

Next up is a pink cake with a pink car on the top for little e's birthday....

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