I've just spent the most wonderful weekend with my family, friends and the people I love dearly. My Nephew Dexter turned 1 year old today (6th of May 2013). We have all just celebrated not only his Birthday but his Christening too! I was honoured to be asked to be his Godmother and as part of that package he gets the cake :)
After sketching out a few ideas, his mum Sarah had the last say and this was the final draft. Before Dexter was born we all knew him as 'Beaky', now he is 'The Bear' and so I had the idea of incorporating a little beaky bird and a little brown bear. Blue is of course the choice colour for boys, but I mixed it with chocolate brown and white for a cute twist.
I always hand make all of my own cake bunting and cupcake pics so I chose some sweet blue flowery paper to complement the blue on the cake. And then tied little brown bows to the base of the flags.
Then I made all the little bits to make the bear. Have to say I'm not a big fan of making characters, but for my Nephew, I will make anything :) I used Sugarflair Dark Brown to do this one.
And then the little 'Beaky' bird. I didn't want him to be legless, so they came along later by way of a couple of cocktail sticks.
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As there were little white daisy flowers on the bunting, I thought I would make a few little cutout daisies to pop around the cake. I used a simple plunger cutter and wasn't bothered about them looking too thin and real as this cake was more novelty than floral. The bird kept a beaky eye on the proceedings.
I cut simple little circles out of white fondant to decorate the top tier, and stripes to decorate the bottom. The whole cake was vanilla and raspberry jam with a vanilla butter cream.
I wanted to do some cupcakes for the children so I found some cute blue cupcake wrappers and made some raspberry and vanilla cakes to match. These ones have been brushed with a delicious raspberry syrup before being piped with a swiss meringue buttercream. Yum.
Here is the little bear. Think the cocktail stick slipped a bit over his left eye!
And the little bird :)
This is the lovely Louis, my cousins little boy. He couldn't get enough of my cupcakes. Him and his brother Finn think I am the second best cake maker in the whole world! I like to let them continue to think that :) They are my best supporters.
Here is my Godson with his cake. I couldn't get him to look at the camera but never mind. He is looking super smart in his special outfit and enjoying every minute of all the attention.
My lovely Brother and Dexter's Daddy Andy did the
cake cutting and speech.
And this is my Sister in Law Sarah with the little man.
We all had such a fantastic day and it's so nice to eat one of my own cakes for once.
Happy Birthday and Happy Christening Dexter John David Hill. Love Auntie Rachie Godmamma xxxxx
Today I stumbled across your website and I am SO glad I did. I find this birthday/christening cake just absolutely lovely. Almost as adorable as your nephew, what a sweetheart. You are SO lucky. I have no children, one nephew and one niece whom are now 20 and 25 years old and I do miss having little ones in the family, especially here at the holidays but I am NOT going to encourage either one of the kids right now to start a family, it's not time yet in their lives. My first question is this, if you're the second best cake baker in the world, who is the first? I so GREATLY appreciate when experienced cake bakers and decorators like you share your techniques and sometimes secrets with us more "hobby" bakers. I've been baking I guess just about 50 years if you count me beginning when I was a "helper" at my great-grandmother's apron strings probably around 4 years old. However, I've only been decorating around 4 or 5 years since my first Wilton class. The cake decorating world has been changing by leaps and bounds faster than anyone thought possible and new products are emerging faster than I can keep up with them. Do you make your own fondant or do you purchase it? One of my biggest hurdles is to get my family and friends to order fondant instead of buttercream. The first fondant I used, which was the Wilton's brand, basically tasted like wallpaper paste. (at least what I imagine wallpaper paste would taste like). Now there is MUCH better tasting available online although it's hard to find it in retail locations. Also, I'm a stickler for wanting cakes to be fresh, I don't even like baking a basic Bundt cake, etc., even the day before however that means I always feel rushed. It's nerve-racking working like that. Obviously in more complicated decorated cakes that's not possible. How far in advance do you work? Finally, in closing....I just want to say how nice it was to see a young child dressed in a beautiful, tasteful outfit with the more old-fashioned smocking and embroidery. Parents here in the states rarely know how to dress their children nicely anymore. A suit like this is how children were dressed when I was young and how my brother would have been dressed to go to church. Your sister in law did very well and I hope you include your family in future postings. Have a very lovely Christmas holiday with your family and give those children a hug from a woman in the US who thinks they're both adorable.
ReplyDeleteThank-you for the lovely comments Pamela, x
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