Tea party!

Rebecca requested a mid - week party this year so that her friend who is unable to do weekends could come. Mid-week is not the best time for a full blown party so we chatted through the options, and essentially came down to a small group of friends coming to tea.

Rebecca loves being in owl class so chose Owls as her theme, which gave lots of opportunity to be creative!

Rather than games the girls were sent on a treasure hunt - it followed the form of a story, with Ginger a little pink and brown owl, looking for some friends....

Each clue had a problem to solve - a crossword, riddle or code and held a challenge for the girls to complete.

They made some paper friends but they were no good in the rain!

So they made some clay friends but they weren't very cuddly!

Eventually after wraps, and ice cream factory ... The clues led them to some cuddly owl cushions....

Each cushion had a pocket containing a journal

It was just lovely as the evening came to a close sitting with the girls as they filled in bit of their journal together.
It was very different to parties we have had in the past but it was great fun and just right for a 10th birthday!

Still baking!

But time to blog that's the problem! So here' s snap shot of the last few months - cakes for all seasons!

Black Forest cup cake with fresh cream

Owl cup cakes for owl class obviously!

Pudding in the park! Just a few of the 600 cakes served at the village picnic!

Experimenting with chai latte!

Treble chocolate cookies - they don't hang around long!

Rocky road - just yum!

Baby shower - for a boy obviously!

I forgot to photograph them in the mayhem of school mornings - so no single shots I'm afraid!

Off camping Sunday and have the urge to bake, nothing like freshly baked cakes - however with the instruction to pack less I might have to resist!

 

 

 

 

A cake for all seasons: Year 2 cake sale

Spot the season!

My favourite sold slower than the others!

Can you spot the difference, if you can which do you prefer? It's not the pattern on the eggs or the amount of glitter!!

40Acts: People love cake!

I love cake, let's be honest I love eating cake! But I love making cakes for people even more, so todays challenge was right up my street!
Make cake then give it away!
Cake making was already scheduled in for today - on Thursday Annie had given me a 'love' card promising to make me a cake and so we had planned to do this while daddy ran this morning.

We were just starting our challenge cakes when Keith got home so he was able to help supervise the baking!

The challenge for us was how to give them away.

Our first batch were posted on a local 'items for sale' Facebook page - 8 cakes - for free!

Keith and the girls then took cakes to our neighbours which was great as we have only been here for three months so it gave them an opportunity to say hello.
It was fun and hopefully made a few people smile today, and as for the promise cake?

She did good!

Annie did the piping and I was seriously impressed !
We had a busy day - and we even managed to complete the first week of our go local challenge!

Life from the back : Birthday Tea

Sophie chose cheese on toast for her birthday tea - with strawberries and cream for pudding, such a strange child!
And birthdays mean cake!

I experimented with gluten free flour this time - it was nice but a little gritty in texture, (it may have just been the brand of flour? ) and I made use of the rest of the hearts Sophie had made for her cup cakes.

So now just a pony cake to do for her surprise family day on Saturday.

Life from the back of the pack: Sophie is seven!

One of the features of the girls new school is that you take cupcakes in for your birthday. So last week with Sophie's birthday approaching I thought I would find out what she wanted.

She presented me with her design! Footballs for the boys and hearts for the girls.
So today she helped me make the cakes to her design!

She even made the chocolate hearts herself! We had a lovely time together, and I was reminded again how important it is to spend individual time with each of the girls even if it is challenging!
Ok now just to finish her birthday cake for tomorrow and pony cake for her surprise dinner on Saturday.

Life from the back of the pack: Barbie party!

One of the great things about having a through lounge is that it is now possible to have parties at home, though it also means inviting less children which is not such a bad thing!
Annie decided to have a Barbie partie so she invited only girls! in her class so just five children! And her cousins!
In addition to the usual games, we had a barbie bingo game - I purchased a barbie pairs game then photocopied six cards at a time to make the game cards, one of the sets was used to decorate the room and the other shuffled to use to call the bingo game.

Another barbie specific game was the 'shoe game' I purchased 20 pairs or barbie shoes online for about £3, these were hidden around the party room. The girls spotted them quickly and were desperate to play the game! There were two teams, the rules were that only one girl at a time from a team could be collecting and they were only allowed to collect one shoe at a time. They scored one point per shoe and a bonus point for each pair! It was very funny watching them trying to collect a pair rather than collecting as many as possible and then seeing what pairs they had!
And somewhere in my house those shoes are now hidden hence no photo!
Annie's present from us and her grandparents was a little shop and so instead of prizes the girls received coins, then just before tea we opened Annie's shop stocked with whistles, necklaces, rubbers, notebooks, pencils and a selection of small packets of sweets.

They all queued up beautifully to spend their money and just loved it, carefully choosing their items and paying their money - their purchases then went into a named party bag ready to take home.

It was great to be able to fit all the children round the table to eat.

We used barbie tableware so lots of pink (just for a change) and each place setting had a Chelsea doll for the girl to take home ( 3 for 2 at Argos!)

And for the third year in a row Annie had a princess cake!

As the girls finished tea and waited to be collected, they had some Barbie colouring sheets (printed from Argos Barbie site) to colour.

It was quieter than some of her parties but good to get to know some of Annie's school friends and their mums and Annie loved it. So now the question is what party featuring a princess cake will she come up with for next year!

Life from the back of the pack: Annie is 5!

It doesn't' seem that long ago that I held this tiny scrap in my arms, but she really is 5 at school and a real mischievous bundle!

Her party is not till the 15th, so this week we had cup cakes for school and a treasure chest before I make yet another princess cake! For her barbie party!

Wonky Wedding

A year ago we had a wonderful day celebrating my sisters wedding - It was an amazing day and went beautifully - which with 12 bridesmaids and pageboys under the age of 12 is no mean feat!!!

One of the lovely things about decorating cakes is that I have been able to make  my siblings wedding cakes as my gift to them. Beth  didn't know what she wanted - then she found wonky wedding cakes and that was it - so just had to work out what she wanted - it turned out to be flowers and beads - lots of flowers and beads - so for weeks my dining room table held flowers in varying stages of production and my bead box travelled with me  for those odd minutes when I could get a couple of strands made.

The cake itself was very simple decorated with varying widths and shades of blue ribbon.


The flower bouquets took a while to produce, they wrapped around polystyrene spacers to give the effect that the cake was sat on the flowers.

 

It took a while to get used to the idea of it being wonky, but I was pleased with the end result.

I set it up before the wedding and it was only during the official photos that I realised I had put one tier the wrong way round!!! It gave Beth a chuckle and though no-one else in the room had noticed I knew and so it needed to be put right!!! So a quick pause in the photo taking and all was right again!!!

 

 So all that was left was to dance the night away!!

 

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