My little man is 5...

... and insisted that he was going to have a Cowboys and Indians party, so I got into the groove and started planning.  I really had to get my head into gear for this one, his birthday is right at the beginning of September, so invites had to be out and with his friends before he finished in July.  Quite an achievement for me to be so organized!!!

I started by spending a lovely morning in the garden, enjoying the sunshine, drinking coffee, and painting (something I rarely do).

This image was then scanned and made into invites.  I printed the cowboy onto card, cut them out and then cut holes at the bottom so that you could put your fingers through and make him dance.  They were fixed to the front of the invites with foam pads and the party details were printed on the reverse of the invites.

This cowboy was then also used for 'pin the mustache on the cowboy' (please also note the decorations the children made...the Fairy produced some fabulous artwork and the Tinker helped paint and cut out the cactus)...

... and also on the party bags.

Next up was the cowboy costume. I found the tutorial for this over at 'House of Noise... I mean boys'.  Really simple costume to make, it took about an hour and a half (honestly)...

...and it looked great!

Next came his card... had to get some paper cutting in there somehow!!! 

And backed onto his favourite colour.

For his cake I made a horse...every good cowboy needs a horse.  I simply made a template in the shape of a head, and cut it from a rectangular shaped simple sponge.  The ears were cut from spare bits of cake and I used BUTTERcream (it has to be butter!!!) to decorate it, colouring it with differing amounts of cocoa.

At parties, I always like to include an activity for them.  I feel it stops them from getting too silly, and means you don't have to play games all the time.  Simple headdresses were made, the children decorated their bands and then added their feathers.

Yee-ha, what a fab party!  

Have your cake... and eat it!

I haven't had much time this summer for baking (which is a good thing because if it's there you eat it!!!), but after catching some of The Great British Bake Off earlier in the week, I thought I would share some of this summers bakes with you.

On went one of my lovely halterneck pinnies, you need a pinny when you are baking, especially if it is with children!

I had a couple of birthday cakes to make.  The Fairy's at the beginning of the summer...

... and The Tinkers at the end!

Sails for the Pirate Galleon, courtesy of my hubby, oh and he did the weapon and pirate positioning too!!!

Baking with the children included this very scrummy apple and blackberry pie, made with blackberries the children had collected.  

And a delicious tart I made with The Fairy to take as a pudding to my mum and dads.

Yum, yum, yum!

Have you made anything good?

Guess how old my hubby is today!!!

An excuse to get my scalpel out!!

I love the fact the Fairy is still at an age that she thinks her
dad is cool.  I wonder how long it will last!!!  Her message inside was
'Keep Rockin'!!!  Bless


Work in progress

I made a paper stencil to do the cake.  It was just covered in butter cream and then I used grated chocolate to do the numbers.

I can't believe he is 40!!!

The Tinkers Birthday - brum, brum!!

Yesterday it was my little Tinkers birthday.  I can't believe he is three already... cliched I know, but time has flown!!  He really has turned into a little boy too, he loves all things mechanical and electrical.  He loves studying things to see how they work, and had lots of questions (I can't answer!!) about them.

I've always found it easy to to decide on the cakes to make for the Fairy, but I don't seem to be able to get my head around cakes for boys.  When we decided that we were going to get him a racing car bed (he spends a lot of time driving us around to beaches and to the shops with his pretend steering wheel!)  it ended up being a bit of a car themed birthday, and a 'car' cake was created.  I wasn't trying to create a racing car, but it did end up looking like a car that wouldn't have looked out of place in Wacky Races!

I made it using a banana loaf (click on the link for a recipe).  I find that banana loaf is a really good cake base to use, and have used it in most of the birthday cakes that I have made for the children.  It is easy to work with, can withstand being handled, and isn't too crumby... it is also very yummy, and doesn't need filling.

After making the cake, I left it until the following day before I 'sculpted' it using a bread knife.  I didn't have an image to work with, all the ones I had seen on line were too perfect, and often from Disney's Cars.  Not the look I was after, or one that I could achieve!! 

I then got to work with the palette knife and some rather delicious butter cream (I used double quantity).  

I used rice paper for the windows and liquorice Catherine Wheels for the wheels and the number 3.  For the lights I used some icing pens.

I know that it doesn't look professional, or perfect, but that it part of the beauty.  It made me smile once I had finished it, the Tinker loved it, and hopefully both of my children will look back on their childhood and think of the birthday cakes they had made for them, as I do now, and do the same for their children!