Experiments in Icing

It was my nieces’ birthdays earlier in the month, and I got to make them birthday cakes. This was a real treat for me, as most of the time there’s not much call for excessively iced cakes round these parts. Seriously, a whole cake is a huge undertaking to eat through, and most people (myself included) find too much icing off-putting. So it’s fun to get a chance to play, though I’m still very much learning when it comes to fancy icing.

As the cakes were for kids, I only used buttercream icing, as fondant seems cruel to me (pretty icing that tastes yuck is not something five year olds appreciate). Niece the elder asked for strawberry flavour and ‘cake’ for the theme.

I also had a bunch of cake left over, and even more buttercream, so decorated some mini-cakes too. The great thing about these little ones is they’re all gluten and egg free.

Cake number two, for niece the younger. She asked for chocolate flavour and ‘a picture of her’ for the decoration. I went with a ‘thematic character portrait of her’ for the overall theme. She likes puzzles, music, pirates, butterflies ... well, take a look. I’m pretty proud of the result.

I’ll be waiting to see if I get to do another fun cake for nephews birthday mid-year, or if this was my annual icing extravaganza. Either way, I’m pleased I won’t have to eat more icing for a few months.