Christmas Cake 2007, Part 3

I finally finished icing the cake at 04:00 this morning, so I'm a bit shell-shocked this morning.

Lugging the bloody thing in to the office was a bit of a challenge as well, but I cobbled together a carry case out of a couple of archive boxes and it seemed to do the trick.

Here's a brief blow-by-blow account:

The ingredients. I used most, but not all of this.

Cooking. The design needed 4 cakes in total, 2 chocolate, 2 lemon.

Cut up and ready to ice. The bucket and top section came from 1 cake.

The finished product. Well, nearly.

I just like the halo from the fridge light.

The finished product. The lights are musical as well.

So there we are. I'm not quite sure where I can go from here as I think everything else will sort of pale by comparison. I need to come up with something though as I'm getting a food mixer for Christmas and I'll be itching to use it.

Any ideas for a theme for a cake?

Christmas Cake 2007, Part 2

When it comes to practical DIY stuff I have to say my skills are 'elsewhere'. That's why I'm quite pleased with my latest attempt at building something.

Here's the plans I made:

And here's the finished product in 3 easy steps:

I'm starting to get the impression that this crazy Christmas tree cake might actually work...

Christmas Cake 2007, Part 1

I've been plotting and planning for the last week or so, and I think I've now got the blueprints for an ambitious Christmas cake for work.

It's top, top secret classified information, and I haven't even discussed it with colleagues, but if you can keep it a secret I'll let you have a peek at the plans so far...

Remember, loose lips sinks cakes. Or something...

iCake

I baked another cake.

I'm having a lot of fun making these. I keep catching myself giggling like a bit of a loon while I decorate them. Keeps me out of trouble I suppose...

Bobble Hat, Part 2

Bit of trivia before I start - knit one, purl one is called seed stitch or moss stich. That's something I didn't know a few weeks ago, but is now horribly burnt into my brain.

Anyways, I finished my knitting project with about half an hour to spare - I was frantically sewing the seam and putting on the pompom the morning of the baby shower, conscious the taxi was due to turn up any minute.

It turned out pretty well in the end so I'm quite pleased with myself, although I don't think I'll be making long-term use of my new-found talent. (Except that my cousin has recently sprogged, I have some wool left over, and I've just found a pattern for some booties. Now, where did I put those needles...)

Bobble Hat, Part 1

A friend at work is off on maternity leave at the end of this month. I was talking with her last week and somehow the conversation got on to the fact that my nan taught me to knit when I was about seven - a hobby that stayed with me for roughly a week.

Somehow during that same conversation - and I don't quite remember how - I've ended being coerced into knitting a baby hat for her offspring-to-be.

A bit of googling later and I found a pattern, but getting the wool was a bit harder and needed a trip to Bluewater.

(Incidentally, the lady in John Lewis was very helpful - I ended up sitting in a nice comfy chair in the haberdashery department practising casting on, knitting, purling and casting off. I got a few funny looks from fellow shoppers who were probably wondering why a hung-over, bed-headed, unshaven 30-something bloke was sitting there knitting on a Sunday morning, but fortunately I have no shame).

My schedule's going to be quite tight - I've got about 3 weeks to get this thing made, and, well, it's going to be a bit of an uphill struggle seeing as this is how far about 4 hours has got me:



If all else fails I guess I'll just go buy a proper one from Mothercare and cut the label out...

Halloween Cake 2007

I met my parents and my brother last weekend for Sunday lunch and he came up with an idea for a Halloween cake. So I nicked it and made one myself.

I'm going to try to cart it into work tomorrow on the train. That's going to be 'interesting' I think.

Anyway, Happy Halloween, and here's a graveyard cake I just finished making...