The Great Cupcake Birthday Cake Creation!

Ok. A baker I don't proclaim to be, but I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the way this cupcake birthday cake turned out considering it was a "create-as-you-go" job!!!!! 

This is Isobel's (friends daughter) first birthday cake and we wanted it 'pretty'. Think I achieved the design brief. I love the idea of cupcakes for littlies cos really they aren't into 'big' food. I had absolutely no idea how I was going to decorate the cakes once I'd made them so it was a bit of a creative experiment at 9.30pm playing with royal icing and discovering that it would've been a good idea to have had a bit of a practice run!!!!! But in the end I think the flowers and butterflies are recognisable, and the stars were quite straightforward.

On the day of the party the next creation was the actual stand. The bottom tier was a footed glass cake plate but then I had bought two really neat cut glass plates as well as a couple of sherry glasses from the op shop, and used blu tak to secure them all together (we will glue them eventually but discovered that the glue would need two days to take so decided against doing it that morning!).

And what respectable Kiwi child's birthday party would be complete without meringues and fairy bread? I tried to carry through the theme of pretty by making the meringues pink, and used a neat three tier stand cousin Bee had lent me specially to present some of the other party food. You can't see the table cloth unfortunately - it's this great backing fabric I've got for a quilt I'm planning to one day make that is pink with big funky flowers and butterflies on it. This is the second time it's come in handy for table use; last time was a pink baby shower. On top of that I spread a lovely old antique white linen cloth and then a bright pink runner. The effect was super.

Of course, on the morning of the afternoon tea party I decided I needed to make Isobel a birthday present (I really do need to work on my time management) so whipped up one of those discovery bean bags I've seen around that have the clear window in the front and can be filled with either rice or the pellets you sometimes fill bears with. I used rice cos that was what we had.

I had to guess measurements etc, but it turned out pretty well. Half the fun was finding bits n pieces to pop inside!


What was even more fun was when Isobel picked it up at one point during the afternoon. She was sitting on the floor and put it over her shoulder, but it pulled her off balance ( you know how it is when their nappies make them like those rolly polly toys) and she just rolled onto her back. She got such a surprise that she lay their for a couple of minutes stranded - not really knowing what had happened. Mmmmmmmmm ... maybe I put a wee bit much rice in it???????? But she pulled herself up and enjoyed scrunching it and sucking at the plastic so all was good.


So all in all creativeness was a great success. Yay and double yay!


CIao,