This year I made a conscious decision to make all my children's birthday cakes. Shop bought cakes are nice enough and professional looking but they do cost a bomb. Growing up my mum used to get her friend (an amateur baker) to make my birthday cakes and I had really cool cakes. Imagine how cool I was to have a barbie doll cake in the 70s complete with a real barbie in it? So I figured if that was possible in the 70s in Malaysia how difficult is it now when everything I need to make a great cake is available so easily.
I made a number 3 cake for Aiesha and Sophia wanted a ladybird cake for her 2nd birthday. The actual recipe called for a pudding bowl shaped cake but with the relatives I invited to Sophia's little party (with the unpredictable October weather we had to keep her party small just in case we have to contain everyone in the house unlike Aiesha who has a summer birthday so we have always been blessed with good weather), a small pudding bowl cake definitely wouldn't be enough. I baked two cakes and attempted to shape the top as much as I could but I was too freaked out to trim it too much so the cake didn't look as rounded at the top as it should. But I think it turned out ok for a novice like me. Everything except for the candles are edible.
I don't have a happy photo of Sophia with the cake as she was bawling her eyes out when it was time to cut the cake. She later explained that she cried because her friends were trying to blow her candles and get her cake. My poor baby.
.jpg)