Muddy puddles and snow balls - birthday nibbles

My girls turned the ripe old ages of three and five, a week ago. 

Summer wanted a Frozen cake, and Isabel, a Peppa Pig cake. 

Isabel's cake was easy. I made the same cake she had for her third birthday. At first she asked for a Barbie cake, and then changed her mind and wanted Peppa Pig. 

Summer's cake was a square chocolate cake, covered with buttercream icing and edged with white chocolate. I did order Frozen figurines for this cake, but they never arrived from China in time. Of course, a month later they are still not here. 

I did find these 3D printable dolls from this fab website. They did the job and aren't too hard to put together. It's the cutting out that is the hard bit.

Seeing it was a joint Frozen(slash)Peppa Pig party I also made some absolutely delicious nibbles to go with the theme.

The snowballs, were made from the cut off pieces of cake, left over after cutting out the Peppa Pig cake. 

I crumbled the cake, and then added coconut milk. Add the coconut milk a bit at a time, until the cake crumbs can be moulded into a ball and hold that shape. 

I refrigerated the balls while I melted white chocolate in the microwave at 50%. Then coated the balls, sprinkling with dessicated coconut and then leaving them to set on baking paper in the fridge. I used a skewer to hold the balls while I dunked them in the chocolate. Chuck the chocolate back in the microwave if I starts to get less runny while you are on the job. 

You could use any type of cake, any type of liquid. Think fruitcake and grog(hick!), or chocolate cake and orange juice. Banana cake and coconut milk. OMG. You could use other types of chocolate too. 

I found this recipe on Taste for these little fellas. I left out the fellas bit, and just made the biscuit and chocolate bit. I even heard one of the dads comment on how 'wicked' the muddy puddles were. They were pretty awesome!

I didn't have the right tray, but just put the biscuits in the oven on a flat tray and then moulded them, cupped in my tea towelled hand and making a bowl shape with my fingers. Not hard, but oh so yummy.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Water works and birthday parties, with bit of snot thrown in.

Ah shit. What do I know this week?

Well I know that the man hanky is still in use with young men, well one young man, aged about 30. To me that is young. I was at a 50th a few weeks ago and spotted him pulling it out of his pocket, probably lined with crusted snot, and going the wipe.   

Haven't seen one in use for donkeys dicks(a long time). It makes me wonder. How does one go about washing such an item? Is it a soak and then in with the rest of the wash? Surely you wouldn't go bunging it in with a normal wash, in fear of having snot streaked clothes on the line? The mind boggles(and the body shudders at the thought). Do you know a man that uses man hankies? Ask him how he(moreover his wife, poor woman), washes them.

In other goings on, I have just divided my garden irrigation into four sections. I am a legend. Our new pump cannot produce the pressure to cope and I have had to take legendary measures. It takes a woman to do a mans work. Well the logic of a woman. 

I waltzed, as you do, into our local hardware and spent eighty dollars on stuff to do the job. In my flasho rubber boots no less and a two year old in tow.

I knew Boggy would chuck a hissy fit, and did. I couldn't have cared less. This garden is all I have got and I will not sit back and let it die.He can go and suck on rotten eggs!

After more or less putting it on me to fix the problems with the bore, because it's my garden, and if I don't do something about it, my garden will die. This is typical man, being typical arsehole. I used mum and dads ute to go pick up a water tank, a fire fighter pump to clean out the bore. The ute has a top speed of 80 clicks and is so old, I was too chicken to put the sun visor down in case there was a big spider living there.

After my brother, an ex driller, helped us clean out the bore, turns out there was nothing wrong with it.

It's just that the new pump wasn't strong enough to pump the pressure we I needed to water the garden in two stages. I needed to divide it into four stages. Which I did. Job done, Bobs your uncle. Fanny's your aunt. 

Alicia is a big fat, get the job done, legend. 

I had no guilt walking into that hardware store and spending what I had to, to get water back on my garden. No guilt. I don't smoke, play pokies. I don't insist on getting my hair done every other month. February was the last time I went to the hairdresser. I'm not off to the shopping centres spending up on clothes, shoes or whatever else every other week. I live pretty frugally, most of the time, which I don't mind. But there is no way in hell, I will let my garden die!

We had a couple of little girls birthdays over the weekend. Izzy turned five and Summer three. 

My boy turns 22 today. I've baked him a chocolate and date cake. I hope he likes it, because I just might make it a regular thing every year. My SILs mum died a few years ago. One thing she misses,  is the same cake she made her every year on her birthday.

Summer wanted Frozen, and Izzy, Peppa pig. It's the same cake I made for her third birthday. It must have been THAT good :)

Linking with Ann for Things I know

Butterfly and Peppa Pig Cakes

I've made this cake for both my girls, for their first birthdays. It is really simple, starting with a round cake, making four cuts, slapping on some icing and a few well placed lollies, and done! It gives the illusion that you've just slaved away for hours creating a masterpiece, when really, its the proverbial 'cake walk'. I used my chocolate cake  recipe, omitting the cocoa, adding 5 Tblsps of passionfruit pulp and adding an extra half a cup of flour.

 



Summers cake 2012

I used mini marshmallows on both cakes to outline the wings and a musk stick for the body. When I made the cake for Izzys first I used smarties, Summers was much plainer and smaller, as I concentrated my efforts this year on the peppa pig cake.

Izzys 1st birthday cake, 2010. I used the same candle for Summers this year.

The girls had a joint birthday party this year, being Summers 1st and Izzys 3rd. I made a peppa pig cake for Izzy, which I concentrated my efforts on, it was freaking me out just thinking about it, but it all came together in the end. I used this template for the head and fashioned my own template for the dress.  

Izzys 3rd birthday cake 2012

I made a slab cake using the buttercake recipe and cut the head, ears and dress from the one slab. I cut a few extra ears, just in case! My one hot tip is to have a mug of boiling water to dip the icing knife into, it makes spreading the icing much easier and smoother. Have a tea towel or towelling paper handy to wipe the water off in between. I also had a picture of Peppa on the lap top next to me to use as a reference.

I had a glut of whipped cream, Mum dropped off about 5 litres of the stuff left over from the show kitchen. I used this with enough icing sugar to make it thick and used pillar box red food colouring to make the pink, and red of the dress. The eyes and shoes were done with a tube of black writing icing.

The bases I used were glass chopping boards covered in foil. They make awesome cake boards. 

Buttercake

250g butter, softened

2 teaspoon vanilla 

1 1/2 cup caster sugar

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/4 cups self-raising flour, sifted

1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted

3/4 cup milk

 Beat butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

Add flour and milk alternately, Stir to combine.

Pour mix into a greased and lined slab tin, mine was about 25 x 32 cm.

Bake at 180°C/160°C fan-forced for 35 - 40 minutes