My Kids Cakes 2010

I loved baking and decorating my Kids birthday cakes this year. My new passion for cake decorating really upped the anti - the simple butter cream cake days are over - the kids (and I) now have higher expectations!!!!
The boys changed their minds lots!!!! First one theme, then another, gazing through pages of cakes online, just to find the perfect one!!
My Connor chose a star wars theme - Darth Vadar "had" to make an appearance!! I needed to practice my Mad hatter skills for an upcoming cake so after a lot of brainstorming, this is what I came up with :


Then came Jed's cake - he fairly quickly chose "Cat in the Hat" theme, his favorite book. I sketched up a cake, and this was the result :


Next was Harry's - Ok now, he was painful!!!! Changed his mind so many times!!!! 2 weeks before his Birthday I put my foot down - A decision had to be made!! He chose a Transformer cake we found a photo of on the net, here it is :

And lastly Bella. For Bella, we just wanted a really gorgeous cake. As she was only turning One, and did not have an opinion (very refreshing!!), Rhyan and I had full artsitic control!!! Im sure next year she will demand Dora or something of the sort, so this year this is what we went with :
Had so much fun with the kids cakes, great chance to try different styles, flavours, and the look on their faces when they see what Mum made especially for them is worth the many, many hours of work!!

Endings...and beginings

This week is sort of the end of an era - my baby girl turns one. She is our "last ever" baby - this is us now - our family feels right, complete. Usually as one of our kiddies turn one we are either pregnant, thinking of getting pregnant, or trying to!! Nope, not this time - no nagging feeling, no knowing that there is still one of us not yet here.
I think back to the last 7-8 years, a whirlwind, laughing, crying, laughing, and pure, pure love.
I remember all 4 births, the pain, the beauty - the very hated hospital stays. All very different, and each birth bringing us a new person, different to the one before, and binding securely to each of our souls.
I remember siblings, meeting for the first time - realizing that there really was a mini person inside of Mummy. Harry met Connor with a poke in the eye and called his new brother "Donna" for the few more months it took for him to pronounce his "C's".
Harry met Jed with lots of love and cuddles, Connor met his "Jeddy Pants" with relative disinterest!!
And then came the little Sis - Harry was overwhelmed and shy from all if the people in the room, Jed needed to tell everyone "Baby, it is a baby!!", and then Connor - he walked straight up to where I was holding Bella, cupped his hands over her head, and then my (then) 4 year old took my breath away - "Mummy..... she is just perfect". He had love and wonder in his expression, my Connor was in complete awe of his newest sibling.
I get to watch my people together everyday. They are normal kids - lots of playing, usually with an equal amount of fighting/arguing ect. I hope the sibling bond they share holds tight forever, long after I am gone. I hope they accept that each of them are so very special, and different, and that is ok.

And to my darling Harry - no, I will not have any more kids so you can have another sister, and Im sure you will thank me for this one day - Bella is going to drive you boys crazy!!!!!!!

I love....

My Harry, my baby who I once snuggled in bed with, for long delicious lazy morning cuddles. My baby whom I would spend endless amounts of time gazing at his angelic little face, drinking in every little expression, every tiny sleepy murmur. My baby, this new little person that we had no clue what to do with - he was our practice baby, had to put up with amateur parents, who were clueless but had hearts filled and overflowing with love for him.
But somehow we did something right.
And now at age 7, my baby is really growing up. Getting so tall, so very loving, more independent - and of course some days he can be a total turd burger!!
He is a typical boy - enjoys rough play, armies, cars - but he still has a gorgeous softer side. Protective of his family and friends, gentle, and my favorite - he still adores his teddies. Last week he took Little Ted to school with him for an adventure. He is not yet too cool for teddy bears. I hope this lasts, I hope he doesn't get teased out of his special love for these toys, I hope he doesn't grow up quicker than he needs too...

Harry taking great care of Little Ted - they are great mates...perfect.

Cupcake Anyone?

Thought that I would devote this entire post to Cupcakes - they deserve it, right?
I love Cupcakes, delicious flavours, sometimes filled, and always with a gorgeous swirl of icing goodness on top!



