Baby Bunting…or rather, bunting for my baby!

For the longest time now, I’ve really liked bunting. It’s like a string of jolly-ness. In several of the catalogues that plop through my postbox onto my doormat, I’ve often seen bunting in various forms: country flags, Easter bunting with gambolling bunnies and eggs, Summer bunting with butterflies, bees and flowers, Christmas bunting…you name it, there’s a bunting for it.  I’ve always fancied making some; in fact, last year I purchased a whole pack of Christmas fabric and was set on making some for us. I never completed the task before my myriad family arrived from South Africa and stole away all my sewing time!  This year, however, I decided I was going to make some. I wasn’t sure when, I just was!

One of the things about children’s parties that I loathe (no, really, loathe is not too strong a word!) is party bags.  My children have been to enough parties now where they return with swag bags of crap. Cheap and nasty toot.  I used to do that same thing for a couple of years until I got so fed up with the rubbishness of it that I switched to books. I found excellent low-cost, good quality books at The Book People website. Each child got a book and a piece of cake to take home. Lovely jubbly.  So this year, as my daughter’s birthday approached, I thought about party bags. I toyed with the idea of not doing any at all but then figured that since this was her last party, I’d do them once more. Whilst I was thinking about them, I had a side idea about making party bunting to string up in the room where the girls were having their tea party.  Daughter and I have recently discovered the delight that is Cath Kidston stuff.  CK has some awesome fabrics and I decided to get some of that.  Here’s a couple of examples:

cowboys

and my favourite, strawberries

Not content with making one lot of bunting, I then hit upon the fabulous idea of making bunting for EACH of the girls to take home instead of some trashy bag of cheap and nasty stuff.  At some point, I went from this fabulous idea to the monumentally insane one of naming each bunting!  Each letter was going to have to be individually cut out and sewn in place like this:

I had to make 12 of these.  So I set about practising on my daughter’s first.  To be fair, it was very fiddly, with moments of irritation and, yes, the odd colourful word… but on the whole, it came together quite well.  I cut pennants of patterned fabric, sewed the letter in place, backed them with a heavier weight natural calico and then attached them all onto bias binding.

My daughter watched avidly as I was putting it together. I’d so nearly finished before it was her bedtime and she wasn’t thrilled when I told her she couldn’t wait up to see the finished product!  So, when I was done, I pinned it to her curtains so it would be the first thing she saw when she woke up.  I was a little dazed and bewildered when she appeared at my bedside at 2.35am and announced to me “Mummy, you are the best. Thank you. I totally LOVE my bunting.”  Awwww, I think I can let her off the usually unacceptable rude awakening!

Frank’s 90th…and 80th

10 years ago, I made this cake for my aunt-by-marriage’s father, Frank.  Aunty told me that her father loved crossword puzzles and I used that as my inspiration. It needed to be something very simple and quickly completed, because I was very heavily pregnant with my second child who was due a week before Frank was to celebrate his birthday. I remember when I started this cake having visions of going into labour and not being able to finish it!  As it happened, my daughter was a week late (she hasn’t been on time since!!) and she arrived in time to share Frank’s birthday with him.

10 years down the line, they both celebrated again this weekend.  I didn’t quite have the pressure of impending labour to contend with, but I did have a 10th birthday cake to make, as well as the 12 lots of named bunting I’d decided would be a completely fantastic “party bag alternative” for each of the girls attending her party. I swear I’m insane!!  So, once again, I chose a simple – and quickly completed – cake for Frank.

As I stood in the cake shop buying the supplies for my daughter, I mooched around looking for ideas for a 90th cake.  There was some fabulous blue ribbon with glittered red and green dots on it which I just HAD to have for around the cake. Then I spotted some bright red feathers and an idea began to form. Next to the feathers was florists’ wire in metallic blue and green and next to those, the sparkly numbers I’ve become so fond of and which have featured on my last 2 cakes, here and here.  In my mind, I created a firework with all of those things.

As I stood twirling the feathers and sparkly number around visualising what I was going to do, my eyes fell on a butterfly cutter that I just had to have.

It does incredible things like turn out butterflies like this:

You can probably understand why I was so excited, right?!

