The Birthday Present

When it comes to receiving presents once you have passed that lovely simplicity that is childhood it's rare to receive something that you a) like b) surprises you and c) actually use. I guess that's why re-gifting has blown out in recent years, unless you take a role in the choice of present for yourself you will generally receive something that you may not like.

For me I guess I am a little more sensitive on the issue of presents as my birthday is Boxing Day and though my mother did try to make me feel special I did at times feel overshadowed by Christmas, like my special day wasn't that special. Childish right? Hey I was a kid!

Last year I thought that my birthday present fell into the will never use category but maybe, just maybe my husband knew something about me that I was yet to uncover. 2011 has been a difficult year, for many reasons and as I sit here 12 days away from giving birth to our second child I am looking to find more meaning in my life. What "more" do you need when you are giving life right? But there is something "more" out there.

My birthday present last year was The Book Of Awakening by Mark Nepo. Odd choice for a man right? Apparently he got the idea from Oprah! Whatever the reason I'll admit that it has been thumbed through a couple of times but not really used. It was only with the usual reflection that comes with the new year that I was trying to think of some way to better myself. Why not take the journey of awakening and see where it leads me?

My journey starts tomorrow, January 1st 2012.



Doctor Who Birthday Cake

Well it appears that I  can't do things the easy way and for my mother's birthday I decided to make her a TARDIS as she is a long term Doctor Who fan. Now if you have no idea what I am talking about the TARDIS is the time travel ship the Doctor uses to travel the universe through space and time.

I did a bit of research online to see some examples of how others had attempted this task and found some great ones and some not so great ones, in the end I decided to make the TARDIS 3D.

As you know I have a very active 1yr old boy who needs to be watched constantly .... just this morning, while I was looking at a catalogue and in the space of one page he had gone from being on the floor playing to STANDING next to the TV on the entertainment unit. A definite heart in your mouth moment.

Because of this active little boy, I decided to buy a slab cake from the baker instead of baking myself as I just didn't have the time. This is a decision I later regretted.

So early on Tuesday morning I collected the cake from the bakery, I didn't even give thought to how I would fit it in my car with a car seat in the middle of the back seat, oh well I know better for next time. It survived the trip with a little damage in the middle.

Why do I regret buying a slab from the baker and not baking my own cake?

1.  The cake was uneven, I expected a much better result from a professional which would have made the construction easier.

2.    The cake was made out of sponge, which had I thought about it harder was and is not a suitable medium for what I was making.

I then proceeded to cut the slab up, I had decided to make a tower of 7/8 13cmx13cm squares to get the police box shape. Now had I thought harder about the material I was working with I may have change course and constructed the cake a different way, but in my sleep deprived state I stuck with the first idea and paid the price in the end.

I'm quite proud of how I managed to carve the top of the TARDIS as the sponge was very crumbly.

So far so good, I have made the police box and have gotten the first layer of icing on. I put the cake in the freezer overnight very happy with how things were progressing.

Wednesday morning I took the cake out of the freezer to get back to room temperature so I could work with it in the afternoon, while I was having a little quiet time with Kallum, my husband came home to tell me the cake was on it's side .... he says he's never seen me move so fast!!!!! After some magical work with skewers I put the cake back into the freezer to reset. This is where I really regretted not baking a heavier cake myself.

This little side trip meant that all of my more elaborate decorating ideas to complete the cake went out the window. It was going to be a minor miracle to have the cake ready for when Mum got home from work.

In the end I did some basic piping to put some detail on the cake but I couldn't really do anything to fix the wobbly look of it. Every touch to the cake could have resulted in a complete collapse.

ultimately it didn't matter, Mum loved the cake and she loved it even more when I suggested that the TARDIS was still in a state of flux between time and space dimensions that's why it looked so wobbly (not because it was about to fall apart at any time).

The Why File #2

Why does peace and quiet = DANGER?

My little angel was leaving me alone while I did my hair only for me to discover that he had covered himself in sudacream as well as the floor!!!

The Why File #1

Why do you need a nice, clean, dry nappy before you can poo?


Nothing else really needs to be said about this one really, Master K has done this 3 times in a row now.

The Why File

My son is now one and we have officially moved from infant to toddler.

As a mother I have discovered that I am asking Why? a lot!

I thought I would share with you my motherhood "why" moments and sometimes a husband "why" moment may slip in. Well to be honest I guess anything that may make me pause and think "Why?"

A little bit of quick and easy fun.

Please feel free to share your own personal Why's as a comment, who knows you may make The Why File.

Ball Pit Birthday Cake

I've been asked quite a lot who made the cake and then HOW I made the cake so I thought I would post in detail how I achieved Kallum's Ball Pit Cake.  I took photos and posted them on facebook so I have each stage of the construction. Hope you find it inspiring.

