Cake.

Today a wonderful friend of ours turns 30. Last night we had a surprise party for him to celebrate. It went off wonderfully and he claims he was actually surprised. For the party I had the privileged of providing the cake. I was so excited to have the opportunity to make an extravagant cake and I was determined to go all out. The only thing is, it was my first ever cake not from a box.

I love to bake. I am continuously expanding what I can do and what I enjoy doing in the kitchen. A cake however has always been a lofty goal. For me it was hard to turn down a $1 box cake and for a family of two it was next to impossible to eat before going bad or getting sick and tired of it. So when the opportunity came I jumped on the idea of making a cake from scratch.

I went with a three tiered white cake with chocolate raspberry ganache filling and butter cream icing. In the end it was a success and looked/tasted wonderful, however getting to the end was a bit of a nightmare. I had a lot of fun making the cake, and was able to do the entire thing in just under 4 hours. During the course of making the cake I learnt a lot of things to do different next time and I cannot wait for a reason to do so. Anyone need a cake?

I started with this recipe for the cakes.

First.

First Birthday Parties. What comes to mind? For me it will now forever be associated with stress. Last weekend (yes my long weekend, 4 days off in a row) was devoted to my adorable and wonderful niece, Jemma, who turned the big 1. As a result of this wonderful birthday of hers we then proceeded to partake in three different parties, each one more elaborate from the last.

I have a bad habit of not being able to say 'no' and also the willingness to do anything that may make my niece happy, so that resulted in me (and my husband) assisting in varying capacities at all of these parties. I made banners (yes more then one) for the parties, a tulle highchair skirt, tissue paper flowers for the centre pieces and cookies, lots of cookies. I will post later blogs about 'how to' soon.

Anyways enough complaining, I got to spend a weekend with my favourite little girl in the world and watch all of those who love her shower her with gifts and attention. I could almost cry at seeing how grown up she is getting. Current 'tricks' as I like to call them include, clapping, waving with an open hand, standing without holding on, taking one step and we can say 'pretty' (which makes me so excited!). I miss this little girl SO much and she is always my favourite skype date. So all in all, I had a wonderful weekend, despite all the partying and did I mention that little miss Jemma woke us up at around 7 every morning?

In conclusion however, it was way too stressful of a weekend as a result of a first birthday. It has been concluded when I have children it will be one party, planned well ahead of time. Oh and there best not be a huge second birthday.