So I returned home to my whole-bottle-of-brandy-soaked-fruit-cake and set about constructing it. It was a darn site easier to make than my daughter’s and gave me no headaches or twinges at all…save for that of time.  I rather liked this one and Aunty told me today the cake was yummy. Well I know that – I tasted the bits I cut off to make a nice straight edge to decorate. Shh, nobody tell her!

 

Anyone for tea?

This week, my daughter celebrated her 10th birthday. This is a big birthday – a first, if you like: first decade and first ‘double digit’ birthday. The next time such a momentous milestone is reached, it’ll be 3 digits…if she lives that long! As this was to be her last party (I only do the first 10 years with multiple people attending; from here on in, it’s no more than 3 at once!), she decided she wanted all her special girlfriends to come to her house for tea. We found some beautiful Phoenix Trading invitations and so a Sparkly Tea Party was born. Of course, it was a simple step from that to a teapot cake. I had a fairly good idea of what I wanted to do, so I wasn’t terribly worried about how I would tackle this project. The reality was a little different…

I had originally thought I would just have a teapot on a board. However, as I was putting the cake together, I hit upon the idea of a Tea Tray: teacup with saucer, napkin and teapot. I had some Cath Kidston fabric left over from the bunting I made (look out for future post), so I covered a cake drum to make my “tray”. I added one of my late grandmother’s rather splendid rose teacups and a serviette from the stash which was being used at the party. Then I fashioned a butterfly using my fancy-schmancy new cutter I treated myself to when I was in the cake shop last week.  It makes very splendid butterflies.

Now I could concentrate on finishing off the teapot.

Daughter wanted to help with this cake, so I let her cut out the pieces that would adorn the pot.  

The pieces were in line with the floral and glitter theme on the invitations.  I covered the cake (pot) with sugarpaste and moulded a spout and handle and left it to dry. It was all going rather splendidly…and then disaster struck. When the bits were very nearly ready, one of the neighbour’s kids who was visiting, decided to look with his hands and not his eyes, picked up the handle and it snapped!! With less than 24hrs to the party and the chances of a second handle drying in time, I confess my heart dropped. I nevertheless moulded a second handle and this time placed it straight onto the cake, arranging all sorts of elaborate bits around it to hold it in place.  And then I prayed.

Thinking to leave it til almost the last moment to complete, half an hour before the party began, I tried to remove all the supporting bits so that I could spray paint the handle to match the gold spout and lid. It wasn’t dry enough and as soon as the supports were removed, this handle also snapped. I tried several other tricks, but the handle was a goner.  Which meant the cake pretty much was to – I mean, whoever heard of a teapot without a handle?

The girls were now starting to arrive for the party. I mentioned the disaster to one of the moms and her husband piped up, “You should use florist’s wire.” at which point a lightbulb went off in my head. I DO actually have just such stuff in my box of tricks, so I dashed into the garage and grabbed it. I also had some of the paste left over from the cake, so was able to fashion a handle in wire, mould the paste around it, slap it on the cake and spray it gold. 20 mins later – and much to the amusement of a couple of my girlfriends who’d stayed for their own cups of tea – we had a replacement handle. Yay!

Well, I think the end result was rather splendid considering its potential for abject disaster. Daughter loved it; the girls all thought it was awesome, and having saved the day, someone commented that it was good to see the wire could “handle” the job…*groan*. Anyone for a cuppa?

A sleeping bag bag

My daughter recently went on her second Brownies’ camp.  Her Brown Owl is very organised and all the girls get one set of Activity Wear (shorts, t-shirt, sweatshirt and plain yellow t-shirt) provided. As well as that, we get a comprehensive packing list.  Last year when she went, we got her a fabulous rucksack that would take all the stuff she needed.  I managed to pack it all in neatly so she didn’t have any extra bags to carry; everything, including her sleeping kit.  Okay, she WAS loaded for bear and the bag pulled her over unless she leaned waaayyy forwards was nearly as big as she, but hey, once it was on, the only other thing she had to carry was her teddy bear!   When she returned, she had about half a dozen bags.  I especially noticed her sleeping kit – sleeping bag, blanket and pillow – because the parent who’d packed up her stuff, shoved it in a flimsy bin liner which of course split open when we got home and oozed its contents all over the driveway.  Fabulous.  Not.  I was determined that was not going to happen again.

Cue this year’s camp and another fabulous list.  This year I didn’t pack half as much.  Most of her clothes last year came home unworn.  So she had a smaller bag and I set about solving the problem of the “sleeping kit in a named bin liner”.  No way was I putting myself up for a repeat of last year’s performance!  So I decided to make a bag which would take her sleeping bag, pillow and blanket.  As with most things, giving me 3 months’ notice doesn’t mean I’ll make something in month 1. Oh no, much more fun to wait until 2 days before she leaves, and then suddenly have an attack of inspiration!!

This is what I made.  I used some fabric I was given a few years ago.  It’s a good, durable fabric, almost upholstery quality, so will withstand some rough handling.  It’s also dark enough to deal with anything nasty dropped on it, yet pretty enough to appeal to a young girl with its pink roses and shiny touches.  It has a zip at the top to keep everything contained.  To cover the “named” part of the required kit, I put her initials on it.  (On the way to camp, we got involved in a game of making up words to fit the PSB.  I settled on Petulant Stroppy Brat as the most appropriate.  Daughter didn’t appreciate this, despite it’s veracity!)  I added a strap so she can wear it slung across her torso thus leaving her hands free to carry her holdall and teddy bear.  I showed her how to carefully fold things and put them in the bag, but I knew when she returned, it would all simply be shoved in any old fashion.  I was right (again) and was glad I’d actually measured the bag for this eventuality!!

Daughter loved her bag and I confess, I was rather smug when I watched a parent pick up their child from camp and rip the bin liner containing their child’s sleeping bag.  Yes I know.  Bad me.  Oh and I was even smugger when daughter told me she got the most points on Brownie camp…though I don’t think the bag had anything to do with that!!

Church celebration cake

In the first 5 months of this year, our church underwent a rebuild to add an extension. Tomorrow is our Grand Reopening with a bit of a “do”.  Our Pastor asked me some months ago if I’d make a cake for the occasion.  I had several ideas but then thought perhaps I’d keep it simple.  In the end, I settled on the idea of using our motto text for this year, so that the words of the Scripture text are the main thrust.

I started with the letters which I cut out, coloured and left to dry.

With nothing else to prepare, I played around with my signature butterfly.  I use flower paste to make them which means I can be a bit rougher than if I used ordinary fondant icing. I used one of my special cake making tools to rub out the wings very thin and then placed it over some folded kitchen towel to increase the shape of the butterfly. Once it was slightly dry, I painted a base coat of gold.

I added coloured lustres to pretty up the butterfly a little. When I placed it on the cake, I added it in such a way as to look like it’s flying. I love the shadows this creates across the surface of the icing.  :)

When everything was dry, I assembled the cake. A crimped edge around the top adds a little detail and I had a enough of my party ribbon left to dress the sides. To finish off the bottom of the cake where it joins the board, I made a simple rope of icing.

In the case of this cake, I rather like the Less Is More approach.

My In-Laws’ Golden Wedding

Today is my Mother and Father-in-Law’s 50th wedding anniversary – a golden moment. I sometimes find myself when I hear people say “Golden” whether the couple in question would actually lay claim to that term.  It seems these days, even the folk who’ve been together 20, 30 or 40 years seem to be splitting up.  So 50 remains a biggie.

Some months ago, my MIL decided she was going to throw a party to celebrate. She decided it was going to be a “more intimate” affair than previous parties they’ve had, so it’s just the 50-or-so guests (somewhat appropriately, I thought!).  I offered to do a cake for her which turned into 2 because not everyone likes fruit cake so we needed a madeira cutting cake.  Now most folk will put down a fruit cake months before the occasion so that the flavour can develop, and then keep “feeding” it up until the date of the party. I can’t be bothered with that malarky so I cheat short-circuit that.  In a previous post, I spoke about steeping my fruit and then using the alcohol-laden-full-to-bursting fruit in the cake for almost immediate use.  This method means I can bake closer to the day so that it’s fresher.  It also means that when I have both a fruit and a madeira to make, I can prepare them all at the same time.

Once the cakes were baked, I got ready to put the fondant icing on them…except that I’d totally forgotten to go and buy the drums needed for each cake. I hastily put everything to one side and dashed to my nearest cake shop, sneakily avoiding all the Festival of Speed traffic, which was a bit of a result.  At the shop, I found some dead zuzhy sparkly gold glitter which I thought would dress up the cake nicely.  I picked up another of the diamante numbers which I’m now very partial to, and some Happy Anniversary ribbon. I spent ages looking at the selection of ribbons and dressings they have trying to decide what look I wanted. In the end, I settled on a gold for the drum, lettering and one ribbon, with a larger bright yellow ribbon to tie in with the yellow flowers I’d ordered from the lady at church who did a previous arrangement for one of my cakes.

