Cake for you!

Did I say Tuesday? Well it's Wednesday - is that ok? I don't know what happened to Tuesday. I missed it. I've been busy! Can you see?......
I just had to finally finish this superb book by Mark Cocker. For me a superb book is not about 'unputdownable'. This one I had to keep putting down. I've been reading it since before Christmas but there was so much to savour on every page I just couldn't read it in big chunks. Every page made me want to stop, think and ponder. So, if you want to learn to see in a new way. To notice the beauty in your own back garden - when you thought you had seen it all and couldn't notice anything new.... this is the book. Highly recommended! So you see, I was very busy! And the boy has been busy too...
he finally finished his puppy quilt block so that I could make up a cushion for his favourite rocking chair....(I do wish a little that he hadn't chosen those old curtains for the backing but it's his cushion so I had to let him!)
and then I did a bit of photography for you. Am I the only numpty who can't do these mirror shots? I was trying to work out the angle of the camera to show you my lovely new necklace....close up I kept getting the top of my head or the belt of my jeans, this is the best I did....
So I gave up on the '-in situ' shot and took this one instead which really does show my beautiful new necklace to perfection. I am in love with my 'loved' necklace! And Lisa who makes these and many others has offered a giveaway for you my lovely readers, so I'm going to be doing that with you in February....
and then I heard from Kate who runs a fair trade site and she has offered one of these jolly lovely juice bag shoppers. I love these - they always make me smile they are so overtly recycled! So that will be a giveaway for you in March. Good heavens isn't this fun!
But for January it's my month! And because we missed my birthday (did you spy my deliciously lovely new mummy mug?!) I thought that the most appropriate thing to give you would be cake! Well actually the winner can select from lots of different brooches. We'll talk about that so to be sure you get the flavour you love! Speaking of which - how to enter?
Well, I think I'd like to hear your favourite cake eating memory. Yes - that's it. When was your happiest cake?
For me it would have to be a cake my parents made when I was six - Every year my birthday party was tagged onto my big brothers- he was sensibly born in mid-summer when outdoor parties were far more practical. And every year for the Big Party my parents would build the most amazing cakes for us - always a number each (just like I do for the beautiful boy) and then another one, a veritable work of art - aeroplanes with swiss roll fuselage, galleons with licorice allsort gun holes....
and one year, a castle and fairground - I can remember the late night panic with the toffee walls which kept collapsing and going to bed thinking it was all going to be the most awful disaster. We awoke to lots of sheets of floppy toffee many thrown out into the garden to perplex the birds, and a castle with cream cracker walls! And then there was the fairground. A little girl's heaven! Green coconut grass, sponge cake stalls topped with Tom Thumb pip fruits surrounded by little crinoline ladies. OH how I loved that cake! I recently found this photograph. Of course it's never quite the same as you remember, but the magic is there...
Can you see it?
So, what's your happy cake memory? Was it a birthday, or a wedding or maybe tea out with someone special or maybe it wasn't the cake that was special so much as the location or the occasion. No rules, just happy memories! I'll let you think about it until next Wednesday just so you can savour all those happy yummy moments! t.xx

Comments

LissyLou said…
goodness me, my happiest cake?

The one that springs to mind is a fairy castle cake when i was four that was pink with ballerinas all around it.
Last year my thoughtful hubby bought me a vegan cake (as i don't eat eggs now too), that was gorgeous, although i only got to try a little bit as i had a veri dicky tummy!!!
Hope he gets me one this year!!!
Mrs. Cozy Home said…
I've got one! My fourth birthday -- I'm born on Halloween, making for a great birthday party!

It was a two layer white cake, white frosting, piped orange frosting around the top and base, with the BEST little plastic and corn husk Halloween spooky figures on top...

A black cat on a fence, a scarecrow, pumpkins growing ... I remember being amazed that it was for ME!
Lululiz said…
I have very fond memories of making a buttercream gateau with my mother when I was a little girl. Getting the buttercream just right was only part of it, then it had to be beautifully decorated with one of those decorating thingies, and I was so proud when my mum let me do it all by myself.
cupcake studio said…
A very sweet co-worker made me the most beautiful cake when I got a promotion at work. It was completely unexpected...a lovely buttercream yellow with pansies on top. It truly was the most beautiful cake ever (aside from the cake with the Barbie doll in it that my mom made! Remember those, with the big 'skirt' of cake?)
Anonymous said…
I'm sorry if this is predictable but it's going to have to be my wedding cake. We had a surprise wedding. The relief of having 'conned' over 100 guests to the venue meant that anything would be just perfect, and our 3 tier chocolate extravaganza certainly was!xx
I would be my 24th Birthday cake my dad made me (I convinced him every year I wasn't too old) He made it for me on a weekend home from hospital (he suffered with depression)and it was the best as a few months later he died. Not the happiest of stories but it was the cake that means the most.
Ali X
tea and cake said…
One of my happiest 'Cake' memories happened just last year! My 12 year old grand-daughter made a beautiful fish birthday cake. for her little sister's 2nd birthday. Nanny Best Girl worked at it all day, from making the cake, cutting it about, colouring the icing, etc etc. You can see it on my blog, here

