M decided several months ago that she was going to have a “horsie party” for her 3rd birthday yesterday. She even collected together my cake books and searched through them until she found the cake she wanted. Which cake did she choose? … a stable full of ponies from Debbie Brown‘s 50 Easy Party Cakes.
No pressure then!
Motherhood is an easy target for guilt. I have made four cakes from this book for my elder daughter and only one for M. Each cake I vow is my last at the time, but how could I possibly disappoint my pony-mad princess? And so I have spent many hours this week in a cloud of icing sugar, hands stained various pastel colours, swinging between utter despair and relief while the ponies heads eventually took shape and hung miraculously in midair, looking out of their flowery stable. My Mum, who has been staying with us this week, was a great source of encouragement … I mean, you can’t exactly go and buy a cake from the supermarket and pretend you’d never failed with your own when your Mum’s in the kitchen watching, can you? 😉
It was worth it though. M was so pleased and proud to show off her birthday cake to the three little friends who came to her ‘horsie party’ yesterday afternoon.
Happy Birthday … neigh!
amerrierworld.com 
Astrid
/ June 21, 2008Oh my I feel your pain… The pressure that builds up around birthdays is unbearable, and if you’ve set precedents with one sibling, then you’re doomed. My (3) kids don’t know yet that birthday cakes can look like anything other than a round with a few candies on top, and I pray they don’t discover it too soon!
Anyway you did a fabulous job. Of course you know that means you’ll have to do even better for the next birthday!
amerrierworld
/ June 21, 2008That is so true! … I’m dreading August, when my elder daughter turns 6 … what will she choose?? Aaargh!
Astrid
/ June 21, 2008Thanks for *your* response on my blog! I didn’t realize you had three children. Anyway I’ve admired your scientific approach to baking for a while now, with the Kate flour. Having grown up in France, I’ve never used cake flour, so it’s all quite mysterious to me. But I love to read about your research and inventions (Now don’t feel you have to respond to my response, we all know how busy we are!)
Jeannette
/ June 21, 2008What a lovely cake for your little girl, she must have been thrilled! Say Happy Birthday to her from me.
Melinda
/ June 21, 2008Kate, Your cake looks perfect! when my daughter was 5, she would have wanted this cake too. She was My Little Pony crazy. I even used to know the ponies names and play with her.
I think the hardest cake I made was a window box with flowers growing from it. The party was ‘flower’ themed. Little party favors were on the table in a terracotta pots (pencils with flower blossom ends, packets of flower seeds, hair stuff with flowers)
We made flower place mats out of card. Anyway, we got very flower power mad! I kind of miss the special party stuff. It all pretty easy and low key.
Darn! So enjoy those powdered sugared evenings. It really does not last forever.
Your pony stable is ab fab!
amerrierworld
/ June 22, 2008It will be strange in the next year or so having to think about a cake for a boy … I’m so used to the girly things with my eldest two! L is talking about a jewellery box with ballet shoes for her birthday in August – help! You’re right though, Melinda. I’ll miss it when they’re too sophisticated for my lumps of fondant icing.
Charlotte Martin
/ June 25, 2008Kate, this looks AMAZING, I’m sure she’ll love it! And don’t worry – Gennie made me a pink fairy castle cake (complete with turrets) for my 16th birthday and I loved it, so you never really get too old for fondant icing 😉 xxx
amerrierworld
/ June 25, 2008Hi Charlotte! Thanks (this fondant icing thing is a mixed blessing – I should practice more with play dough and then perhaps I wouldn’t have nightmares about it each year!).
😳 – I *will* post the curry and crumble recipes, I promise!
Cate
/ July 6, 2008Gorgeous cake Kate! Well done! Wow, coping with one party cake a year is enough for me! You are a legend doing three!! If you are game, maybe try making Marshmallow Fondant next time. It’s not common here but I adapted a US recipe and make it in minutes flat in the Kitchenaid – so quick and easy and stores wonderfully. It’s not _quite_ 100% from scratch as you buy the marshmallows and melt but I found it so much more forgiving to use on my little boy’s cake than regular fondant. The bonus is the taste is more to a child’s liking than traditional fondant! Email me if you want the adapted recipe!
amerrierworld
/ July 9, 2008I haven’t come across Marshmallow Fondant before, but I’d love to try it if you’re happy to share the recipe! My children all love marshmallow – the photo at the top of every page on this blog is of a batch I made last summer. I have a wonderful photo of my 2 daughters sitting on the kitchen floor, spoons in hand, scraping the leftover mixture from a large bowl! It does make a sticky mess of any loose strands of hair, though …