I’m pretty sure that the “Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book” has played a pivotal role in Birthday celebrations for most, if not all, Gen X and early Gen Y Aussie children (it's apparently just been re-released! My beautiful sister has said she's going to get a copy for me! Yay!). I know the four of us (my three siblings and I) used to spend hours looking at Mum’s copy (which I have recently just inherited "on loan" from my mum).
And so, I am proud to say that I am continuing that tradition with my children! At least once a week, BigMan stands at my Cook Book Bookshelf (I love my cookbooks) and asks every so politely, “Party cake book, Mummy? Read party cake book, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease Mummy?” And so (with a smile, because I love reading the ‘party cake book’ with him) I go and pull down two or three of my ‘party cake books’ and we start reading. Oh, there is so much to see! So much to talk about! BigMan loves the insect and animal cupcakes, he loves the Rocket Ship, he loves the jumbo jet, he loves the froggy, he loves the dinosaurs, he loves the train, he loves the clock, he loves the Rugby ball (“That’s for Uncle T, Mummy!”), he knows that the ‘scary’ ones are, “Yucky cake, Mummy. Yucky cake.”…
Now, my conundrum is: What cake do I make him for his very-fast-approaching 2nd Birthday?! This opportunity to bake a cake especially for my precious BigMan comes around but once a year and there are so many wonderful, exciting, perfectly-suited-to-what-BigMan-is-obsessed-with cakes that I am finding it nearly impossible to decide!
And don’t even get me started on LittleLady! Anyone ever wonder why all of a sudden Cabbage Patch Dolls and ‘My Little Pony’ have hit the stores shelves? Because mums like me want to live vicariously through their daughters lives and bestow upon their own little princesses all their own childhood dreams and ensure that their own ‘LittleLady’ doesn’t suffer the same tragic fate of never owning her own Cabbage Patch Kid (pretty sure this is why my mum took up her current form of employment – to help me get over my childhood deprivations. Love you, Mum!). SOOOO… we’re just going to have to make up celebrations so that I can make pretty cakes for LittleLady! I think she’s going to be 21 before I’ll let her choose her own cake!
Thus, when Aunty E came for a visit last weekend, I was super-duper-jumping-up-and-down excited by the opportunity to bake her birthday cake! It was very, very hard to narrow it down, but BigMan, Daddy and I decided to spoil Aunty E with a Red Velvet Cake with Creamy White Frosting (from the decadent delights of The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook). Let’s just say, it was good.
There was a good ¾ of the three-layer-cake left over, which Daddy took into work.
He said that at first everyone said they already had morning tea. But apparently their morning tea wasn’t adequate… none of the cake made it home.
It was an amazing birthday cake and a very special treat for Aunty E! Love reading your updates so keep them coming! xx
ReplyDeletevery beautiful Hannah!
ReplyDelete@Esther - shouldn't you be asleep at 1:04am?! Are you on night duty at the moment?
ReplyDelete@Emma - thank you! I had so much fun making it! It's so nice having an excuse to do baking - and the best part was having Esther around to help look after the kids so that I could bake without all that loving 'assistance'!
Nope - not night duty just yet! Mix a week of late shifts, throw in a handful (or more!) of uni work, followed by a pinch of caffeine = one very tired insomniac nurse! I'm at the stage where my poor body clock doesn't even know what year it is, much less what time of the day! :)
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