http://teandcake.blogspot.com/2009/06/icing-talent.html

if you wish.
I love your cupcakes!
Shsjndkdns said…
My 18th birthday cake was really special because it was personalised with a colourful artists paint board and brushes as I had just completed my art exam and passed :) also, because I had never had a cake that had been made specially for me, that was very special x
GardenOfDaisies said…
WOw! The cakes your parents made for you are amazing!
I think one of my happiest cake memories was the year I turned 8. Just a couple of days before my birthday our family had moved overseas and we were living temporarily in the hotel. My mom and dad walked down the block to a bakery and bought a slice of cake with a little tiny dolly on top and brought it back to the room for me. I was so surprised just to get cake that year. I still have that little doll... I need to go get her out of my treasure box and take a picture.
Jenn M said…
My Mum always made fun,lovely cakes for us, and it's something I have tried to continue with my own kids. For some reason the cake I had on my fourth or fifth birthday sticks out the most: a two layer cake frosted with fushia icing and a ring of pink and yellow chenille snails on top. Such a good memory...
claire said…
Hope your birthday was happy x
I can't remember which birthday it was but probably 6th or 7th and I had a beautiful princess with a Sindy doll stuck in it!!
I still think of it now..in fact must get mum to see if there are any photo's...thanks for the memory jog x
Faded Splendour said…
I have two cake memorys, one was of the cake my mum made for my birthday... she had no letter R's so substituted a letter P, she figured nobody would notice....they did... Cpaig phah

The second is a more distant memory of getting a cake makers telephone no for you.... (Doing it today honest)

Cx
Anonymous said…
I think my favourite cake making memory has to be one of my birthdays. I loved cooking when I was a child, and so part of my birthday was choosing and making my own cake - my mum was more than happy to oblige and we'd shop together for all the ingredients. So for this particualr birthday I choose a recipe from my mum's "reader's digest" cookery cards ( am I showing my age ?!) and made the cake and covered it with chocolate butter cream. The best bit about the cake, was that when you cut into it was checked ...I was so proud I'd made it !
My favourite cake memory is when my husband and I first got together and he lived in London and I lived in Devon, when he used to come down (every other weekend) we would always go and hang out in China Blue in Totnes and drink coffee and always, always, eat cake - yum! x
Anonymous said…
One year for my b-day,I made a Pineapple Upside-Down cake. My 3-yr old niece was visiting us at the time. After we all ate our piece I went to gather her bowl which was amazingly empty! I noticed then she had stuffed her piece of cake into her dress-up shoe...my shoe. Really, the cake wasn't that bad ;)
A Thrifty Mrs said…
Mine was my wedding cake.
We had planned a massive wedding, big church, hotel the works. But I fell pregnant and our baby was sadly stillborn. It was a really tough year. We cancelled the big wedding and scaled back to a small wedding in a teeny castle in Scotland with just 10 people who had really cared for us that year. T
he cake was made by Mr Thrifty's mother, it was lemon cake topped with chocolate icing. The sweet taste and energy of the day made me cry. Made me cry because people who cared about us had came to see us start our married life together and because I was so happy to be in love. That day was filled with such bittersweet pain and yet remarkable happiness.

The bottom part of the cake is in our freezer and one day we will serve it at the baptism of our baby to be. That will outstrip our wedding day as my happiest cake eating memory.

x
MelMel said…
A lovely necklace...cool bag too....

My best cake wa s cake I had when I was child, it was 5 teddies in a bed all the cake was the bed and the teddies were tucked in under the icing blanket....was lovely...xx
lemonade kitty said…
My best cake wasn't actually mine but my younger sister's. Just before she died She celebrated her 40 th birthday and I got her a cake made by "Bettys" it was 16 little square cupcakes all beautifully iced and had all the families names on aswell as "40". We all sat round the table tucking into a little cake each such wonderful memories...Lucey xx Those brooches are gorgeous.
Happy belated birthday!

For me, it has to be the chocolate grandfather clock which my mum made every year with the time pointing to my new age. Oh, and then there was the chocolate hedgehog cake with chocolate buttons/mint sticks...
Those brooches are so lovely! My favourite cake memory was when I was about five, and my Mum had made me a birthday cake and put it 'out of the way' on top of a dresser in the sitting room. Somehow I must have found out it was there, I climed onto the arm of the chair, and stuck my finger into the icing. Three times. (I've always had a sweet tooth). Mum didn't find out until she took it down on the day. And why is it my favourite memory? Because it's the one and only time I got caught being naughty!
Ooops, that should be 'climbed'
All so adorable, where to i begin!! Love Posie
VintageVicki said…
My 30th birthday cake my Dad made me - coz it was the first time he'd made a cake!

