June twenty seven, remember when

The first year we were young(er) and childless. You could say we were footloose and fancy free, although that wasn’t quite true. We sat in a courtyard cafe in the Marais, drinking bad coffee and eating baked cheesecake so good I can still remember each bite eight years later.

The year after that, 2006 we stopped to celebrate in the midst of a winter road trip around New Zealand. Dinner was Hell’s pizza in a motel room in Napier, with 3 month old Ben, snuffling around in the port-acot.

It seems insanely productive now looking back, by the following year 6 day old Dan had joined the family. I drove shakily out from our chilly Island Bay villa to collect a Malaysian, while you chatted to your brother, not knowing he wouldn’t always be at the end of the phone.

Then followed the wilderness years. Lost in the land of the little people. Loosing days and nights and months and thoughts and memories.

Three years ago June 27th was at once ordinary and extraordinary. We were surrounded by dear sweet friends and family. Eating bacon butties on the lawn at Cwm Cadian. Drinking tea, poking smarties onto a supermarket cake. Good times. There may even have been a bag of fresh jam donuts- or perhaps that was another day.

The following year we really got our act together. Booked a babysitter, got dolled up (as far as my pregnant-again body would allow) and stepped out to the Ambeli. I don’t remember what we ate, but I do remember it was incredible.

Last year we were in transit. Singapore. Heat, pool, zoo, and the buffet. Little did we know back then what the year had in store for us. If we had, then I dare say I’d have gone back for a forth helping of curry and ordered a second wine.

Now today, Te Ngakau in mid winter. The fire is on. The cake baked and iced, and under Ted’s instructions cut into the shape of a Star Fighter. Dan and Ted are dressed as Darth Vadar and a Storm Trooper respectively. Ben is practicing his speech for tomorrow’s speech finals. He’s also worrying about his lack of costume for the school disco tomorrow afternoon (he said he didn’t want one) and taunting Dan that Darth Vadar’s cape makes Dan look like a ballerina. Joe has requisitioned Darth’s helment / mask and is wandering around beneath it.

These are the moments of our lives. Happy Birthday Babe.

Chocolate birthday cake (gluten free) … cutting it into a star fighter shape is optional.

Ingredients
200g melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup natural unsweetened yogurt
5 eggs
1 cup dutch cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup rice flour
2 cups ground almonds

Ganache
100g dark chocolate
A slug of cream

Method
Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend. Scrape down the sides and blend again. Should make a thick batter – if too thick add a bit more yogurt to loosen it up.
Pour into 2 greased round cake tins and bake at 180 for around 30 mins until cooked through.

When cake cool make the ganache by melting the chocolate over hot water then stirring in the cream. Liberally apply the ganache to the cake and get the kids to decorate. Party time.

Lego Ninjago Rise of the Snakes Birthday cake; part one and part two

Birthday cakes need to be a bit special, involve lots of sweets and, at our place, be mainly based on the idea of chocolate overload. At the moment, Lego Ninjago is the Birthday boy’s current obsession. I’m not too good at cutting out shapes from sponge cake and icing with different colours. I’ve actually never purchased food colouring (although I expect there’s plenty in the smarties) it just looks a bit chemical when it’s sitting in it’s little bottle. Kind of like not minding eating a rabbit stew when it’s served up in an Italian trattoria but not wanting to buy a whole rabbit to cook myself I guess.

I find, the easiest way to incorporate the kids favourite thing in their birthday cake is to literally stick the toys on the cake with a side helping of sweets. Not as impressive as creating a cake ‘the the shape of’ but a lot less stress. Let’s face it , all the kids really want to do is pick the sweets off the top anyway!

For this cake you can use any kind of sponge. I tend to return to the birthday cake recipe of my childhood (or close to it) which came from The Dairy Cookbook. This one is just under a cup of butter creamed with just under a cup of sugar, 3 eggs, a cup and a half of self raising flour and 1/2 cup of cocoa with a splash of milk. Rather randomly it also had half a cup of prune puree because the outer cakes are gluten free almond, chocolate, prune and orange cakes so that the man of the house could be included in the festivities and I had some leftover prune puree. However, given the number of children who can be expected to lick the icing off and pick off the sweets it’s not exactly worth making a masterpiece of a sponge unless it is with the polishing off of the leftovers yourself in mind (which is indeed always at the back of my mind).

The icing is melted milk chocolate, a little spoon of yogurt, cocoa and icing sugar. Just because.

So, part one.. ‘Rise of the snakes’ Chocolate cake, chocolate icing, smarties, fruit jellies and an outer ring of chocolate , prune, orange and almond cakes (at home for birthday supper).

 

Part two; ‘Rise of the snakes’  Large chocolate cake with chocolate icing, smarties and fruit jellies (for the party…no gluten free on this one as we don’t have any gf guests coming and the man of the house will be too busy entertaining a bunch of 5 year olds to eat cake.. still have some leftover cupcakes for later)

 

 

Birthday cake

B turns 6 today