A Birthday Cake Fit For A Princess

Happy Halloween Birthday

I finally seem to have been able to grab a few minutes to sit and update my blog. These last few weeks have been VERY hectic (nothing new there then) what with birthdays, half term holidays, and the usual coughs and colds for this time of year.

Miss B celebrated her fifth birthday on Halloween, and the entire half term holiday seemed to end up being a week long celebration - such fun.

There was a pool party for school friends, which was amazing. This was a rather frantic time for me as it was the first childs birthday party I have ever organised. Nobody warned me about these extra things I would have to encounter when I enrolled on the 'parenting course' but it was worth all the stress.

The cake was a princess in all her glory. It took rather a lot of sandwich cakes - 5 in all - filled with butter cream icing and then fondant to cover the exterior. There are some very good tutorials on YouTube and I have linked the one I tried to emmulate here.

Miss B was thrilled with the end result.
It was a shame to cut into it.

 There was also a fairy themed photo shoot (a little something more for me rather than Miss B) which she enjoyed immensely. Shopping for a new bike for her birthday present - Hello Kitty was the only one for her!

Next on the agenda was lunch with grandparents on Halloween itself at our local Italian restaurant.

This has been a favourite of Mr. B and mine for many years, long before little people came along, and has now become Miss. B's first choice whenever we ask her where she would like to go.

Garlic bread being the main attraction!

We also managed to squeeze in a day trip to Helmsley - cream tea being the main highlight of the day as usual.

We enjoyed an open air version of this treat with a lovely chiminea to keep us toastie and warm.

The smell of wood smoke evoked some long forgotten child hood memories. It reminded me of cold winter days at home, my dad stoking the fire and throwing a log onto it, and then watching the burning embers glow orange as it slowly fell to pieces.
The joy of having open fires. It's strange, because at the time an open fire didn't seem anything like as special as it does now. It was just an everyday part of family life as we grew up. It's true that you never appreciate things until they are gone.
Although I'm sure my parents may not have felt quite the same when it came to cleaning the grate, emptying the ash tray and laying the fire every morning!

I am am now fully into the baking swing for Christmas, with the house smelling of some wonderful spiced aromas.

The temptation to tuck into one of the cakes is almost too much to resist, but resist I must.

I will give you a sneaky peak at the goodies soon but until then, enjoy your day!

x