Cake-O-Rama

And I've done it yet again - I've rambled on about making more posts, as a New Year's resolution and everything. Silly me. Time to just admit I'm not the natural born blogger... It doesn't mean I don't have plenty to write about here. For example, as a result of not writing here in ages, I now have a handful of cakes to show off. And that's despite the fact that I've accepted very few baking assignments since last summer. So yes, it's been a while since I last wrote... 

As spring tries to emerge outside, interrupted by the occasional storm-like weather (ok, maybe just relatively persistent wind...), some snow (that melts by midday) and a rather scarce amount of sunny days (really, I'm wondering whether I might be suffering from vitamin D-deficiency), I'm having fun with the first cold of the year. What better to do when the brain is generally on vacation than looking at some colourful cake pictures and sharing them with you? Almost a bit psychedelic, really... Hope you like!

This was a Father's Day marzipan cake. Raspberry and whipped cream and moist sponge cake underneath the blue marzipan, and edible silver-spray pattern and silver pearls for decoration (and a small blue rose, of course...). The pattern comes from an old teapot stand we've inherited from my husbands grandparents.

Sonar-cake for my father-in-law's birthday. Hooray! We had it at the in-laws cottage, so the cake traveled quite a bit and was hidden for a while before it was revealed and enjoyed :)

I just had to add the gingerbread house I made with my kids - the generous splashes of icing courtesy of Emma :3

Look, there's our family - I'm supposedly the one with the sagging boobs and a mysterious green growth coming out of my torso...

Here's a royal chocolate cake in honour of a very loveable and beautiful princess that we care a lot about. Chocolate cakes with chocolate cream, and chocolate roll cake in the towers with ice cream cones on top.

Some glitter, sprinkles, icing...

...pearls, butterflies and buttercream, and we have a yummy and sweet princess-castle!

Butterly-cake for a sophisticated, little birthday-girl.

It took some time to make all the butterflies, with the shading and a touch of pearl spray. The clue with the royal-icing-butterly was, well... Not to brake it once dried. Brittle stuff!

Christening cake for an adorable little girl. Handmade sugar paste flowers, vanilla fondant and marzipan for the cake lids. Juicy light chocolate cake with raspberries, raspberry jam and cream inside (yes, one of my regulars) :)

It's bigger than it looks...

No comments about the teddy being cross-eyed :p

Well, that's that for now :) I really have no idea when I'll post something next, or what it'll be about - life's exciting, eh?

The world is her oyster

We've had another birthday party. A month ago, our two-year-old became our three-year-old, and it was time for her first birthday party where friends are invited. As usual I made a birthday party inspired by her wishes (two, if you count the family gathering which followed the next day). And as usual, nowadays, it's taken me a while to find time to post some inspirational photos here... But oh well, maybe I'll make it a new years resolution to post more stuff on the blog ;) 

Our sweet three-year-old is the kind of person who knows the world is her oyster. She takes what she wants, what she needs, and what her big sister has (simply because big sister has it). She snuggles up to me early in the morning, fills the toilet with all the paper on the loo-roll, smears the windows with lip-gloss and anything else she feels like doing, and there's seldom a trace of remorse to find. She says a heartfelt sorry, before she goes on to find something else to do that's not allowed. It's not mischief or ill intent that drives her, but that impressive confidence she has that she can explore anything and indulge any curiosity, and somehow everything will work out for the best... 

For her birthday, she wanted a Lillifee-theme. Then she wanted Hello Kitty. Then a cat-birthday. In the end I suggested to have a touch of farmyard-fun, and she went with it, luckily. And it really was fun!

I made a chocolate-cake with creamy chocolate cream, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and vanilla cupcakes with green vanilla frosting. The animal heads are made of marzipan and sugar paste, the butterflies and flowers are left from the Dr. Oetker-stuff I used on the rainbow cake for the five-year-old's fifth birthday :) The writing gel had kind of separated, so not too impressed with the writing myself...

The farmyard creatures were a big hit with the kids (they were 1,5 to 5,5 years old)

The usual bounty of veggies and fruit. I completely forgot to take pictures of the pizza rolls and cheese muffins... But they sure tasted quite nice, if I may say so B-)

These cute serviettes my mother in law gave me last year, were the inspiration for asking the birthday girl if farmyard-theme was the stuff :3

Some autumnal decor...

...and some pink in honour of the birthday girl, of course...

Inspired by the pirate party, I made a cosy cavern. Of course, this one had more of the cosiness factor and less of the villainy gloom... I even scattered some dried autumn leaves on top

We put a friendly film on inside, once the kids wanted a break from the eating and playing

There's no point in planning too many activities for a three-year-old and her (mostly somewhat younger) friends, but putting the tail on the pig was just the ticket - my kids love this activity, which is why I've made several versions of it over the last year or two... I attached some cheap paper on a canvas (so I can still use the canvas later), and lined up a mommy pig and her cute piglet (and butterfly and grass...). Then I let the girls help me paint it, prior to the party - they are so proud and happy when they get to use my paint and brushes (and my stuff in general), so I let them borrow it or help me relatively often :)

I used one of the pirate-bandanas as blind fold - can you glimpse Emma's grin?

