Morning! August is Birthday Season in our house, for the small people. We were 'clever' enough to arrange it so that all the small people in the house were born in the month of August.
It seemed like a great idea at the time, it's a nice time to have a tiny person; the sun is shining more, the warmth is starting to creep in, the bulbs are flowering and the buds are coming on deciduous plants. Now, however, when I'm up to my elbows in cake mixture, icing and choc chips it doesn't seem so clever ;-)
It seemed like a great idea at the time, it's a nice time to have a tiny person; the sun is shining more, the warmth is starting to creep in, the bulbs are flowering and the buds are coming on deciduous plants. Now, however, when I'm up to my elbows in cake mixture, icing and choc chips it doesn't seem so clever ;-)
Well I decided that to survive this week (we have two of the three small people celebrating this week) I will blog about all the cakes! It will be the week of cakes!
So, today we have echidna patty cakes for school. The gorgeous girl has requested echidnas for the 3rd year running. Love it! I have this one down pat :-) It involves basic chocolate patty cakes, the recipe is one of my 'Recipes for Life' so it be a post for this week too. There is also chocolate icing involved (I cheated after a weekend away from home), choc chips and bullet lollies. Oh, plus some 'eyes'.
So, first we cover that patty cake (Aussie name for a cupcake) with chocolate icing (or frosting if you prefer). It's good to have a decent layer so the choc chips stick and stay on, but not so thick that you lose the 'spike' of the choc chip:-)
Then, you layer up those choc chips! They are the spikes of the echidna. An echidna is the Australian version of a hedgehog, it's a very cool creature and we love them... click here for more info. Generally I use about 12 choc chips to make him look about right, the one below is an at-home version and has about 25 choc chips on his back! I don't think the gorgeous girl's teacher would thank me if I took in this version...
Finally you add a bullet lolly 'snout' and some icing dots for 'eyes'...
When you multiply these steps out by 30, one for each student in the class, one for the long-suffering teacher, and a spare - just in case! You end up with an army of echidnas marching across the bench! Such cute little fellas. These ones are being lead out by Mr Green!
Hope you enjoyed this Monday instalment of the great cake week! I really only have a tiny amount of cake decorating skill, I just do it for fun and to see the small people smile! It's certainly a labour of love, and probably one that I could have done without on this Monday after spending the weekend away. But there you have it. That's what we mothers do! What did I say last Thursday about saying 'yes' too often?! Ah well. I'm off to deliver echidnas and get my smile-payment ;-)
