The Rainy Days Peplum

It was Maia's birthday party yesterday and in my typical last-minute fashion I made the party bags the night before, the cake the morning of, and the outfit an hour before. Will I ever learn? Nope.

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade; when life gives you relentless, soul-destroying weather, you make Rainy Days peplum tops.

Instead of hemming, I edged the flounce with the same knit binding as I used on the sleeve edges and neckline.  This gives the peplum a bit more body and ties the two prints together.  I kind of wish I'd inserted it in the waist seam as well but you can't be too ambitious sewing against the clock.

All in all, we succeeded in sending our message to the powers that be: you can freeze us, you can soak us, you can knock our bins over every week with your preternaturally strong winds, but we will make clothes about it and wear the sh*t out of them.

The party bags are simple drawstring bags in rainbow hues, french seamed throughout. Six year olds are so snobbish about seam finishes.  I made the labels in Picmonkey and printed them on my beloved address label printer.

Now that I've gotten the weather, the top, and the party bags out of the way let's not beat about the bush.  I know that some of you are here for the biannual cake wreck (looking at you, Juicy Tots).... Will it be tagged 'terrible baking'? Or 'not terrible baking'?

Behold the majesty of the freckles, the chin, the cheekbones, those catchlights.  I think we can agree that that is one skillfully-rendered Care Bear head.  Only two people thought it was a pig so I'm calling this a (relative) win.

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The Super Moshi birthday experience

Five years ago today, a small girl came into the world and our hearts.  She is made of equal parts of kindness, enthusiasm, graciousness and love for her family and friends.

With a bouncy castle rented for the celebrations, I opted for a jumpsuit rather than a dress or skirt.  If I'm truthful, I liked the rainbow jumpsuit more in my head than in actual form.  You can't win them all.

The rain almost held off for the duration of the party which was especially fortuitious as it bucketed down for the rest of the day.  So bouncing was enjoyed by all, but not as much as the big jumps off the side.

Except for this big jump. Not quite as enjoyable.  It's okay to laugh though because no one was hurt.

All right, let's get down to business then.  I know you are all here to revel in the inevitable cake fail. This Moshi Monster figure was my brief.  He sees your problems, world, and will fight if necessary but will give you the side eye while he does it.  Obviously, I couldn't render this face in cake form because who wants a frowning, judgemental cake?

So I choose a more bonhomie Super Furi.

Cheerful, no doubt, but more than a little bit sheepish.  See the bottom right corner looks a bit different?  Jamie actually surreptitiously stuck his hand into the cake before anyone else was up and clawed a section off.  I don't even know who he is anymore.

My favourite birthday pic is always the one that captures the reaction to my monstruous cakes.  Maia's face is saying, 'Oh, you'; her companion's face is saying, 'What is going on I can't even' but you'll just have to fill that in yourself. 

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Where Dreams are made

Watch your back, food bloggers, I have a new oven.

A place where dreams* are made.

*If by dreams you mean bad dreams.

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The birds were Angry before. Now they're Ashamed.

It was the boy's sixth birthday on Sunday. I know, right? SIX. I tried to negotiate with him to be five again (because I really enjoyed his five year old self) but we put it to a family vote and majority ruled he should be six. Maia voted for him to be a baby again. Other than cake and presents, it was pretty much business as usual.

Pictured: business as usual.

Oh, cake you say?..... Welcome back 'terrible baking' tag.

Inspiration from here. I dunno, a bit 'meh'.

Amazing, flawless, stunning, etc.

Cue bemused expressions. Yes, Jamie, I seriously did do that.

She might have danced, but she couldn't bear to look.

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A spoonful of sugar helps the cyanide go down

Remember the post I wrote about how stressful I find crafting with the kids? Well, let me regurgitate that post, and substitute 'baking' for 'crafting'. A couple of days ago we made sugar cookies so we could cut them out with our little cutters. My favourite bit was when Maia started a tug of war with me when I was measuring a cup of flour, wrenched it out of my hand and threw it over her shoulder.


