All about the cake... Matthew 2nd Birthday

I am I must confess obsessed with birthday cakes. Duncan will tell you that I hate missing out on a piece of cake and when asked if there's anything I needed picked up from the shops on his way home from work my answer to his question is almost always 'cake'. Growing up, every birthday before the age of 12 was marked with a big birthday party and the centrepiece of that happy occasion was always the birthday cake. Leading up to the big day my sister and I would pour through my Mum's cake decorating books to select 'the one'. Whether it be Garfield, a doll/princess or Strawberry shortcake shaped cake, the event of celebrating a birthday began with the selection of the cake in the weeks leading up. Celebrating Matthew's birthdays so far has been no different and happily for me it brings back memories of my childhood. Not knowing Matthew's likes and dislikes, the decision for Matthew's 1st birthday cake was solely ours. This year however with Matthew's continued obsession with Buzz Lightyear it was an easy choice to settle on a Toy Story themed party and hence an equally themed birthday cake. For Matthew's 2nd birthday, I'm attempted to make a Buzz Lightyear rocket cake.

My criteria for any birthday cake is simple, it must look good AND taste good. The basis of a good cake is a yummy cake recipe and nothing is better than a chocolate mud cake, though Duncan would argue it's my vanilla cake recipe. There was a heated debate in the car on the way to school last week as to which type of cake and ganache to use. In the end, the chocolate mud won... as it always will ;)

Some weeks before Matthew's birthday...
I started off the process by scouring the internet for a picture of the Buzz Lightyear rocket. This was the closest picture I could find.

Buzz Lightyear Rocket Inspiration

From that I created a template for the shape of the cake (using much creative license here I might add) keeping within the limits of a 16 inch round cake board. You have to use your imagination to picture it as a 3D cake.

From there I had to figure out how much cake I needed to form the cake based on the size of the template I'd drawn up and then from there you have a rough estimate.

Cake template

Day 1
The mud cake recipe that I chose is the one from the 'Planet Cake' book by Paris Cutler. I knew it would be good as it's the one used for Matthew's 1st birthday cake. If you want a copy of the recipe please PM me. This particular cake if you follow the recipe exactly is super rich, for the purposes of a Matthew's party, I omitted the coffee granules. It's not for the feint hearted either, it's got so much choc and sugar in it, it'll send most kids and adults hyper! But boy does it taste good. For Matthew rocket cake, I used a 30 x 30 cm square tin AND a 20 x 15 cm tin and basically made 2.5 times the quantity asked of the ingredients in the recipe book spread over both cake tins. Before working on the cake it's essential to let the cake cool completely, so leave it to rest for 24 hours.

Crust of please!

30 x 30 cake

20 x 15 cake halved.

Day 2
Ganache is essentially cream and choc, in our case semi sweet dark choc and cream. I mixed 1.2 kg of dark choc with 600ml of pure cream ... I warned you, this cake is not for the feint hearted! (Did I mention somewhere that I'm at risk of gestational diabetes?!?!).

Using the layers of cake and ganache I formed the basic shape of the cake. Oh, by the way, you need to cut off the top crusty layer of the cake, so that the texture of the cake remains consistent throughout. It's also a good idea to use syrup (eg. apricot conserve diluted with Grand Marnier) and brush all the cake surfaces to seal in the moisture. Once you have the basic shape sculpted, finish with the ganache. Take your time with this part, as this is the most crucial part of decorating using fondant, the smoother the finish you have on the ganache, the smoother your layer of fondant will be. A ganaching tool is your best friend here, I picked mine up from Planet Cake during my cake decorating class last year, but you can pick one up from a good cake supply shop. A good one will be metal with a nice clean edge on one side and a curved edge on the other. You want a metal one because it helps to dip it in hot water to heat it so your can run the edge over cooled ganache to get that perfectly smooth edge.

As we now live in a country which averages 32 degrees all year round with high humidity, I wasn't sure how the fondant and ganache was going to cope, so in between working on the ganache and fondant I rested the cake in the fridge. It's generally not the best idea to place a fondant covered cake in the fridge as it can dry out and crack but it was the lesser of two evils.

Day 3
Now the fun bit, decorating with fondant. I didnt want to risk making my own fondant as handling it in humid hot weather can be tricky. So last weekend I bought a 2.5 kg tub of white vanilla 'Satin Ice'. The lady at the cake supply shop assured me that it tasted good and that it handled well in the Singapore weather. While the little Birthday Boy to be was asleep I started rolling out my monster piece of white fondant to cover the entire cake. Once again be patient. Using the correct cake making tools helps, like an acrylic rolling pin and fondant smoother. Looks pretty good I think. The rest is pretty straight forward and fun. I coloured the fondant and cut and attached the individual pieces free hand, like I said, you need to exercise a lot of creative license.

