{InjuredLizard}

Signs #12: Mothers

#12 :: Mother, Girlfriend. Same difference.

"Happy MOTHERS Day!
Special Rose for Special Lady
Feather Rose"

(Yes, the sign said Lady, it's just a bad photo. Sorry. Lad would be more fun!)

I saw this sign about a year ago, in Poundworld. Nice idea for use of an old sign... shame about the execution.

Waybuloo cake

A friend's daughter was turning 3, so I offered to do the cake. I was told she likes the pink one from Waybuloo ... ... ah, google is my friend. Waybuloo is a kid's TV programme. And "the pink one" is called De Li, and looks like this:

So, I made a cake. :-) I used a basic victoria sponge, that I dyed pink for extra girly-ness. Then I froze it. I've not done that before, but it really helped the shaping, and I think it improved the moistness of the cake. I knocked up a template of the shapes I would need, printed and cut it out, then carved my cake to shape. Jam and buttercream held it together. I added a crumb layer of buttercream before marshmallow fondant, which I've blogged about before. The pink just came from the fact I had a bag of pink and white marshmallows, and it was perfect! I then used some plain white ones to make the white, and the browny orange. My template worked quite well for cutting out fondant, but it stretched as I moved it on to the cake. Not sure how to avoid that, I'm going to have to make more cakes, to work it out aren't I? The tail and feet are just one layer of cake, the rest is two sandwiched together. Details I painted on afterwards. I'm very proud of the flower. :-) Anyway, enough yak - the cake:

I must have done OK, as Milly recognised it as De Li, and Olly (2) who was also at the party said "Wah- bull- oooh!" and also that it was brilliant. Which made me happy. :-) And all the kids, and adults, ate their slice and said it was nice.

The trouble with shaped cake is that you end up with a lot of unappetising looking cut-offs. I also had a fair bit of fondant left. So I took a leaf out of Bakerella's book, and crumbed the cake, mixed it with buttercream, froze and shaped it, and coated it with fondant.

Pirate Cake

I made a cake for my friend Sean's birthday, and I'm quite proud of it, so I thought I would share some pictures. It's a gluten and dairy free lego pirate ship cake.

No, really.

See.

Some close-ups of the details.

The ship was chocolate cake, coated in 'plastic chocolate'. The anchor, wheel, and mast were plain chocolate.

The other chocolate features: railings, palm tree, prow and crow's nest were also 'plastic chocolate'. It's made from chocolate and honey, and is quite a versatile modelling material.

The sail and palm leaves were rice paper, and the sea was broken cake mixed with icing and too much blue food colouring.
The men and the small boat were lego, and so inedible!
It didn't last long...

F1 2010

Fantasy F1 is go! Sign up!

Filler

.. .. .. if I knew where my camera charger was (in a box, in the craft room) and where my camera was (in a box, in the craft room*) and it hadn't smelt so good that we couldn't wait, and I had remembered.. .. ..
.. .. .. there would be a picture of minestrone soup here!

It was very tasty - made from the gravy / stock / liquid of the beef and veg stew we had last night, tomatoes, and macaroni. And some more veg.

We're also munching on 'blondies' - like brownies, only they're caramel and banana, not chocolate. So not brown. It's highly unlikely there will be any left to photograph by the time I find the charger / camera. So, next best thing, someone else's photo, and the recipe! Although, I didn't have any white chocolate, and I'm glad I didn't. And I made my own caramel from condensed milk, and so have a small pot in the fridge. :-)

*not the same box! I know that much.