My First Cake Ever for my First Baby's First Birthday!

This is the first cake, and first birthday cake I ever attempted!! Baking wasn’t, and still isn’t, my favourite pastime but it was my first baby’s first birthday and I wanted to look back and say I’d made it all by myself from scratch. I am very proud of it and it took me days to finish. (It cost loads more in attempts than if I’d bought one but that wasn’t the issue!!). I’ve since made his 2nd birthday cake, and am researching ideas for his 3rd. I looked on this website each time for ideas and so whilst looking this time I thought why not? and (nervously) submitted mine!!

The cake is a round Victoria sponge with jam and butter icing filling. At the time, i wasn’t brave enough to try the scary looking fondant roll icing so coloured butter icing green with blue and yellow food colouring. Doing the fiddly decorative bits was more my enjoyment level so i made a lion out of fondant icing (which i dyed yellow and red with food colouring). Sometimes the icing got a bit sticky so i followed advice and added icing sugar. It took me two days to perfect, and required a cocktail stick to hold the head on the body. The mane, i used a garlic press and stuck individual strands to the lions head (i’m sure there must be an easier way but this was my first attempt after all!!) The number 1 i just cut out of fondant, the same with the little plaque with his name, it was just spare icing.The nose is a tiny triangle cut from a chocolate button! I wrote his name with some little squeezy tubes i found in the supermarket. I put smarties round the bottom, looked pretty and covered up the untidy edge. i made a school girl error, thought i could transfer the completed cake onto a nice clean cake board..obviously i couldn’t!! so here it sits on a large plastic container lid!

My son was a bit young to appreciate it but family and friends were very impressed (more so because they knew i’d never done it before, and how hard i’d worked!) and i was very happy with the result.

It would make me proud if people saw it and just thought it was good!!