My second favourite bit has been the intervening 72 hours where Jamie has begged to eat the cookies at ten second intervals.


I had to edit myself out of these pictures because I looked so furious it would have scared you. Plus my fleece leisurewear would have made you insanely jealous (yes, you, @mockduck). So what's the consensus, is baking with kids any more fun than crafting with kids? Does anyone want to share baking tales to console me that I'm not alone?

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Preamble to pie

I had a big quandary last night about the pie I'm providing for Thanksgiving lunch at a friend's...

Then she sends me an over-complicated pumpkin pie recipe....

I hope Cathy forgives me...

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Irony and Surrealism in baking

Yesterday was Jamie's 4th birthday. Those of you who've followed my blog for awhile know that I'm an awesome baker and cake decorator. But I was worried, how could I top the Bell's Palsy Super Why, Volcanic Fifi, and Leprous Peppa? I asked Jamie what type of cake he wanted in the run up to the big day, and he was insistent that he wanted a 'Thomas the Tank Engine' cake. I was disappointed by his choice as I think Thomas lacks irony, but it is ironic in it's own way because Jamie doesn't like Thomas. At all. He's pretty much his least favourite cartoon incarnation. So this is the cake I was imagining making him:


While this cake would have undoubtedly been amazing, I couldn't help but think that Jamie would have been disappointed because it's not really a Thomas cake, it's more of a Tree cake. So I was back to the drawing board... It needed to have more Thomas, but still challenge me on an artistic level. I got to thinking, 'What if I made a Thomas cake, but pretended I was a Surrealist Artist?' But which Surrealist would I choose? I thought about choosing a more obscure artist like Tanguy or Ernst but the kids' art history is still pretty remedial so I settled on Salvador Dali. They were certain to get the reference point. My inspiration:


And as applied to a Thomas Cake:


Just look how I nailed Dali's technique making the wheels. It was pretty tricky to get this effect right, I had to take a perfectly simple icing recipe and completely screw it up so that it could slide off the side of the cake. I'm a little bit nervous about posting my baking secrets as I know a couple of professional bakers read my blog. Not that they'd scoff at my efforts, but they might steal my ideas.

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Birthday roundup: smallpox cake and excursions

Okay, I know you've all been dying to see which cartoon character I bastardized in cake form (as is the tradition in this family) for Maia's birthday. Spongebob and Peppa Pig were the forerunners, I even considered a tandem friendship shot but it probably would have blown their wee minds, as well as look doubly terrible. So Peppa it was. This was probably my most risky endevour to date, as Peppa has a somewhat *ahem* phallic bone structure so it could have gone oh-so-inappropriately wrong. In the end I downsized her snout and upsized her face, which was clearly deliberate rather than just my artistic shortcomings. When my cake when baking, it gained a crispy flaky crust which I should have scraped off before icing (but didn't), so Peppa has the appearance of the pox under her pan-stick make-up exterior. She's smiling to put on a brave face, but her cold dead raisin eyes tell a different story. But nevermind, Jamie ate with relish. Maia turned her nose up.

So what of the rest of the day? We went to East Links Country farm, where the kids patently ignored the animals but instead availed themselves of all the other activities on offer. Apologies for the number of pics, I normally create a wee slideshow in Kodakgallery for such occassions but I'm too lazy busy to multitask.

Riding trikes

Climbing

Going down tunnels

Swinging

Sliding

Being chauffered about

Being taught by Mum to take risks and be adventurous

But Jamie can't bear to look and Maia is indifferent

Eating ice cream

Bouncing

Taking a train through the white light of the afterlife animal enclosure

Checking out the animals

Watching / performing magic. This was their favourite bit, in the Shooting Ball Room. After filling this tube with foam balls, a push of the button and they'd all shoot out.

I love the wonder on their faces...

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