Was a chocolate sponge with chocolate butter cream filling and green icing - the top was covered with sweets - milkyway stars, chocolate buttons & dolly mixtures.
I've got two favourites if that's allowed. The first was a maypole cake for my fifth birthday. I'm a midsummer's day girl so it was vaguely appropriate, a pink iced sponge with the giant stick of rock as the maypole, trailing ribbons out to little plastic dancing girls around the edge. I loved it, and my mother still has one of the little dancing girls in her icing box. The second is my joint 29th birthday cake (joint with the husband). It's a pirate ship, stranded on a desert island, ridiculously decorated and I had the most fun making it. You can see pictures of it here: http://knittedbear.blogspot.com/2009/06/birthday-daze.html
Gill said…
can't remember what age i was but does anyone remember the cakes with a doll in the middle and the cake was the dress??
i loved it!!
gill
Shannon said…
My happiest cake memory wasn't actually about a cake for me. Two years ago, we moved to a small town. My then 15-year-old daughter had left behind all of her friends. For her birthday, two of her new friends brought her a tres leche cake... as she leaned in to blow out the candles, they pushed her face in the frosting. This was a standing tradition with their group of friends, and with that chummy prank, my daughter knew she was really part of the gang!
prettyshabby said…
Happy belated birthday T..love the necklace, really do..and the mummy mug, lots!
I find it's best to use the mirror to see the lcd bit on the camera, so the lens is facing you and the lcd bit the mirror..does that make sense? not that I take lots of self portraits, mind!!

anyway..CAKE my most favourite of subjects.. our funniest cake memory has to be the hedgehog cake made by my mother in law for my youngest sons' 5th birthday.(he's now 16) The chocolate button covered hedgehog cake was made with a dome of cake that was cut in half and the two halves joined together somehow, when it arrived at the table,it really looked a sorry sight, Granny had put the two halves the wrong way together with the high bit on the outside and there was a large dip in the middle making the hedgehog look like he had had a very bad accident with a car, not a pretty sight. Harry cried because we were all laughing so much at the unfortunate masterpiece but we still say today..remember that run-over-hedgehog cake. That cake is now Legendary. x
GerryART said…
When I was about eight or so my Mother surprized me with a beautiful Pink Iced Cake. It was the first cake with icing I'd ever seen. Not made by my mother, but by the neighbor. It was the most beautiful cake I can remember.
Anonymous said…
Mine has to be when I had my 7th birthday and it was a Care Bear cake! A friend of my parents had made a Care Bear out of icing, it was fabulous. I tried to keep it in my cupboard (don't worry, I'd eaten the cake on the day with my party guests!!) but I kept going to have a nibble on it when I was sent to my room and hungry! Haha.
Catherine said…
Check out my blog...there's an award for you! Cx
The Curious Cat said…
wow, what a cake! How can one compete!? I can't think of a good cake...I remember ginger cake my grandma used to give us when we got home from school...the numerous care bear and my little pony cakes as a child...a garfield cake for my 8th birthday...and a delicious banana cake I made for my friend Harry last year...oh wait - the cake I recall best is the marshmallow rice cripsy cake covered in melted mint choc chip icecream and then slightly frozen again to eat that I made on year for my brother and sister's birthday - they were 6 - and I felt so grown up making it - my own recipe too! How inventive was I at 9 years old?! xxx
Skrekk og Gry said…
Hello from Norway..
I found your blog and stayed quite a while. It makes me so happy!!
All the colours, buttons lovely fabrics and china!
Love your flag inspired pillows!

You are also a good photagrapher!

Keep up!!!
Best regards Gry
Kittikins said…
My happy cake memory really isn't....for my 5th birthday, I had a joint party with my then best friend and as there were about 40 odd children there and my mummy was very heavily pregnant and was lumbered with all the catering (as friend's mum found an excuse not to do stuff, lol), she decided to give us both a tub of icecream with smarties and of course candles on it. I'm nearly 39 and it's still the best "birthday cake" I ever had :)
MoniCue said…
My mom was a solid cook and baker, with few frills. But, every Easter she made a bunny cake that involved cutting a sheetcake into a head, ears and bowtie; then icing all of it and decorating with jelly beans on the tie, in the ears, and for the nose and eyes--and toothpicks for whiskers. It was so cute. I make it now, for my family and for school cakewalks.

A regular visitor from the USA--

monicwalkAThotmailDOTcom
claire Maraldo said…
Oh wow! those cakes are fabulous! I love the galleon.
and I love your little cake brooches, so sweet.

I remember a simple sponge cake covered with hundreds and thousands and a plastic elephant on the top. Sounds boring but it was very pretty. My mum also made a cake for my 21st birthday. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her sugar paste roses looked like Henry Moore sculptures. Lol!