A Baking Challenge

Long ago, back in the days before her allergies prevented such things, my mum was amazing at making and decorating cakes. Look, treasure chest cake! (also cute, blonde me! Awww. Despite the MASSIVE fringe.)



Vampire cake!

BBQ cake!



I had such a nostalgia-fest looking back through the photo album where I found all these. This is my 1st birthday cake.



And my second birthday cake.

Then we're missing a few, although I do remember an excellent hot air balloon cake for my 3rd birthday. She triumphed with these two though:



Teddy Bear's Picnic!! Mmmm, green dessicated coconut for grass. It was a crime to cut into this beauty.

I was 7 and all I wanted for my birthday was an alarm clock. What an odd child I was. Being the super duper mother that she is, she got me an alarm clock and then made me a cake to match it.

It is a thing of great sadness that I have not inherited any of her talents in this department. I love to bake and I'm fairly confident that my baking tastes good, which is the main thing really, isn't it? Yet I have no patience for twiddles and no skill at decorating, so I go for the approach of making big slabs of yummy cake and not worrying about making them look pretty. A sift of icing sugar usually covers up most crimes.

But no more! I'm on a summer mission to a) bake a bit more and b) put more effort into it. I might not have any decorating skills now but I'm sure I can teach myself something.

I've started at the beginning, by tidying up the baking cupboard. I won't be able to work out what to do if I don't know what equipment I have. Plus this task also brings massive benefits. No longer will I be showered by icing sugar and random packets of cupcake decorations every time I open the cupboard door! There will be no repeat incidents of the tray of food colourings and flavourings taking a nosedive on the kitchen floor and turning it into a vanilla, cinnamon and red mess! (yes, that happened. It took an AGE to clean up. Smelled delicious though.)  It's all lovely and tidy now. Sugar in one place, flour in another, cake decorating supplies in a tidily organised box.

Now I've got that sorted, my first task is chocolate cake decorations. I figure that I might as well start with something fairly easy and if it all goes horribly wrong, well, people love chocolate. They can enjoy the deliciousness and that will distract them from my crapness at decorating. I'll move onto white icing and piping and suchlike when I've got some practice with the basics.

Any volunteers to be my taste tester?


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