Bad Mum moment... (oh the shame!)

I had a great weekend celebrating my Small Boy's birthday. I even made a cake that looked like this.

Exactly like this. This is the actual cake. 

Anyway, it was back to school and kindy and work today - except for me who had a day off. Yay me! This particular day off meant that I could do something I've wanted to do for ages - accompany Small Boy to kindy.

So... late last night, after all the lovely birthday festivities, I set about making the obligatory 24 mini-cupcakes.

What can I say? It was late, I was tired and all birthday-ed out.

They looked a bit like little black golfballs, placed in odd-shaped and ill-fitting wrappers (I'd used all the 'good' ones at the party) and covered in drippy white icing. BUT. I did manage to find a new 4 shaped candle, popped them all on a cupcake tree thingy and thought to myself, "Well done you! You didn't even have to go to Woolies in the morning! You made cakes like a real mum!"

I mean, really. If I got to kindy late, the only people who were going to see the sad little cupcakes were going to be four year olds and their lovely, kind teacher. Who all presumably love cake. So who cares.

So you can imagine my horror when half-way through the morning another mum turned up.

"Can you give me a hand, please?" She asked. I went out to her car where she began to load me up with perfectly symmetrical, Peppa Pig adorned, iced miracles. Complete with Peppa Rocket cupcake stand. Beautiful. And set right beside my drippy black and white mess. You know - just in case anyone had missed the comparison.

Well done me, indeed.

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I might add, I had imagined re-using the pig figures I made on the kindy cake. Until I left them on the stairs after the party as I was bringing things upstairs to the kitchen... and the dog licked Peppa's ears clean off her head.

Tip: colouring fondant red

I love working with fondant when it comes to making my kids' cakes. It's kind of like year nine art class all over again, and despite my reluctance to start a new project, I always come away feeling ok about my efforts as a mummy who decorates!

Red fondant is a tricky one, though. Where we live it has to be ordered and sent and as I am a last minute kind of girl, who have birth to similarly last minute kind of children (I want a train cake...no - Yoda... hang on, I think I want a red ninja cake... or...) I just never get my act together in time to do anything as grown up as ordering ahead. Plus, I am a Scrooge and like to keep things cheap and cheerful where possible.

So... having made both Mater Truck and a Red Power Ranger Samurai cake this year, I thought I'd share my secret to 'el cheapo' red fondant icing.

Paint it.

As in with a paint brush.

Easy, isn't it? I use a watercolour brush and red food colouring and have found that two quick coats gives a beautiful sheen - and limits the amount of red colouring your little munchkins will ingest (not a fan of all those E numbers or hyper kids).

Hmmm... Mack? or Mater?

Yesterday my small boy turned two. I, being the sentimental mother, cried twice because I no longer have a baby in my house.

It hurts when they turn two. No more shopping in the baby section, no more specially prepared dinners since they seem to be able to hang out until family dinner time. More rules, more nos, less cuddles, more "I do it!" moments. They don't need you so much at two. And really, isn't being needed one of the nicest things about motherhood? Being actually useful, indespensible, the only one who can do your job. You're kind of replaceable in all your other roles in life.

Remember here I said I feel obligated to provide 'repeat experiences' so that all of my kids got the same opportunities in childhood? I will get around to writing about the other silly things I've done one of these days. Well, the home-made and decorated birthday cake is one of those burdens obligations I have handed myself. I try to make them a cake that represents their interests at that moment in time. With Mr Z about to turn 7, I'm wondering when it will all end - age 10? Whoa, that's 30 cakes I have to devise and create. Easier said than done.

Anyway. I set the bar kind of high with my other kids' cakes, so I knew this one had to be special. My little M doesn't really have favourite activities (except stealing my iPhone), he doesn't have a favourite teddy to cuddle, he doesn't have any real obsessions (except yoghurt, and throwing things down the stairs). But he does seem to gravitate toward a certain 'hand-me-down' Mack Truck which transforms into a race track. So I decided to go with that.

I made it the night before after three glasses of wine (we'd been at another party), am concerned it's a little more red Mater than Mack Truck, but the kids seemed to like it. I misjudged the hat size when I cut the cake blocks, I hadn't realised how central Mack's Trucker cap was to the character before I started. Although, that was probably due to the wine, it seems so obvious now!!!

Anyone wanting some tips from a *very* amateur cake maker? I always think it's best to learn from other people's mistakes, don't you?!

• I laid THREE layers of rolled out white icing over the cake.  
• I learned (this time around) that rolling the icing on a piece of glad wrap and smoothing over the cake with the glad wrap still on top is the best way to make the outline smooth (again, maybe obvious to most, but I'm no cake-maker!).  
• I tried dying the white icing with pillar-box red food colouring, but couldn't get past pink. I ended up covering with white icing and painting the whole thing with a watercolour brush and a bowl of the red food colouring. That was one coat of red (because it was midnight and I was exhausted). I think two or three layers would give the best result.
• The grey pipes at the back are drinking straws I covered in grey dyed icing and then poked into the cake.
• This time I baked mud cake as sponge cake would have just collapsed under the weight of the icing (again, things I learned the hard way)