Baked a Cake

Welcome back on board Baked a Cake for 2015, this is your captain speaking. Can you believe that we are almost in February already?!

Well as you can tell by the lateness of my January post, I can't.
With the dates on the calendar flying by I keep thinking that I have days and days left in January but alas, I don't.

This year to get myself motivated and to build on my skills I have decided on focusing a new caking skill each month and hope you will join me on my journey this year again. 

With only two more sleeps until Christmas, it is time to introduce to you, my 12th and final cake for the year. This month I wanted to make something Christmassy but not typically Australian. 

Last Friday the Boy celebrated his 28th birthday. We have a tradition in our household to try and out-do each other with the birthday cakes that we make each other each year, and after the cake he made for my birthday, I knew I had to bring something pretty special to the table. Queue a delicious chocolate cake iced with salted caramel cream cheese icing and piled high with sticky salted caramel popcorn!

In the craziness of December, what with work deadlines, the Boy’s birthday and you know, that little thing we like to call Christmas, I also managed to squeeze in a cake for my boss, Linda. 

Last month I knocked up this quick cake for the Boy’s brother’s girlfriend, Alex.

11 countries down, just one to go! This month’s cake served a dual purpose – as well as ticking off another country off the map it was also my sister-in-law’s birthday and with the Japanophile back in town for a whirlwind trip the obvious destination was Japan.

Last month my little blog and I celebrated our birthdays – me 27 (did I just say that out loud?) and she, a whole ONE year old! It still feels surreal that Baked a Cake exists and that maybe, somewhere out there, people are actually reading my random thoughts and sharing this often panic inducing, stressful but oh so enjoyable ride of my cake decorating journey.

October was well and truly birthday month at work which gave me an excuse to try out a few techniques including a fluro pink ganache and brown sugar buttercream – so I decided to make a donut cake, which ended up resembling the Simpsons donut, complete with sprinkles.

The colours, the polka dots, the banner, the monkeys – I love everything about this cake. This is one of those my sister’s, cousin’s, best friend’s, daughter’s cat kind of stories so here goes… My clever Cacti buddy Kim, designed a super cute baby shower invitation for her friend Kat’s sister Ashley’s baby shower – phew! Kat then asked me if I would make the cake. So with invitation in hand I set about sketching some ideas down for Kat to choose from. After a couple of emails the main cake was decided on and I had the cupcake and finer details set in my head but wanted to keep them a surprise for the day.

It’s hard to believe that this time two year’s ago, the boy and I had not long returned from our first overseas trip to Sri Lanka. We spent an amazing 3 ½ weeks gallivanting around the Sri Lankan countryside on a motorcycle and Jeep tour with my brother Lee and sister-in-law with the same tour company that Lee know works with over in Vietnam – the fabulous Hoi An Motorcycle Adventures.

To celebrate the anniversary of our trip I decided to make a delicious Sri Lankan Love Cake (recipe taken from Peter Kuruvita).