I hired this tin for a local store...
and used this madeira cake recipe. The first cake I made, I followed the recipe exactly - only using 3 eggs - but it didn't even half fill the tin!
So for the second cake I increased the recipe to use 4 eggs, and it worked much better. I also put a lemon drizzle on the second cake, although I must've made it too thick as it didn't really drizzle and the cake therefore has random white blotches on it...luckily I made them vaguely symmetrical!
I was really pleased with how these turned out! I made them on Thursday night, and then yesterday morning the (almost) birthday girl helped me ice them!
Obviously white icing is too boring...
and everyone knows that the best part of cake decorating is licking the icing whisks...
but eventually some cake decorating did happen as well!
Our daughter - Izzy - painted the bodies of the butterflies and stuck the sweets on, whilst I had the task of piping on the details...I'd forgotten how much my hand always shakes when I try to pipe icing...so difficult!
We got there in the end though, and I'm quite pleased with the results :) Butterfly #1...
and butterfly #2...
& now we're finishing off final party preparations before heading down to the beach! It's a little cloudy but warm enough for everyone to have fun - lucky as it looks like the weather is going to turn at the start of next week!
Liam and I were reminiscing yesterday about our birthday cakes as children. My Mum had a cake decorating book which she used for great ideas - I particularly remember a Humpty Dumpty cake using milky ways for the wall; a 'Jaws' cake using brown sugar for the sand, blue icing for the sea and jaffa cakes for the shark; and a spider cake using huge rum truffles for the spider bodies - all delicious!! Liam had a Spider Man cake that sticks out in his memory, and Izzy has already decided she wants a Tinkerbell cake next year!! Any childhood cakes that you remember fondly? I enjoy making the children birthday cakes, but need more practise for some of the more adventurous ideas I think!!
Anyway, enough chatting, I better get on with cucumber slicing and pass-the-parcel wrapping!! Have a great day everyone! :)
The cake looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteMy Mum is possibly the worst cook ever and has never baked in her life, so as a child the best I got was caterpillar cake from Sainsburys! I do remember a friend's birthday cake which was a swimming pool made out of jelly.
Oh they are so cute! Enjoy your day!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe Sarah got that caterpillar cake: there was a similar one from M&S I was obsessed with as a kid, but I never did get to have it as my birthday cake!
ReplyDeleteMy Mum always used to make a fab white chocolate and raspberry one for me though :)
Those butterflies are so pretty! Almost a shame to eat them as they're presented so beautifully: good job you took the pics.
xxx
Oh my gosh! How cute are those :D
ReplyDeleteI love your butterfly cakes they are gorgeous. Awesome decorating skills :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone, I was pretty pleased with the cakes :) although it turns out that making 2 was kinda unneccessary - we still have the whole of the 4 egg one not even cut into! Good think we have lots of cake-hungry visitors coming round tomorrow!!
ReplyDeleteFunny that caterpillar cakes were the main cakes remembered - we made Izzy a caterpillar cake for her 1st birthday...I will try to put a photo of it up on Monday to see how it compares...althouth as it was my 1st attempt at cake-making it is very basic!!
& Jess - white chocolate & raspberry is one of my favourite combinations - I bet the cakes were delicious :)
Those cakes look amazing! I saw a shop the other day that hired out cake tins which seems like such a good idea. We made my little brother a dinosaur cake once- we followed directions in the magazine but it did not look as good! My mum made me a hedgehog cake once by cooking a cake in a pyrex bowl, then when it was cool poking match makers into it for the spikes! I loved it!
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