Birthday Cake Nr 4!

There is no way I am buying a ready made cake from a bakery, when it comes to birthdays!
Not that I don't like them... It just doesn't seem natural to buy, as opposed to bake!

This year, for my little one's 4th birthday, I decided to use fondant. It is actually the second time I ever used fondant on a cake. I use it more often on sugar cookies. My favourite is buttercream, but for certain decorations, well, you can't beat fondant!

Ioanna likes the sea a lot, likes fish, likes Nemo, so.... it was an instant decision to make something related to fish.

The cake, itself, was a brown sugar cake. I found a mind blowing recipe from Summer's blog Cake, Paper, Party. Really, amazing, amazing cake. Loved the taste, loved the smell!
Also, this cake keeps well in the fridge. It was very moist and tender, even after 5 days!

The filling was a classic buttercream: 250gr butter, 500gr icing sugar, beat together, done!
In it I added 3/4 cup cream cheese, the zest of an orange and 1/2 cup orange juice (about...).

As the cake is very sweet, I wanted to pair it with something fresh and not-that-sweet. The addition of cream cheese really helped tone down the sweetness of the icing sugar in the buttercream.

I crumb coated the cake with butter cream and chilled it.
Then I covered it with white fondant.
For the "Sea" I coloured pieces of fondant in the 3 different blue hues and rolled them in strips. Using a sharp knife, I cut the top of the strips wavy.
I glued the on the white base with water.

Then I shaped the fish, which I also glued with water.

We had her birthday party at our summer house, so I didn't have all my baking equipment with me. Therefore, the fondant is not as smooth as I would like.

Also, at first I kept the fondant covered, but after a point, I was in a hurry and left the strips uncovered. Hence some dryness at the edges...

She loved her cake!
The combination of flavours was amazing!

All in all... success!

Louise!

Holidays!

We are back!

Returning from summer vacation is always bittersweet... You miss your home, but at the same time you miss that relaxing, carefree feeling!

We only went away for two weeks, never the less we had a very good time!

Mountainous Korinthia, seaside Kiato and seaside Kimi. Great time, great scenery, great beaches, great food!

Waiting for the tomatos in our garden to get all red...

 The blackberry season started... We went berry picking!

 We relaxed under the fir trees in our garden....

We played at the beach and searched for sea glass...

Listening to the waves...


I am looking back and feel good with the quality and great time of our vacation.

I am looking ahead and wishing for a prosperous, cold (yes, I prefer the cold to the heat!) winter.


Louise!

Playing with Barbie dolls !!! - 03

Doll accessories are amazing, but rather expensive...

I wanted a wardrobe for Ioanna's Barbie dolls, but at 35 Euros, well, maybe in the future, not now. So I decided to get crafty...
After all a little girl just wants a wardrobe to play with, she doesn't care how much it costs.

Take a large shoe box.

Create a pattern in Word and print it.
Then glue it inside.

 For the rack I had a little help from G.

Also, I made a pattern for the bottom and the front to make it look more "real".

The nob is a marker cap painted gold. I also painted the exterior of the wardrobe with some left over wall paint.

I made hangers from metallic paper clips and shelves from a small juice box, which I glued on the bottom.

(Please excuse Euterpe, she just got out of bed and is still in her night gown... What to wear today?)

I also glued a hanger on the door for larger items or a shopping bag.

It is really easy to make things for your little one and trust me, you will enjoy making it more than you will enjoy buying it!



Louise!