Bake a Cake for a birthday

It's not everyday you get to make a birthday cake, especially a 1st Birthday cake for your Daughter, so with little baking experience and poor artistic skills, I was ready for the challenge.  

My fears resemble the "nail'd it" memes that fill the internet.  Parents who have tried to match a cake they have found on Pintrest or Reddit and fail miserably creating what can only be described as monstrous

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Looking for ideas for my first birthday cake attempts, obviously I was drawn into the magical world of Princess Cakes and magnificent, gargantuan pink castles that my creative skills would more than likely result in a "nail'd it" post.  I wanted something that would suffice the small gathering we were about to have, not require Gandalf levels of magic to create but something that would look the part.  Maybe in a few more years I could attempt one of these works of art, but for now, I had to be more grounded in my choices.

Scouring the interwebs, we came across a cake that looked quite effective, but didn't need too much creativity, very colourful, but not elaborate, this was the M&M cake.  A standard chocolate cake on the interior but surrounded by Kit Kat fingers and topped with a scatter of M&M's on top this vibrant birthday cake was a winner.  Being a 1st birthday cake though, M&Ms would be a no-no as our little princess would swallow whole so all alternative would be required.

My first attempt at the chocolate cake came out a little flat, but luckily there was more mixture to have a few more goes, and thankfully these came out just right....well, just right for me, a seasoned baker would probably be a little more of a perfectionist.  The cake looked like a cake, didn't have a soggy bottom and was the right shape, for me, perfect!




Next came the icing, due to a recent cycling accident, my whisking action is not up to par, so Clare was on hand to make the chocolaty filling.  Spreading, or more aptly, smothering the triple stack with the gloop of a healthy eaters nightmare of ingredients, the cake was really taking form

Finally came the decoration.  We had opted for Les Cadbury's Fingres for the "basket" feature around the cake hoping that we had bought enough to fit the perimeter.  As the basket started to take shape, the cake took on a whole new feel.  It was looking like the pictures we had downloaded!

The alternative choice to the choke inducing M&M's was our little princesses favourite (well one of her favourites), Chocolate and White Chocolate Buttons.  White for the base, with chocolate for the number "1"  Double stacking the brown chocolate to give it that extra layer was Clare's great idea,.  The cake was now complete and thankfully, for us all, there was an excess of buttons to be enjoyed by all the family.

I am very happy with the end result as it looks quite effective with very little creative skill required.  I am looking forward to getting more adventurous with each year and know that next year the cake will be even more elaborate.  However, I still think I am a while off the Princess Castles

Now where is that candle?