Birthday Cake

It began thirteen years ago now, with a little caterpillar cupcake cake for a tiny boy turning just one year old. This year, it was a 13 cake for a much older boy who is now, officially, a teenager. I'm not quite sure where all the years in between one and thirteen years old have gone but I know that every year we celebrate the day he was born with a homemade birthday cake. It's tradition!

There has been a ladybug cake, complete with freckly dots, and an echidna ice-cream cake with chocolatey spikes and a sleepy moon cake for a boy who loved the moon when he was two. Here are some of the special cakes that have held my boy's birthday candles over his years so far ...

 The very first birthday cake I made for my boy.

 For a boy who loved the moon!

 A rather red ladybug with freckly dots!

 An ice-creamy echidna with chocolatey spikes.

 A photo cake for seven!

A simple 11!


12 candles to blow out on this cake.

My smaller boy would happily leaf through the pages of our batter-splattered birthday cake book, the ever-reliable Women's Weekly Kids' Birthday Cakes, and take his time choosing the cake for his happy birthday day. He'd then ask, "Can you make this one?" Now he is older though, he presents me with his own hand-drawn cake plans and asks the same question. I usually respond with a question of my own along the lines of "Just how many Kit-Kats do you want me to fit on this cake?"

This year's birthday cake plan.

A cake for a brand new teenager.

Once the candles were blown out, it took very little time for the cake to be demolished. Whether to have a slice with white chocolate or darker chocolate icing was quite the choice! The birthday boy himself requested a slice with both! 

It does take time to make a birthday cake, to cream that butter and sugar and fold in that flour and melt that chocolate, but a homemade cake also has that one very special extra ingredient...love. 

Meg

Simple & Sweet Chocolate Fudge

A sweet, homemade fudge makes a lovely gift. This one is so simple; just a few ingredients melted together form a creamy, chocolatey treat. No candy thermometer required!

A little box of homemade chocolate fudge...

with peppermint crisp shards on top!

There are just a few simple steps to making this creamy chocolate fudge. I followed the recipe, for 3 Minute Chocolate Fudge, from the Chocolate, Chocolate & More website. It really does only take a few minutes!

Here's how to make it:

Put 400g condensed milk (one tin) & 2 cups dark chocolate chips 

into a microwave safe bowl.

Melt on high in microwave for one minute. Stir gently to combine.

Heat for another 30 seconds if needed to melt all chocolate chips.

Add one teaspoon vanilla extract & stir until well combined.

Cut up or crush topping for your fudge.

Carefully pour fudge into lined slice tray.

Sprinkle topping on & gently press into surface of the fudge.

After an hour or so in the refrigerator, your simple and sweet chocolate fudge should be set and ready to cut into squares. Keep in an airtight container and try to resist sampling too many pieces before packaging up your homemade fudge. 😉

To make my fudge that little bit more special, I topped it with the minty shards of a peppermint crisp. For a festive fudge, you could top with a crushed candy cane or some chopped dried fruits or nuts. 

Packaged up beautifully it makes a sweet, homemade gift for birthdays or Christmas. 

Meg

Sweetness on Saturday

As the sky warms here today, and Saturday dawns, from my old verandah chair I watched and listened to daybreak. While the world was only half-awake, I thought of the many sweet and gentle joys in my life: from the way my almost-teenage son still lays his head upon my shoulder to the loving voice of my Mum on the phone; from the warm and happy hugs of dear friends to the generosity of a simple-living blogging community; from the soft yet insistent nudge of a Labrador's wet nose (when dinner is less than one-minute late!) to the creamy petals of a new Magnolia bloom unfurling. While I can hold some of these special things in my hands or capture them on camera, there are many that are tucked away in my heart.

Creamy magnolia petals and honeybee stripes. 

(Such a happy, buzzy bee!)

A slice of homemade birthday cheesecake. 🎂

(On my favourite plate!)

Twinkling lookout lights that sparkle across the night.

Handmade goodness that arrived in my mailbox.

(Thank you, Nana Chel and Judy.) Xx

The soft colours of orchids in my Mother's garden. 💛

(They remind me of a fading sunset.)

May there be some sweetness in your Saturday too. 

Meg Xx