Five little Ducks went out one Day........a 1st Birthday Cake

A close relative's lovely daughter turned  one this week and I had wanted to do a cake for her and  promised  a while back. As usual, even though I had already asked what they wanted long ago back and actually designed the cake on the computer ( which I don't usually do ) , I only ended up starting something concrete last week  and had to cut out some bits from the design cos of time and some unexpected events.

Now coming to the design, the little lady loved Five little Ducks to bits and she was going to wear a gorgeous white dress with bits of purple and bright pink in it......so we have a theme now........ 

Had to do quite a bit of baking for this one , tried a new medium for parts of the cake  which tested my patience till the last minute (weather didn't help either)  and finally finished it at the last minute with a bit of physical collateral damage.........oh no.... no....not to the cake but moi....... So here is my  Happy cake..... with the ducks having a swim on a sunny day..........hope you like it :-)

  

 

 

 

1st Birthday Party...

I ended up doing quite a bit for this event, I didn't know where to start and how I did it. 

Couldn't book a hall  on the actual birthday so had to make two cakes. I went all girly...girly doll/Princess crazy for this birthday

  

1) Cake for the actual birthday

With my daughter's hand print on icing and a doll dressed like Bo Peep sitting on the cake.The flowers had the stitched on effect like on a quilt.

2) Centre Pieces for the table (22 Nos.)

The head and hands were done with fondant/gumpaste. Wasn't very happy with these. It was tedious towards the end  (and got some help with the hands and dress )that I didn't end up taking pics of it set up!. Took too much on I think and didn't do this properly.

3) Cake for our lovely son for the party so that he doesn't feel left out 

Used one of  picture from his books as reference to create a Bas Relief effect using gumpaste. This was a butter cake.

4) Cake for my daughter for the Party

This was my first 1st birthday cake...... the first one that had a structure (3 layers. First time I hammered a Dowel into the cake was heart stopping, I was seriously praying, next day was the party with no backup plan)...didn't know whether the cake was going to be enough for everybody, I was so stressed till I got it to the hall( I got an old highchair box to transport it....IT was bloody HEAVY(excuse my language). To top it all off I had covered the board also with fondant.....it looked good but carrying without damaging it was not easy). I wanted to dress the dolls in traditional attire. So the pink one is wearing a Ghagra choli the other one is my version of a Half saree, with lotus in a pond, pearl in a shell candle holder(getting the candle into that round shape and painting it  to look like a pearl was a pain). All done with fondant and gumpaste. Did both butter and chocolate cakes and layered it with buttercream

All these + arranging the party( designing the invitation, booking the hall, party bags, entertainment, food/drinks etc...) EXHAUSTED by the end of it ......... You all must be thinking I am crazy...... maybe I am....but I do function a lot better under stress most of the time ...that's what most mothers do anyway.....hmm. To tell you the truth, all the praises for the cakes, I got at the end of the party made up for everything I went through. I would also like to thank all those who helped with the event( if they ever happen to read my blog). My Hubby, Dad , kids and family were the champion in all this. If they hadn't been accommodating and understanding of my grumpy self, I wouldn't have been able achieve all this....Will I do this again???I don't know maybe for their 21st....I need lots of time to recover!!! ;-).  But then for their 21st I don't think they would want their old mother to arrange a boring party for them..... so I think I can escape.......;-)