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I wasn’t sure what the flowers were going to look like so I decided to make up some wedding bells from one of my patchwork cutters I have in my box. Whilst I was glittering up the letters and numbers, I coated the bells too. And of course, my butterfly. Today, as I was putting it all together, I was quite glad I had done that because I decided to place the flowers to the right instead of the more traditional centre with the bells on the other side of the cake to tie in with the “wedding” theme.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with this cake. I like the way it turned out.  Oh, except for the bit where one of the letters broke and I didn’t have a spare, so I spent ages trying to get them to fit back together again. Oh well…all’s well that ends well

Bowled over by cake

Recently my daughter celebrated the last of the Single-Digit-Birthdays.  From here on out it’s Double-Digits, unless of course she hits the Century.  I find 9th birthdays a little sad; they symbolise the end of childhood and serenade the arrival of Tweenhood.  My baby is no longer a baby…*sigh*  Anyhow, this blog is not about time flying, it’s about CAKE.

For her party she chose to go bowling and asked me if I could make a bowling cake.  I thought about what I wanted to do – a pink bowling ball (too boring) or an actual bowling lane (slightly more challenging)??  And then I had the thought about “last of the single-digit-birthdays” and I had my double entendre idea: 9 down 1 to go.

I don’t claim to be any computer whizz.  Today whilst loading the first photo to this post, I discovered I could add a slideshow.  So, I’ve opted for that this time, as something different.  The slideshow tells the story of this cake in photos: 

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It starts with cake; it is a very good place to start!  (I must just say that the day before I was planning to bake it, my fan oven died.  I have a smaller oven but I’d never baked cake in it.  I wasn’t particularly thrilled that the first time I had to, was for a special cake!! However, it was fine.)  Back in the summer, my daughter and husband made a whole swag of jams, so I used some of their Ginned Raspberries and Strawberries jam to fill the cake. (It’s very yummy ).  The cake itself represented the bowling lane, so needed to be covered with fondant in a “wood” colour.  Colouring sugar-paste is one of my pet hates!  Fortunately this colour was not too bold, and I decided I quite liked the marbled look – gave it a more authentic wood-grain finish!

Once the paste was coloured and on the cake, I began on the skittles, letters and figure.  Originally I was going to make the figure in a bowling position, but once I’d settled on the theme of the cake, she had to be more celebratory. The skittles were a bit monotonous, but eventually I had 10 of them ready for painting up.  When they were dry, I was able to stick them into position on the cake.  The bowling ball was easy but I was under strict instructions to make it pink.  And to tie in with the pink theme, I coloured the letters pink too.  My signature butterfly I mixed pink and copper together for added sparkle.  Finally, I needed somewhere to put the 9 candles, but I didn’t want to set fire to the figure!  So I hit upon the idea of blobs of icing in front of the cake made to look like the spare balls you always find around the lanes.

Once this part of the cake was completed, I could begin work on the figure. I’d moulded the body onto a dowel so that it could be impaled into the cake, thus making the figure look like she was jumping for joy.  I’d left the bare body to dry out overnight so I was now ready to dress her. I was going to put her in a shirt and trousers, but I had instructions – yet again – to put her in a spotty skirt.  The spots then kind of spread like chicken pox to the shirt and leggings too! I am nothing if not obedient…  Duly dressed, she was left again to dry overnight (propped up against a tube of Pringles which, it has to be said, was half-empty the next morning…).

The final finishing touch was placing the candles into the spare bowling balls. I am usually very possessive of the cakes I make and get a little edgy if anyone else goes near one. However, I gritted my teeth and let my daughter choose the candles (not the ones I’d purchased for this cake! She found these in my supply and these are pink and purple. ‘Nuff-sed!!) and then put them where she wanted them. Personally, I’d have alternated the colours, but that wasn’t what she wanted, so …

This is what it looked like in the end.  

Daughter was thrilled with it, parents of the kids who came to the party loved it and the folk at the bowling alley all ooohed and aaahed over it.  I’m satisfied!