I love making decorations, especially little sugar flowers - turns an ordinary cupcake into the main event of any dessert buffet!
I think they make a beautiful gift - finding the perfect flavour and theme, then boxing them up with a sweet ribbon and tag...perfect!

Sweet Saturdays, Special Sundays

I love the weekend - no school rush, and usually if you have plans they are fun ones like picnics!
I love that the mornings start with all six of us smooshed into our bed. Lots of cuddles, lots of wrestling and lots of noise! And always a few casualties - me getting head butted in the face by Bella, Jed screaming when Bella tried to remove a clump of his hair, Dad getting winded when he copped a set of knees in his ribs, and Bella getting swiped in the face by a Dad that was running out of hands to keep all of these boys at bay - and that was all before 7.30am!

I love that my boys were full of joy and excitement for the whole time their cousin Max was here for a sleep over (and lots more wrestling!). And when we went to drop him off at Grandma and Grandpas house, what was to be a quick visit turned into a wonderful trip back to my childhood. The kids started arm wrestling and before I knew it, I was on the floor face to face with Mum. Through fits of giggles we took each other on - if you can make her giggle enough you can beat her every time! Dad still plays the same game, lets you win for a bit then takes you out! And my brother still flogs me! Was so much fun, wish I had taken my camera - there was lots of grimacing faces and giggles!

I love lazy Sundays when my Rhyan decides to do something special for his kids. One rope, one tarp, a few pavers, and 5 minutes later they had a fabulous tent to play in.
And the fun started!


Look, I got them all in one photo! Does not happen often!


Love these ones of Bella and Rhyan!


And me, I just get to soak it all in, holding back the ever present tears of complete amazement - I get to be their Mum - how lucky did I get.


And then you realize it is past lunchtime!


Another great weekend...perfect.

The Cakes

My cake journey started in February (this year) - I had been looking at some gorgeous cakes on the net, and thought "cool, new hobby time!" Quite an expensive, time consuming hobby, but I just adore cake decorating! Its artistic, challenging, and of course there is delicious cake (testing is very important!!!).
So after inhaling any cake info I could find on the net I took the plunge and bought some equipment- amazing how many bits and pieces you need for one little cake! And my first victim - my lovely Aunty Jo! This is the cake I made for her - my first ever fondant covered/decorated cake, and some mini cupcakes to match.
They went down a treat - Aunty Jo was happy and very suprised when I dropped her cakes in!
Cake and Cupcakes are Dark Choc Mud, Cake is filled with Dark Choc Ganache, and cupcake have a butter cream swirl.











I jumped head first into the deep end with my second cake. A friend asked me to do an engagement cake for their party which was still a couple of months away - and she wanted a Mad Hatter (also known as Topsy Turvey Cake/Wonky Cake/Evil, Hard, Traumatising Cake). So I needed another victim to practice on!!! My Grandma had invited all of the family over for a special Easter/Aunty Wendy's Birthday celebration. I put my hand up to do the cake - and then was a bag of nerves knowing that a lot of people would see my first madhatter effort - this could be very bad!!
Apart from all of the baking and preparation, carving, filling and ganaching, covering, smoothing I did during the week, I spent the entire day before the party decorating this cake. Hubby stepped in and kept the kiddies entertained (and away from Mummy who was just a little stressed!)
This is the finished result - Aunty Wendy loved it! I fell deeply in love with the colour combination, can't wait to use it again. Ooohhhh, have I mentioned I love roses - love making them from fondant, love looking at them in real life...beautiful.

If only I could think......

of a fabulous title for my first ever blog entry!!
I'm a little excited about this blog, a special place for me to share...well stuff!!! My gorgeous kids who light up my life and teach me so much, my new passion for decorating cakes (and any other new hobbies I take up!), better mention Hubby - the man who was made just for me, loving and experiencing life, and so much more.
Okay, a quick introduction of my people...






These are the boyz!!!
They have all recently celebrated a Birthday, so we have Harrison (Harry) who is 7, Connor who is 5, and Jed who is 3 years old.

And this is our fourth (and final!!) kidlet,
Isabella (Bella) who is 10 months old.

Will introduce Hubby another time!