Triple layered neopolitan strawberry cake. As you do.

So, my little girl turned one in April. It's a big deal. One year since she changed our lives forever by simply arriving. Her first ever birthday party. Her first ever candle.

You know how it is.

So, I decided to make a bit of an effort. I'd been thinking about doing a strawberry shaped cake, as we call her our strawberry girl, but then I started reading Sweetapolita's blog (www.sweetapolita.com), which is written by a truly talented creator of beautiful and delicious looking cakes. She got me thinking...hmm, maybe I could try a layer cake? Cut into a big strawberry and discover layers of...neopolitan!

So there we had it. I made three cakes: a chocolate, a strawberry and a vanilla (the chocolate I took from one of my old, worn cookbooks, the vanilla I found online and have now lost (it was a cake made with lots of egg whites and no egg yolks, so it was very pale white), and the strawberry I adapted from Sweetapolita (see http://sweetapolita.com/2011/01/neapolitan-5-layer-birthday-cake-with-strawberry-frosting/). I tried her strawberry cake recipe, but jelly crystals here must be different to the US version, as I had to use three packets to get to 3oz, and it tasted very chemically at the end. I made it again, this time adding strawberry essence and red food colouring instead of the jelly crystals.

Right, then, I cut the top off each cake, then cut each cake into two. I stuck them together with smooth strawberry jam (another Sweetapolita tip) and iced them. By the time I'd finished, I'd used up nearly a whole bottle of red food colouring. Not great for a kid's party, I realise...

 The strawberry seeds were made from rolled up bits of fondant icing (I was sick of the sight of them by the end), and the stem was made of marzipan, into which I kneaded some green food colouring.

All in all, given my usual disasters, I was rather pleased with this. It looked fairly impressive and tasted yum.

Now what on earth will I make for her second birthday party?

Easter buns

Ahh, Easter buns.

Unfortunately, these ones were dense and a little dry, so I won't provide the recipe.

Weirdly, they also cracked along the outside crosses (which were made with a combination of flour, sugar and water). I'm not sure why.

Ah well, it's not Easter without Easter buns, and they toasted up ok.

A Union Jack cake for a Slovakian, made by an Australian

As you do.

Our friend recently acquired British citizenship, so to celebrate I decided to make him a Union Jack cake.

I'm not very good at icing decorations usually, as fiddly things tend to be too much of a faff for me. In this case, it was simply a matter of covering the cake with ready made rolled out icing (painted blue), then rolling and cutting strips of red and white to make the crosses.

Ok, so it doesn't look professional, but it was certainly striking and you can tell what it was supposed to be, which for me is success enough!