Our little boy turned one on Monday, and we held a family birthday tea the day before. Apart from the birthday boy himself, my attention over the previous week had been on 'the cake'. Having children is an excuse to bake fantastical celebration cakes and play with day-glo icing colours that normally would not grace the tea table. I choose to make Ellis a bumble bee cake as the buzzing noise made by the insect, as reproduced my his parents/Grandparents/our lovely next door neighbours, was one of the first sounds to really make him chuckle. This cake brought a smile to his face too.
I made the cake in two halves, using a recipe from Nigella Lawson's 'Domestic Goddess' (this contains a whole chapter of suggestions for baking for/with children - no jokes, please). The domed top half of the cake was baked in a silver foil lined colander (yeah, don't try it without that proviso), and the lower half was baked in a conventional sandwich tin. The whole was covered in super eye-catching orange buttercream, and the black icing I purchased from the supermarket in ready to pipe tubes. The wings were circles of netting, gathered and threaded onto cocktail sticks. Legs and feelers were sticks of soft liquorice.
Happy Birthday poppet!
What an amazing cake! Great job!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Ellis. Fantastic cake!
ReplyDeleteWhat an adorable cake! The whole thing is just too cute and the wings are just perfect!
ReplyDeleteI love it! (And so does my husband. I may have to make him one. He'll be 28 next birthday.)
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of birthday cakes my mother made, usually from recipes in Cadbury's Novelty Cookbook. The hedgehog (with chocolate-button spines), bunny and fairy castle particularly stick in the memory, as well as sessions looking at the pictures to decide which cake we wanted...
What a lovely first birthday cake. I think it would make veryone smile reguardless of age.
ReplyDeleteGreat Cake.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to Ellis from Estonia!
ReplyDeleteVery cute cake, and happy birthday to Ellis.
ReplyDeleteOh what a cute gorgeous cake, love it! Happy Birthday to Ellis ;o)
ReplyDeleteMaria
Ellis thanks you all for your birthday wishes, and says that you are never too old for a cake that makes you smile (most cakes have that effect on me...).
ReplyDeleteHI Anna !
ReplyDeleteYups! turned 7 last year and I backed a spider, the kids loved it.
Buon Compleanno
Very sweet!! Really lovely cake, must have been so proud!
ReplyDeleteCheers
David
awww, tt is the sweetest cake ever. looks so lovely. brilliant!
ReplyDeleteWhat a very cute cake!! I am sure this was a showstopper for Ellis Bday.
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Very impressive cake. I wish my mum had been as artistic. Although they always tasted delicious, our birthday cakes were always very simple. Bring on the netting wings and day-glo icing!
ReplyDeleteWhat an adorable cake. The little face is just so sweet, wonderful job!
ReplyDeleteSuch a sweet cake for your little one-year old! I'd love one just like that for my birthday.
ReplyDeleteHow ingenious to use the colander for baking the domed part - I would never have thought of that.
how this is the cutest birthday cake :)
ReplyDeleteI love that having a child gave me the opportunity to play with making fantastical cakes! Although the 6 hours making a fairy castle felt a bit OTT but worth it when I saw her face!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous cake. I may have to pinch that idea for my nearly 2 year olds birthday. Brilliant!
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ReplyDeleteVicky xx
wonderful cake and very cute.
ReplyDeleteolga
stunning cake, almost to nice to have to wreck it by cutting into it to eat
ReplyDeleteEllis your cake is so lovely.. Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeletemakes me smile.. the bee cake is soo cute..
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