Succumbing to pink

I've a couple of posts that I prepared a month or so back, but didn't want to post until the arrival of the Newbie.  This's the first:


I'm not into pink.  Never have been.  Had a pink/mauve bedroom under sufferance as a girl and have largely avoided it ever since.

However anti-pink I am though, being faced with the prospect of a little girl in the family I've softened my view somewhat.  Prior to the little one's arrival I was shopping and crafting with a view to watering down the inevitable pink, as even I have to concede that I'm not going to be able to get away with dressing a baby girl solely in our usual red/white/blue theme.  So I've branched out a little.  Here's the knitting I finished back in October but couldn't show you until now:

Introducing the Newbie!

The Cyclist and I are proud to announce the birth of our daughter last Friday morning!

Abbie is a placid little thing, that seems to charm all and sundry.  Even the Kinderboy is thrilled, if somewhat surprised to have a sister rather than the brother he assumed was coming his way (we've told him that sisters aren't really girls, just like Mum and Nanna are OK because they're not really girls either!?!).

'Hamburger' cupcakes for the Schoolboy

Today was all about the Kinderboy - he's 4 today!

Tonight, though, was about the Schoolboy.

I knew that I'd made a rod for my own back when I showed him Jacqui's hamburger cupcakes when she posted about them.  I figured that I was better off making them for his class before the baby was born rather than trying to do it for the last day or two of term (his birthday's on New Years' Eve, so it doesn't really matter when in December we take cakes for the class, but there's no way he'd let me get away with not doing it!).  Here's my finished product (apologies for the quality of the photos and general lack of styling - I was pretty chuffed with myself and happy with the finished product until I saw the photos, I swear they look better in real life!):

Here's what I did:

• Made a double batch of butter cake mix (each batch made 18 cupcakes, but I could have stretched it further and gotten more authentic-looking 'buns')

• Greased and floured cupcake pans (to give the outside of the 'buns' a floured look - not sure that this was necessary though)

• Sprinkled the top with oat bran before putting them in the oven (you could probably use instant oats or wheat bran to get a similar result)

• Melted white chocolate and mixed it with a little yellow food colouring, then spread the lot on some foil on an oven tray to create cheese.  When it was partially set I roughly cut it into squares with a butter knife to make breaking it easier later

• Made some bright green (lettuce) and red (sauce) icing

• After I'd cooled the cakes I sliced them in half

• I then used a little icing on the bottom of a chocolate ripple biscuit, and 'glued' the biscuit to the bottom part of the cake (for reference, there are 27 biscuits to a pack)

• Drizzled red icing over the top, making sure that some went over the sides

• Topped with some of the white chocolate

• Drizzled green icing over the top, again making sure that some went over the sides, then topped with the top of the cake.

The actual construction wasn't too time consuming, and they're pretty effective.  I 'sampled' a broken one and it was easier to eat than I expected, but pretty sweet even though there weren't any full layers of icing.

My cake recipe is:

120g Margarine

1 1/4 C Castor Sugar

1 ts Bicarb soda

2 1/4 C Self Raising flour (or 2C flour and 1/4C cocoa for chocolate cake)

1 C Boiling water

2 Eggs

1ts Vanilla

1. Beat butter and sugar
2. Add flour and bicarb, then eggs, vanilla and water.  Mix well.
3. Pour into muffin pans
4. Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 15 minutes