A Final Birthday Post

Mum requested a picture of Ben's birthday cake, so here it is. As Ben's party was in the cinema we weren't able to bring a cake so I asked his teacher if I could bring one into school for Ben to share with all of his friends today.

I love making birthday cakes and have a number of books with cakes to inspire me. My favourites are The Australian Woman's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book and The Complete Cadbury's Cookbook. It is a tradition in our house that a few weeks before your birthday you peruse the books before deciding on the final design. This gives me time to source any unusual materials I may need. I never follow the recipe as I have an oil chocolate cake recipe that is delicious and stays fresh for a week, in fact it tastes better on day two than on the day it's baked. I just look at the pictures for inspiration and do my best.

This is the second time I made a dessert forte as Dillon had one about seven years ago. There are lots of cakes I'd love to make (some years the children get two if their party is on a different day to their birthday) and only one I definitely wouldn't like to make again, a castle! This is a picture of my favourite, I tried to persuade Mollie for three years to have a swimming pool but she always said no, then when she was eight I said nothing and she choose it. I should of kept my mouth shut before!