GEOMETRIC CAKE

I've not been baking much recently so it's been good to get back in the kitchen over the last couple of weeks. There's nothing like a birthday or two to spur me on.
My dad's birthday is just under a week after my sons but I couldn't face making another maderia cake so I found a recipe for a chocolate sponge which I though would look nicer once the cake was cut into as I was planning on using brown for some of the decoration. The sponge turned out to be the perfect base for this cake too as it turned out of the tin well and gave the cake a nice smooth edge (which was really what was needed for the geometric nature of the pattern)
I bought two packs of blue sugarpaste thinking I might need a double layer of it but as the sponge held the shape so well I didn't need it all.
Once the cake was covered I used a variety of cutters to make the circles in white and brown to finish off the cake.

JUNGLE BIRTHDAY CAKE

I started off with the animals on this cake and had a go at a different variety each evening over several days.

I did the snakes first as they were the easiest, then hippos, monkeys, lions and cheetahs.

The cake was made of two tiers of maderia crumb coated in buttercream and covered with green sugar paste. To add a bit more detail to the cake I made some jungle trees and a waterfall with rocks to border it a bit. To bring the joins together I made some grass by pushing the sugarpaste through a grass effect nozzle. I am sure a garlic press would work better here but mine was broken!! 

There were plenty of animals left to make a cupcake tower for the family birthday party the day after too. 

My (not so) little man was really pleased with his cake so it made it more than worthwhile.

HOBBY HORSE

I had planned on making this hobby horse as a Christmas present for my little man but when my husband decided he was building him a play castle for his birthday I thought the horse would go well with it.

I enlarged the outline of a horses head on the photocopier and then cut out two heads using dark brown cotton. Once they were pinned together back to back I made a start on the mane (which actually took ages!). Using lots of lengths of different coloured wool I lined them up on a long piece of card ready to position. 

When the mane was finished I slid it off the card so that the wool lengths had a loop at the top of them and were lying in the correct place on the horses head. Next the head was sewn and the mane sewn into place at the same time. 

The head was then ready to be reversed and stuffed. Ears were sewn on with hidden stitching, eyes made out of felt were added as was a bridle made of east of india ribbon and curtain rings. The finished head was then stapled into place onto an old broom handle and we had one finished hobby horse.

THE HOBBY HORSE PROJECT

My son's 4th birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I have been meaning to get started on a hobby horse for him for weeks. Now playschool has resumed I have a bit more enthusiasm to get started but so far all I have done is cut out the fabric for the head and the ears. I haven't found a pattern that I want to follow entirely but have taken bits from several patterns. 

Tonight I am going to have a play around with some different coloured wool to make the mane and see where we go from there. Hopefully I will begin to see it coming together which will inspire me to get going!

JAMMIE DODGERS: BIG MISTAKE

My little boy had asked if we could make some jammie dodgers, so a couple of days ago we set to work. I used a recipe I found in Fay's Family Food but I must have made a big mistake somewhere along the line. The dough was ok to roll out but once baked in the oven they just fell apart!
They look quite tasty but I think I must have weighed out the sugar wrong as they aren't very sweet and the consistency is (very!) wrong.
Who knows what happened there: a combination of interruptions from a little one and baby brain I expect!
I will try again and vow to double check everything as it goes into the bowl.

NATIONAL CUPCAKE WEEK

So the macaroons are still waiting to be made, shelved in favour of my beloved cupcake! Well it is National Cupcake Week it would be rude not to.
Where to look for something tasty, impressive yet easy to make? :The Hummingbird Bakery of course. The new book Cake days has so many recipes I've been dying to try so this week was the perfect excuse.
Yesterday I made their Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, which are delicious and not as sickly sweet as they sound.

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF

Hurrah, the Great British Bake Off is back on tv. I missed last weeks episode as we were away on holiday so I caught up on the bread episode last night before watching this weeks about biscuits.

I have never liked macaroons but after watching them being made so perfectly (and some not so perfectly) last night I really want to have a go. They look so pretty and who'd have known that you could have so many different combinations of flavours. So now I'm off to find some willing volunteers to eat them so I can get into the kitchen!!