All caked out!

Autumn means party time in our house. Not for the adults of course, but it seems Miss I has a social whirl with friends and family. Much as I love them too - it is nice to have a break on a weekend once in a while! However, before we could stop, it was Elis' birthday - 2! I try to stand back, watching him running around the playground, starting to have conversations and I can't believe he is changing so quickly. After our holiday in France he is pretty keen on tractors...so in my usual rushing about, I attempted to make a tractor cake. I have discovered red food colouring is nothing but pink (no!!), and I should have gone with my instinct for green, but instead we had a pinkish tractor cake. I know it looks far from professional, but to see his smile and hear him say tractor meant the world to me!

The wheels were suppose to be creatively shaped cupcakes, but a bag of licorice allsorts was too handy.

The 5th birthday party was a joint affair and the other two mums and I made a cake each and we slabbed it together with lots of mascarpone icing and smarties galore! Mmmmm....

 

And if that wasn't enough, Miss I's had asked for a castle cake so as we had a pre-celebration on the Sunday (I can't make castle cakes mid week) the following day we had this:

 

I am not sure I triumphed last year's effort. Cake and french bubbles were then followed by fireworks and sparklers which luckily went without a hitch:

And finally cupcakes for Elis' childminder who was also celebrating her birthday:

Taken via Instagram which I need to get used to!

From the recent parties - which have all been fun - I was particularly taken by the paint shop party and the fantastic paint wheel from which emerged some really beautiful designs:

Outside the paintshop

The Paint Wheel

And the shop was full of Dutch delights

So I'm giving myself a cake break (making) before I can start stirring up the Christmas cake!

Happy Birthday!