 

Voila!

The end result is a monster of a cake, to be finished at the party venue tomorrow complete with Buzz Lightyear figurine and '2' candle in the centre. Pictures of the birthday boy with his cake to be posted in the next update! I hope he likes it ...

Picture added 28th May :)

Phuket Pictures & bye bye Nanna and Pop

I had a teary Matthew in my arms when Nanna and Pop left in the taxi for the airport this afternoon. Bye the time Nanna and Pop rang from the airport to say they were about to board their flight home bound to Sydney, Matthew was yelling 'See Ya Nanna, See Ya Pop!'. He was still a little bit teary at bedtime though... very sad little guy. It's one of the downsides to living in a different country to family, especially grandparents. But I'm sure they are thankful that we are only an 8 hour flight away and not 20 hours.

Matthew has been a delight of late, even his teachers have commented how well behaved he's been in class. I'm sure that this too is a passing phase!

The trip away was very relaxing, most days were spent relaxing at our Villa punctuated by day trips out to the nearby islands for a bit of sightseeing and snorkeling or golf (for the boys) and massages (for the girls) or trip around Phuket island to visit some of the popular beaches and tourist spots. 

Here is one of my favourite pictures from our trip away to Phuket.

Kamikaze Matthew in the pool with Daddy and Uncle Tim (Unki Thim)

Matthew is pictured here being tossed to Daddy by his Uncle, he loved it and insisted on it about a dozen times by swimming away from his Dad to his Uncle with 'more please' until both had very sore shoulders and arms.

As a side note, Matthew's 2nd birthday party planning is in full swing. I'm making the cake again this year with the same chocolate cake recipe with choc granache, but this year it'll be in the shape of a rocket to go with the Buzz Lightyear themed party we have planned.  Matthew's party is on Saturday 28th which falls perfectly on his birthday. There will be plenty of pictures posted no doubt.

One last thing, Matthew is rapidly learning to speak in sentences and carry out conversations. I've been asked how many words Matthew has in his vocabulary now and I honestly can't tell you. He'll repeat or at least have an attempt at pretty much anything you ask him to say and is particularly cute at saying 'Marshmellow' and 'Octopus'. 

Into the 22nd Month...

little General is just that much closer to two. Lately his obsession seems to be Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movies. He simply adores him and as such we've had to endure countless hours of watching Toy Story 1, 2 and 3 over and over again. His sudden obsession started about 2 weeks ago, prior to this TV watching was an absolute minimum. He's had his Buzz Lightyear and Woody dolls since Christmas so I really have no clue as to how this fascination with Buzz started.

'NO'
is his answer to everything. It's driving us nuts.

Bintan 25 to 28th March
...was great. It's the most relaxing holiday we've had in ages. Matthew had a great old time playing by the beach or swimming in the pool any chance he got. All that playing meant 3-4 hours of napping every afternoon too which was wonderful for Duncan and I to kick back and relax and do absolutely nothing for a change.

First (professional) Haircut 29th March
I got a call from Matthew modeling agency on Tuesday to ask whether he'd be available today for a photo shoot, to which I'd said yes. So I quick trip to the hairdressers was in order. I wasnt going to chance giving him on of my 'Mummy Specials' and botch the job right before a shoot. Matthew didn't budge or whinge during his haircut but you can tell by the pictures that he wasn't too happy. Here are some before and after shots.

Before/During

After.

The Photo Shoot 31 Mar
went real well. Our day started at 930am on location on the Singapore East Coast Park. First up was make up and styling. Matthew refused to have his eyelashes curled and the stylist only managed to put some gel in his hair.  There were a few 'Nos' thrown about :( The biggest 'Diva' moment was when we all had to wait till Matthew finished his raisins before we could start shooting. The second biggest 'Diva' moment of the morning was when the stylists assistant had to fawn over Matthew with more raisins and gummy bears.

Matthew was paired with a Brazillian model as his faux Mum for the cover of Motherhood Magazine. His faux mum, Nadia was really lovely and great interacting with Matthew, so I think we got some really great pictures and the editors have a few choices to select from for the cover. The assignment was for 4.5 hours but Matthew managed to get his shots over with in less than 2. His agent was super impressed at how quickly Matthew completed his assignment. I'm glad it was over with quickly as jumping out of bushes to elicit a smile and a giggle out of Matthew on cue is tough work. Magazine is out May 2011. Will keep y'all posted.

Poh Poh and Goong Goong
are here. Thank goodness.