I started a little backwards, as we live in the tropics making icing while a cake is baking away is not ideal so I made the buttercreeam icing a day in advance and coloured it up using my new AmeriColor gels which I got from The Raspberry Butterfly.

AmeriColor Gels

I think you will agree getting these colours was a great decision as I don't think I could have acheived these vibrant colours any other way and still retained the quality of the buttercream.

How great are these colours?

I actually had two bites of the cherry as it were, I had organised a Cake Smash photo shoot to celebrate Kallum's first birthday and I wanted the cake that he smashed to be the same as the one for his party. As this cake was being made to be "smashed" and not eaten I bought a unfilled sponge from Woolworths to use for the base cake. I could only get a square one so got a little creative in making the circle (can you tell?). The top layer had an inner circle removed to basically get the "pit" shape.

Base cake with crumb layer of icing

This was put in the fridge overnight to help with the final icing the next day. Humidity is NOT my friend while trying to decorate a cake.

Ok, so with the base under control ... onto the balls. I baked a double quantity of cupcakes and used two different sized silicon trays. I didn't use papers as I wanted a smooth finish so I made sure I prepared them with butter and flour so they definately didn't stick. Once cooled I trimmed into spheres, I found the larger ones (red) worked better as I didn't have to join two smaller cakes together.

Blue is a Breville one and Red is from KMart

Here are the cupcakes trimmed into balls ...

Not really round are they?

This cake creates alot of off cuts which are perfect for creating some cake pops to match your cake. If you don't know what I am talking about head on over to Bakerella and check out her awsome creations!

So now I have all the elements, onto the messy stuff.

Base cake with icing
this did need another coating after a bit of chilling in the fridge.

The first balls

The completed cake,
straight into the fridge before the icing falls off.

Completed cake prior to being put in the fridge ...
as you can see from the glossy icing it was all starting to melt away.

 Icing the balls was very tricky and messy given the icing kept sliding off due to the humidity. I was really worried about it but after being in the fridge overnight I was able to re-touch little areas and the cake looked great.

Looks much better when shot by a professional.

And what I did differently for the second time .....

No store bought cakes this time around! I made two double quantity buttercakes this time around. The first I actually coloured a pale blue as I wanted a bit of an "ahh' moment when the cake was cut. Plans changed after baking, my blue cake was a bit on the slim side and when the second one came out it was clear this had to be the base cake, not sure how I managed such different results but my knob turning son may have had a hand in it or perhaps I didn't beat it enough.

So to make the balls this time around I just trimmed all the brown edges off the blue cake (as they actually looked a sickly green) and then crumbled in the food processor, added frosting to bind and then rolled into balls. The balls this time around were definately a better shape.

Instead of icing with buttercream I actually dipped these balls in coloured chocolate as the filling was very sweet and I was concerned about being the overall taste being a sugar overload.

Now if the cake above looks a little worse for wear you are right. It turns out that my darling husband smashed into my sweet table and sent the cake tumbling. I found a couple of balls in the bin and you can see the base has shifted and clearly rubbed up against something.

Luckily for me (and him) I was deep in conversation and my mum re-assembled the cake without me ever seeing how bad it was. Sadly I never got a good close up shot before the damage but I'm sure you can use your imagination.

A Ball Of A Time

Kallum's 1st Birthday Party -  I had started planning this party in my head fairly early so I had to pick a theme which would still be relevant by the time his birthday came around. In the end the joy that he found while playing in his ball pit could not be topped, plus it gave the opportunity for a lovely bright colour palette.

To set the mood it all started with the invitation. The design of the invitation was continued throughout the day.

The sweet table before the food was put out

The sweet table was backed by circles spotted across the wall, "balls" on sticks and vases with coloured paper inside brought the theme down onto the table. The centrepiece being the birthday cake which was, of course a ball pit! The remaining sweets all keeping in theme of the ball pit, apricot balls, Tim Tam balls, cookies, melon ball cups and the crowd favourite fairy bread!

I made a "self serve" lolly bar as part of the loot bags given to the children. Not only did it provide the opportunity to display more "round" elements in line with the party theme it also gave parents the choice about whether any sweets were going home with them. Hand made bibs were inside the loot bags of all the "little" guests as a special keepsake from the day.

To capture the memory of the day, guests were asked to "make their mark" and the children got to get messy putting their hand prints onto a canvas which had a collage of photos of the birthday boy's cake smash held a couple of weeks earlier.

 

I wanted to take some time to reflect on the year that has passed and show how much Kallum had grown. I dug out one of the outfits that he wore while we were still in hospital and also one of my favourites soon after we were home. I also made a photo cube showing Kallum from 2days old up to 11 months. Admittedly these little touches were just for me but they were enjoyed by the other mums too.