Birthday Cake Creations

No one warns you when you become a mum of all the unwritten qualifications you actually require!! Yes of course you expect to ... need oodles of patience (and then some!), to be able to survive on short bursts of sleep, the ability to change the most disgusting of nappies with two hands when you actually require about five to do it properly and to be able to keep a straight face when your cheeky little munchkin does something naughty with a smile on their face when you're secretly surprised and proud of their ingenuity and all you really want to do is laugh out loud alongside them! The qualifications go WAY beyond all that ... seamstress when things get ripped accidentally, peacekeeper and negotiator between siblings or 'best friends', world encyclopedia (because you're meant to know the answer to everything!) ... to name just a few!

As our eldest daughter got close to her first birthday I suddenly realised that 'cake decorator' was also on that list of unwritten qualifications! Having occasionally watched 'Ace of Cakes' I'd set my sights at something beyond the basic ... this was from someone who didn't even have a recipe to make the cake itself! I soon realised that if you could visualise the end product in your mind and were determined enough, it could become a reality! Before Abigail was born we referred to the bump as 'Monkey' ... so it seemed only fitting that her first cake had a monkey theme ...

When she turned two, she was a big Nemo fan (or Meno, as she called him at the time!!) ...

Yesterday was her third birthday ... and she is currently mad about Toy Story. We had in mind something a bit girlie, like Jessie the cowgirl, but no, Abigail had been telling us every day for weeks that she wanted a Buzz cake ... so Buzz Lightyear it was!!

Since moving to America I have also become a big fan of the TV show 'Cake Boss', which once again inspired me to get more creative when it comes to cake decorating. Having a fun cake is one of the family traditions which we're introducing into our family life. While all the cakes to date have been a joint effort between myself and my husband, we know they're not perfect ... Nemo may well have dodgy eyes and Buzz definitely looks like he's spent a little too long in the sun ... but what's most important is the look of excitement and happiness on our daughter's face when she see's her cakes ... that's the best feeling of them all!