Baked a Cake

A couple of weeks ago I made probably my favourite cake to date for one of my favourite little girls. Some of you may remember the Nanna Teddy cake I made last year for Ayla. Well this year her lovely mum Ali set me a great theme, a Snugglepot and Cuddlepie cake fit for a foraging party. Almost instantly I had an idea for a cake. I went home and sketched up a design - a cute two-tier cake with a tree stump look for the bottom tier (inspired by Sharon Wee) and a hand painted top tier with Snugglepot and Cuddlepie illustrations.

I knew I was in track with my design when I met up with Ali and she gave me a huge slab as wood for a cake stand (exactly what I had been looking for). I asked Ayla what flavoured cake she would like – her first answer was ‘icing’, followed by berry or orange – I decided on a vanilla butter cake with a homemade raspberry jam swirl and white chocolate ganache.

The cake was a lot of fun to make and so cute to see come together. I traced the images from my Snugglepot and Cuddlepie book and transferred them onto the top tier and then coloured them in using a combination of gel food colouring and petal dusts. I then covered the bottom tier with a dark brown fondant (which was very sticky due to the amount of colour in needed to add to the white base – note to self, next time buy chocolate fondant) and used my flower modelling tools to make impressions to mimic a tree stump – a bit of brown, black, yellow and red petal dust and we were on our way.

I wanted to continue the woodland theme so crushed some chocolate biscuits in the food processor for the forest floor and froze some green fondant to grate for the moss and grass. To complete the cake I contacted the lovely Kyrie from Glistening Occasions, who designed a beautiful round, wooden laser-etched ‘Ayla is 3’ topper complete with gumnuts and blossoms – the perfect finishing touch.

After a stressful morning (a big sorry to the boy – apparently I turn into a cranky monster when I deliver cakes as well as when I’m hungry) we arrived at the Hunter Wetlands Centre and set up the cake – Miss Ayla joined me and helped to grate the grass onto the cake – such a clever little Miss and was such a lovely touch.

Ayla’s mum Ali had done a wonderful job setting the theme with stunning flower crowns as party favours for the kids created by our talented friend Gill from Autumn Kisses Floral Design and had some yummy food for us all to eat before the cake - even a little rain couldn’t rain on Ayla’s parade.

Thank you Ali for including me in such a special day – can’t wait for next year :)

* Photos supplied by the super talented mummy, Ali - can't get enough of that cheeky smile!