Bailey's nautical party - 1st birthday

Never having had the chance to bake for a boy or for a summer party, I dived head first into a world of blue and boats in celebration of my little man Bailey. Everything was blue and everything was nautical from the cupcakes (which melted before anyone could eat them from the very hot day!), to the cake pops, to the cookies and of course, the cake.

The party was a huge success! The clouds burned away, the sun came out and we got to play with water, swim and have a crazy, fun day. Bailey had the time of his life and kicked on all day as did the girls who were loving all the festivities, games and swimming. Dan dressed up brilliantly as Captain Feathersword and played with the kids. He really got into the spirit letting them throw water balloons at him, dance and look for treasure. Turned out to be a beautiful, fun day for our sweet little boy.

CAKE TIP:
The cake was a work in progress. My first attempt saw the waves that I had created along the sides of the cake literally slide into a heap, so instead of using the 4 cakes I had baked, I used only 3. Later I realised what had happened was the fondant became too heavy with all the layering. Plus, the cornflour which I was using to stop the fondant sticking, dried out the icing to much causing it to crack and not adhere to the cake properly. Attemp 2 was a much better result. I threw out my cornflour and replaced it with spray canola oil. What a dream discovery this was! Not only did it stop my fondant from sticking to the counter, but it keep the fondant from drying out so I had perfectly smooth fondant. So get yourselves a can of spray oil next time you decide to ice with fondant!

Bailey's birthday cake

Nautical cookies

Nautical cupcakes

Cake pops

Bailey's cake again...

Buddies enjoying cake pops

Nautical princesses

Birthday boy and his sailor unky

Water balloons

Swimming

A collection of cakes spanning the years.....

My sister's engagement cake

Tyler's 4th birthday cake

Tyler's 4th birthday Princess party cupcakes

Tyler's 3rd birthday dinosaur cake

Sienna's 1st birthday animal farm cake



Circus cake pops

Tyler's 2nd birthday Dorothy the Dinosaur cake

Tony and Markus' wedding cake

Sienna's fairy party - 3rd birthday

So yep, I have two girls and all they want for their parties are fairy affairs. Sienna of course requested a fairy party but surprisingly wanted Dora as the princess. 4 cakes later and voila. I decided to make the Dora out of gumpaste to stop her falling over because once gumpaste dries, it dries rock hard. This was a huge success and such a fun cake to make.

Sienna loves pink and green so of course, all the cake pops, cupcakes and party decor were in these colours. Sienna had a very special day celebrating with all her friends and family.

I have been asked by all about my cake pop recipe and they are the EASIEST things to make! Here goes:

TIM TAM CAKE POPS
------------------------------
1 packet of Tim Tams
2/3 cup of cream cheese

Blend the Tim Tams in a food processor until broken down. Add cream cheese and mix until it all comes together. Roll into little balls and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Melt your chocolate, dip the sticks into the chocolate and then into the balls. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Dip in chocolate and allow to dry.

VOILA. That simple.

The back of Sienna's cake with backpack!

The food table with green and pink cake pops



S for Sienna cupcake toppers in her fave colours

The beautiful birthday girl

 

 

I love my birthday cake mummy!

 

Tyler's enchanted fairy garden party - 5th birthday

The cake spec from my daughter Tyler was simple: A Fairy Dora (please mummy!).

Simple enough I thought. But the thing about me is everything has to be BIG. So I set about creating an A3 size cake! This entailed making 3 cakes to make ONE giant cake.

I always bake a chocolate mud, not only is it yummy but as it's so dense that it can be made months in advance and frozen. Once defrosted, it can be kept for 3-5 days before eating which gives me lots of opportunity to ice it, work the fondant and then let it set. The fondant also further seals the cake to avoid it drying out. I also have the BEST recipe for this cake - it's easy, yum and never fail!

I made two large rectangle cakes from an A3 sized cake tin... I then cut the cakes from a fairy Dora print-out. I also made a simple round cake to raise the level of the face. Once I had all the cakey bits in place, I coloured my fondant and begain using the cut-outs to shape the fondant and place over the cake. It was quite time-consuming shaping all the parts, but worth the result in the end.

Tyler absolutely loved it!

Going fully and whole-heartedly with the enchanted fairy garden theme. I made sugar cookies for the fairy garden, cake pops and cupcakes with handmade fairy decorations. Yellow and pink was the colour theme as they are Tyler's favourite colours, so everything was decorated using this colour palette including the party decor.





Pink and yellow







The

 


Enchanted fairy garden sugar cookies of butterflies, flowers & stars

 The sweet table inside the enchanted fairy garden

Enchanted fairy garden cupcakes with homemade toppers

Enchanted fairy garden cake pops in pink and yellow - Tyler's favourite colours

Tyler's enchanted fairy garden



Inside the enchanted fairy garden

Love affair with sweets

I am the first to admit that when it comes to my children's birthday parties I tend to go ALL out in the food and cake department. And as a result, I've been labelled all sorts of things from slightly mad to quite clever, but my favourite all-time tag is OVERBOARD MAUDE. Yep that's me. Except my name's Leanne, and to me it's not overboard at all. I just enjoy baking and making, especially for birthday parties! I only wish I had more time to really go nuts, but 3 little kiddies under the age of 6 certainly keep me on my toes. And so I squeeze in creating their birthday themed treats at any given opportunity, even while watching a movie with my hubby, much to his disbelief, but this really is the best time to make cupcake toppers, trust me!

So I've dedided to put the last couple of years of cakes and homemade treats into a blog and capture all of my creations in the hope of showing my kids what their mother made for them through the years. And also, to capture their special days. I hope as well to inspire you to get creative, and make and bake! My kids get so excited each year with 'what cake mummy's going to make' and it shows them that anything is possible if you put your mind and heart to it.

Hope you enjoy my journey!

Leanne x