'Tis the season with my new friend

Not for jolliness, no.... well, not Christmas jolliness. It seems the birthday season is kicking in... not that there really is such a thing. But maybe people are emerging from the Christmas/holiday season, rubbing their eyes in dismay that the real world is here once again with winter (seemingly rapidly) approaching and feel the need for something a little gorgeous and happy in front of them once again.

So, I have a new kitchen friend, rapidly becoming my best friend. I am barely scratching the surface of its potential, but its yellowy gorgeousness alone makes me happy all over every time I walk into the kitchen. My lovely husband ordered this for me off Amazon for my birthday... check it out. I think she (yes, I'm pretty sure its a she) deserves a name, I haven't come up with one yet, so let me know if you have any suggestions:

The power and magical abilities of the mixer are still quite incredible to me, for a girl that used to mix nearly all her cakes with a wooden spoon, I've done the hard yards and this feels like luxury.

As I mentioned, I've had a couple of birthday cakes over the last two weeks. In some respects birthday cake designs are quite challenging.... the design options are fairly endless, there are certainly less traditional boundaries than for a wedding cakes. You have to find the right balance of not making it too big or over the top (or too insignificant) for the occasion, AND people are far less fussed on the design for a birthday... and are more inclined to just leave it up to you. There is some great freedom in that, I get to try new things I've been thinking of, but naturally I start questioning myself quite a lot.

Here is a cake that I did for my aunty's 60th. I've done a bunch of ribbon and gift type cakes but this was my first attempt at making it look like a gift box. Admittedly it wasn't as perfect as I wanted it to be, but it was still lovely and most importantly she was really happy with it:

I got to try out even more new skills on this next cake, which I told my friend part way through making the cake... 'hey, by the way, I've never done this before'. No pressure. I also learned that making a cake at someone elses house is far more relaxing than at your own... I don't even know why, no explanation.

I've never really done much piping work, to me it is far more daunting and difficult than working with fondant... in my head anyway. This cake has proven to me that I was wrong, for basic piping anyway... now I'm wondering what other fabulous things I can pipe!

This cake was for a 1st birthday cake, which I find incredibly exciting... first birthday EVER!!! It doesn't matter that they probably won't remember or that its absolutely chock full of sugar that they don't really need at that age... none of it matters, it is the FIRST EVER birthday cake! So we just wanted it to be colourful, simple and a vision of pink loveliness inside and out, I think we achieved:

I'll leave you with this final picture than my husband took at the 1st birthday party. This picture is why making cakes is so great sometimes.... Seeing this: