Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
I was recently asked if I'd like to review another personalised Peppa Pig book, this time it was focused on Peppa coming to The Boy's birthday party.
The process of ordering the book through the Penwizard site is incredibly easy and allows for the book to be personalised to feature your child's name, age and adjust the appearance of the main character for hair colour and style, eye colour, and skin tone, along with a personalised message.
So this week I've made two birthday cakes. And we're not talking about round sponges with some chocolate and sprinkles on top, we're talking themed cakes.
This week, I've made a sandcastle cake for The Boy's actual birthday on Tuesday, and for his birthday party day today he had a Peppa Pig car cake.
Thank God for cake moulds hey? I've used one for both cakes: one was a silicon mould from Aldi; the other was a metal, Wilton mould borrowed from the cake-loving Mummy Mishaps. They seem to make everything so much easier and as a result, even the most artistically-lacking parent can whip up an extravaganza for their little ones with the aid of some dolly mixtures and a liquorice allsort or two.
Having made a madeira sponge for the Sandcastle cake, I discovered that it was a little dry and so I decided to add in some natural yoghurt (which is a trick I've learnt from the aforementioned Mummy Mishaps) which makes the cake lighter and more fluffy. I used this gem from Seasider Clare again, and despite the minor realisation that I hadn't made enough and needed to whip another 2 egg mixture. Two hours in the oven and an overnight cooling, saw me decorating it this morning.
After carving out the area for Peppa and family to sit in, I covered it in the appropriate icing sourced from a local cake suppliers using this image as my reference point. I used some wafer flowers on the grass and ended up with this cake which I am really rather proud of. It also tasted a damn sight nicer than the other day, the yoghurt worked a treat.
I have had great fun planning The Boy's cakes over the past few weeks, it's one of those mummy things that I've looked forward to and relish every stressful, floury moment of it. I haven't quite decided on next year's cake yet, but there is a pirate ship mould on top of the fridge that's been sending me distress signals for the past two years.
If you've got a novelty birthday cake that you'd like to share, please add it to the linky below.
A month or so ago I bought a silicon cake mould from Aldi in the shape of a sandcastle. At only £3.99 I couldn't not buy it, even though I had no idea what I was going to use it for; I'd already decided on The Boy's birthday cake and had no idea what this one could be used for.
In the end I decided to use it for The Boy's family birthday party today. I've never used a silicon cake mould before and was nervous. I was also a bit nervous because of the size of the mould and had no idea how much mixture would be needed. After a helpful tweet from Clare at Seasider In The City pointing me in the direction of this post, I discovered I'd need 9 eggs and 18 ounces of flour for the madeira cake!
Luckily it only took an hour and half to cook, and peeled out of the mould really easily. Today while The Boy was napping, I decorated it with some simply shell-shape chocolates.
I was sceptical that it looked ok, but The Boy was more than happy with it. Look at his little face when he saw the cake mummy made him:
While I have tried to remain in denial about The Boy's third birthday, it's impossible. Sometimes the only thing we can be sure of in this life is that time will pass, and our babies will turn into children and people in their own right.
I am inordinately proud of my little boy: he is a friendly and happy little boy who wants to chat to everyone, he loves playing with his friends and family, loves making craft items and baking, is never happier than when he's building a sandcastle or jumping up and down in muddly puddles. This little individual being is kind and considerate, loving and caring, quiet and cheeky. He's not a boisterous boy, he's not a rough and tumble, fighting and climbing boy, but he is curious and insightful, wanting to learn about the world around him in a cautious but determined manner.
He says 'gyurls' for girls and 'wyurld' for world, and 'you were being confused'. He has a beautiful singing voice and makes songs up, mixing together theme tunes deliberately. When 'groovy moves' or 'I am a shape' come on the television, he insists that I stop what I'm doing and go and dance straight away; he never stands still for 'freeze' but checks everyone else is.
He insists on doing stand-up wees and refuses to let daddy help him, apart from to pass him a piece of tissue. He hates sitting in his booster chair seat, declaring he 'wants to be a big boy' but wants to be carried like a baby out of the bathroom wrapped in his towel while daddy sings 'rock a bye baby'.
Every morning since he could walk, he rushes in to wake me up and feeling him in my arms first thing every morning is the most amazing, awe-inspiring, serene and natural thing in the entire world.
Happy birthday my darling, precious boy.
We called into a local toy shop tonight as I wanted to pick up something for a project I have planned. While we were there we had a quick look at bikes as we have decided to get The Boy one for his birthday in June. The first one he sat on was a character bike with moulded foam tyres and he could barely move it. This is the second bike he tried and it is taken thirty seconds after he sat on it and started pedalling independently for the first time. We had to chase after him.
Today was Mr. TheBoyandMe's birthday. 37. He's getting old now but refuses to admit that he is now in his late 30s.
I digress.
We decided to make him a birthday cake, and as The Boy has an obsession with chocolate cake (thanks Peppa Pig) and that Mr. TBaM's favourite flavour is mint chocolate, I decided to have a go at making a mint chocolate cake.
I used the basic Mrs. Beeton's Victoria Sandwich recipe of 5oz butter/self-raising flour/caster sugar and 3 eggs, and added two sachets of mint flavoured drinking chocolate to the mix. I also added a teaspoon of baking powder as my sponge cakes don't tend to rise very much. (It still didn't, but I'm now beginning to wonder if that's more about my oven than anything else.
We made the cake yesterday and then wrapped it in tin foil once cooled.
Then this morning while hubby was sleeping soundly (because I am a good wife and Mr. TBaM never seems to get lie-ins anymore, so I let him), The Boy and I did the filling and topping. We made a form of buttercream using unsalted butter, icing sugar and chocolate philadelphia (which is yummy). However, in hindsight I needed to add more icing sugar because it was a little too fluid.
Once that was spread on and the cake had been put in the fridge for it to set a little, I melted down chocolate to put on the top. We smoothed this around roughly and then sprinkled over a variety of toppings, including; crushed mint Aero, chocolate flake and white chocolate stars.
The finished cake was incredibly yummy, although very difficult to cut due to rock solid chocolate on the top and slippy buttercream filling! But Mr. TheBoyandMe was happy!
