Last week Lara turned 4 (although, looking at her you'd say she was heading for 16). We took Lara to choose her new bike and then we went for a day out at Wellington Country Park. In true 'National Picnic Week' style we enjoyed a picnic together by the lake.
This weekend was a much less peaceful affair. On Friday night I set to creating Lara's Hello Kitty birthday cake. This time last year I made the epic Winne the Pooh cake in my spare time on maternity leave while baby Holly was sleeping. This year I'm back at work and Holly barely gives us a spare minute to ourselves so making a cake is a little more of a rush but, despite being finished a full 24 hours later than planned, the cake seemed to be a success.
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| Hello Kitty Birthday Cake |
I will admit that I cheated a little and, after much umming and aaahing I decided to buy a Hello Kitty cake tin from ebay because I wasn't convinced that I would be able to get the correct shape for her face. I'm glad I did.
The cake itself is a chocolate sponge made using the basic sponge recipe from the Great British Bake Off Showstoppers book (its a 4 egg sponge) and I'm beginning to learn that the secret to a good sponge is to cook it for a long time in a low oven... mine took about an hour to cook.
The cake is covered with a very thin layer of marzipan and then a layer of white fondant. The eyes, whiskers and bow are made with pre-coloured ready to roll icing but I coloured the nose myself (I wasn't going to buy a whole pack of yellow icing for just the nose!) The bow is outlined using an edible icing pen.
Lara's Hello Kitty themed party went incredibly well and all the children were phenomenally well behaved. We played a Hello Kitty treasure hunt, pass the parcel and Pin-the-bow-on-the-Hello-Kitty. Everyone went home smiling.