After a long and exiting day it was nice with a big hug from big sister. Check out the somewhat baggy pink dress on the birthday girl - I bought it big with the intention that the eldest would have it this year, and maybe next, but once Emma saw it, she was very eager to wear it. Big sister didn't mind. She prefers blue :)

Enjoy the rest of November :)

Ahoy there!

Aaaand there I've waited a whole month between two posts again. All plans of being a bit more of a regular blogger (like I was the first months), tossed over board. So what do I do when I'm too busy for blogging, so preoccupied I barely get time to do a smidgeon of all the things I want to do, new job, children, writing a book and other important things shouting for my attention? I throw a pirate party! Was it someone's birthday, you ask? No! This was just for fun! Because I can! And who attended? My children, of course, my husband, some of our friends, with their children, who happen to be our children's friends. Not too many, just enough to have some fun :) Here's what we did!

For a good feast I wanted a proper pirate buffé that goes well with the wee sailors as well as the ramshackled older ones...

...some nice seashell-like pasta...

...squid-wieners... 

...fish-snacks - obligatory for a nautical-themed party...

...a little decor...

...pirate juice - there was question of possibility of rum in the coffee, but alas, that was a bit too authentic for a family party xD
 

I bought a flag! Huzzah!

A pirate cave for the kids - it may not look much from the outside, but...

...when the inside is lit up like this...

...a guest bed and some miniature chairs are installed, soft cushions and toys included...

...and an old television and a playstation 2 put in place as a pirate cinema - it makes a very useful den for little pirates who have just searched for and found little sweetie-bags (or mermaid-treasures, as they were dubbed) and are in need of a safe place to gore on their loot.

The black, sleeveless jacket on my youngest child is a creation made of an inexpensive vest from Lindex, cut open in the middle, gold buttons and gold hoops, gold lace and gold shoulder-decor added :) A very easy way to make a nice pirate costume without using a lot of money. Black tights and white jumpers completes the look (and bandana and eye-patch, but they're missing here...). My oldest child seem to have discarded her vest in this picture; her's is exactly the same. The inflatable palm-tree is really a cheesy drink-cooler, but we used it as a basket to throw balls in :3 and as a prop...

Put-the-parrot-on-the-pirate... This was my oldest daughter's idea. Clever little villain... Here my youngest has her bandana back on, and we used it as a blind fold. The fabric of the bandana is so nice and soft and shiny... With gold lace... *swoon*
 

I had to make a pirate cake. It's been a whole month, I needed some baking action o.O

A few sugar paste pirates in a crude chocolate boat, nice and tasty... One has fallen over board! The actual cake was a soft, round sheet cake (vanilla with blue food coloring), a thick layer of whipped cream and blue raspberry jelly mixed when the jelly was half stiffened, then set to cool until ready, then topped with light blue whipped cream-waves. It looked a bit freaky, but tasted yummy ;)

Here we have a few of the pirates gathered to eat the cake. Edible pirates and pieces of chocolate boat were their favorite parts, but the actual cake was quite popular too. I've cropped this picture in order to respect the privacy of my little guests.

Only three months until Christmas today, so I think there will have to be some posts with ideas for presents and such soon :)

Have an adventurous day!

Piano cake and change of season

It's been a wonderful, long summer, and a long time since I've been active on this blogging-thing. But there's a chill in the air, I'm sitting here with the first cold of the season, and we've got about four months until Christmas.Yes, autumn is coming. It is a season of new beginnings - exited children starting school, students starting new courses, some have new jobs to go to (me included). Soon time to think of Christmas presents, enjoy hot chocolate again, pick berries and mushrooms and smell the strange sweetness of heather, wet grass, decaying apples and all the other odours of autumn. As for the baking, I'm still on a break, more or less, but that doesn't mean the odd cake won't appear on this blog - like this piano-cake which was ordered before summer. 

I made a juicy vanilla sheet cake, split it in two, made two sheets out of both parts, and then stacked them with banana and cream between the layers (yep, that's what the birthday-girl wanted). Then I sculpted the piano, covered it in a thin layer of marzipan, then added the black marzipan, white fondant, etc.

They wanted a girl to sit by the piano. I used marzipan, but kind of feel I should have used fondant - fondant doesn't get dry as quickly as marzipan, and is somewhat easier to mold. Oh well, she turned out all right.

...

Banana-piano, not something you see every day :3

Enjoy the end of summer ;)