Cake Is Ready..

Although the birthday is tomorrow we will be celebrating again on Friday, Saturday & Sunday.
The cake is completed and will appear after tomorrow evening, ready for dinner on Saturday.


In the meantime, as it is the month of Halloween, I've had my decorations out and am ready for the main event, next Monday.

Progress for the cake.

As mentioned earlier, I cooked the cake in a wooden cake container. This is it & when purchased there is a recipe included. I did change it, adding from my MIL's own trusted wedding cake recipe, some of her ingredients. I must say the cake appears to have cooked evenly, as specified by the makers.



I decided on a coloured icing for the cake and did not realise how much effort it would take to change the icing from pure white, to such a deep bright colour. It took several hours to mix in the correct shade and as time went on, I thought I would need to go for more supplies. In the end I decided it was dark enough & looked fine.

I still needed to do the rest of the decorative pieces for the cake. Although simple, quite time consuming, with the colour for those, turning out to be rather insipid. Time is escaping, especially when of all weeks DH has decided to stay around the home. With the rest of the silver to clean, along with setting up the table, I am hoping to get it done on the next occasion he leaves the house. He thinks this will be an intimate dinner party with only four of us celebrating.
Ho Hum!

First & second ornaments have arrived.

Lisa has emailed me to say her Christmas ornament arrived. Just over a week to get from New Zealand to Florida, not too long thankfully. A photo soon, when I hear the second ornament, to Ireland, has arrived at its' destination.

Ornaments have arrived.

So here is the ornament I stitched & sent to Lisa in Florida. The cuff is from a PS chart #119 with my own stocking embellishments.


Included with Lisa's ornament was an Australian favourite chocolate bar, a Cherry Ripe, a postcard depicting scenes of Wellington and a couple of floss cards.
.

My second ornament winged its' way to Mary in Ireland and it too has arrived.

From PS chart #118

Cake Baking.

Well the cake has cooled & rested & is covered with the almond paste.So far DH is co-operating and has promised not to peek at progress. Not that progress, at this stage, is anything spectacular, just the basics & I 'm no professional cake decorator. Every time I've made him a birthday cake in the past, he has been at work during the day, while I worked on the project. I would hide it carefully before he came home. This time, it is somewhat difficult as I need to snatch the times he is not at home, to work on all the preparation. He has suggested he peep at my blog, as I take the progress photos, to find out what is a foot. He may not be suspicious but does have a very inquiring mind, once he picks up a scent, of anything not following normal family happenings. More photos & words after the event.

Baking the Birthday Cake..

This week I baked a birthday cake for my DH, who celebrates his birthday next week. The fruit has been macerating in Cherry Brandy, which was substituted, as I had no ordinary brandy in the pantry.

I baked the cake in a timber cake box, a new experience for me. The wooden cake box did not self ignite as perhaps I had anticipated. In fact it filled the house with the most delicious aromas, so much so, DH was very keen to investigate the procedure. When the cake came out of the oven, he wanted to be the official taste tester. As I was being the original meanie, tasting was forbidden, until it is cut for the birthday, celebration dinner.
To tell the truth, it still needs almond icing & Royal icing decoration for next week. My plan is to keep him out of that loop, for the time being.

A small PS from some time ago.

Did you stitch up the small gift cards, that were at included in your purchase, very quickly? Perhaps, like me, you did them at a later time but often fondled them in anticipation of a completion. Since completing my three ornament exchanges I've only worked periodically on this wee PS cross stitch. I remember receiving it, when I made a purchase at the needlework store, some years ago.

I decided to make it up as a small decoration to add to my ornament tree.
This is the finished cross stitch, I've the backing fabric chosen & now need to put it together.

My Ornament Arrived, I'm Thrilled!

We were away for a few days and when we returned, the first mail delivered my exchange partner's gift.
Thank you Lynn. It is a beautifully stitched piece as you can see, one of my favourites. I had planned to stitch this one for myself, over the last several years, no need now with this delightful piece. My gift also included three pieces of Halloween fabric, something it is very hard to find in this part of the world. So, you can see why I am thrilled.

My Halloween display is already set up & I now have another wee treasure to add to the mix.