The time up to Christmas is always busy for me, as it is for a lot of people. Since my last post, there has been more dancing (attempts), illness, days out, cake making and decorating, not least of all this cake I made the week before last for a special little boy’s second birthday. His mum found this amazing picture to inspire me with the idea of Thomas the Tank Engine coming out of a tunnel on the side of the cake. Of course, my first instinct was to panic as the original cake is quite a project for a relative novice, but I soon settled happily upon a scaled down interpretation. The cake is a 9″ square chocolate sponge split into three layers with a rich chocolate buttercream filling, and covered in sugarpaste with a sugarcrafted model Thomas. I was really happy with the results as it is quite different from what I’ve done before and I love a challenge. Choo Choo!
Ninetieth Birthday Cakes and Step Ball Changes. Not necessarily in that order.
10 Nov
It has been a busy couple of weeks with illness, birthday celebrations, roadtrips, cake decorating classes and, last but not least, practises for the little show I am in for our Women’s Institute birthday party in a couple of weeks time. My main achievement from these rehearsals so far is having mastered the step-ball-change. My learning curve started with my dear friends Google and Youtube and then progressed to real-life friends, all apparently naturals at this nifty manoeuvre. Thank you to anyone reading this who has given me a demonstration. I am pleased to say that I have now conquered it using my right leg. On the left, I am still moving and looking like a reject from the some kind of Saturday night Riverdance-orientated reality TV talent show hosted by Graham Norton. I do not need Craig Revel-Horwood to tell me that it is a bit crap, just as he doesn’t need me to tell him that he is a bit orange. You will gather, as I have always known, that my talents do not lie in the artform that is dance. At least there are no leotards involved in the show – well, not for me anyway.
My recent cake activity has been centred around the ninetieth birthday of a very special lady, for whom I made an eight inch Vanilla Madeira Sponge with seedless (very important on these occasions!) raspberry jam and white chocolate buttercream. The cake was finished with soft rolled icing and sugar flowers and butterflies in toning pastel shades of yellow, orange, pink and lilac. I am told that there were tears when it was presented to the birthday girl and she really appreciated it, which was very lovely to hear. Sadly, I am not sure that there will be tears when I make my dancing debut in a couple of weeks time. Well, maybe not tears of joy anyway.
janehuntley 