Sarah's Party

Hooray! Today is my sisters birthday! I feel like today saw a lot of things come together that have been in the pipelines for a while. Maybe, maybe not. But I did just go through a heap of photos, so here we go!

Firstly, Sophie did wear her party dress today. It's a little long, and got fairly dirty (thanks to the rain making the dirt mud, and the fact that she's a toddler who regularly falls down) but worked well in the sunshine.

The Bike Bunting made the party fabulous. It was so breezy, so those happy triangles danced about like they were having the time of their lives. Such fun!

And the thing that I spent most of this morning, as well as copious amounts of time yesterday and the day before on, were the cakes. initially, I had offered to make a cake for Sarah because I had some fondant icing to use up. But the thing about fondant icing cakes is that usually they look good, but the cake inside is often not great. I ummed and ahhed for a while before mum decided she'd just make a fruit cake for it. Delicious, but possibly not what Sarah was looking for in a birthday cake.

Still, fun to ice, and it does look very classy. For those with OCD, you will be pleased to know that there is an even number of flowers on this cake. I know it makes my mind rest at ease when I look at it. Anyway, I asked Sarah's Steve what cake might be good, and he said that she'd love a black forest cake. I died a little inside, since I don't like black forest cakes, but rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

I made the cake yesterday and then put it all together this morning. The thing that makes me dislike black forest most of all, I believe, is that it looks so good. Those lovely layers with their colors and textures all complimenting each other. But then you take a bite and the cherries are not what you expected, the cake is all soggy from the juices and you can hardly find the cream any more. But I digress.

I covered this cake with a chocolate ganache (as per the recipe) which was the most delicious part (glad there is leftovers). This is what the cake looked like after everyone had a bit:

Demolished! Sophie was very compliant helping me put the cake together this morning and spent much of her time on the step in the kitchen diligently licking the spoons.