Happy 70th Birthday!!

Happy 70th Birthday!!!

Last Saturday was a big day for us... It was my dad-in-law's 70th birthday and we planned a surprise party for him. With three weeks of careful planning (or maybe it was a bit suspicious...), the party was a great success. :)

We managed to contact his cousins and friends, and invited them to come and celebrate his 70th birthday. We did this all in secret....

In the end about 50 people gathered together for his big day. So..., when he came home and saw all those people in the garden singing '♪Happy Birthday♪', it must have been a total surprise to him.

Pete, I'm sorry that we lied to you, and I promise there will be no more surprise party... ;D

The barrel cake was rum soaked fruits cake. The middle tree stump was lemon, and the bottom grass was chocolate. 

This surprise party was one of the biggest events ever at the World of Sweets kitchen too. 

Not only did we make the birthday cake, we also catered most of the food ourselves including the breads for sandwiches. (Yes, of course, 100% my sourdough breads!)

It was such a great day. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did!

Once again, Happy Birthday to Pete!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lana!

Last week we celebrated Lana's 2nd birthday! Happy Birthday, Lana! xxx

We were just back from three weeks holiday in Japan and still pretty jet lagged on her birthday, but I managed to make her birthday cake and Lana managed to get up to blow candles and have some cake;)

I made small sponge cake by using some tuna tins. They are perfect for making small cakes. Then, put a lot of strawberries and blueberries that Lana loves and also a generous amount of fresh cream. ;)

Lana fell asleep while I was making her cake... 

She looked very cosy and peaceful. ♥ 

Last year she tucked into the cake before birthday song or photos, but this year she waited and even sang happy birthday to herself too! 

成長ってすごいな〜。これからもすくすく元気に育ってね。

二歳、お誕生日おめでどう。

Happy Birthday, Andy!

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Haaapy birthday dear Andy,

Haaaapy birthday to you!!

It's my dear husband's birthday today. Happy birthday, Andy ;D xxx

Last Saturday we had Andy's birthday lunch, and I made this "Ultimate cream slice" as Andy requested.

It's made of three layers of puff pastry, a mixture of vanilla cream and custard cream and strawberries in between each layer, then topped with a layer of icing, pistachio meringues, sugar coated strawberries, and roasted mixed nuts brittle,... yes, now you know why it's called "Ultimate" cream slice!


Cream slice may sound an unusual cake for a birthday (I initially thought that too...), but it's one of Andy's favourite cakes, so I thought why not treat him with a very special cream slice.

The cake was a serious cream and sugar heaven. I probably enjoyed it as much as or more than the birthday boy...

Happy Birthday, Andy! xxxxx

Happy Birthday to Pete!

Happy Birthday to Pete ~♪
It was my dad-in-law's birthday last Friday, and we had his birthday dinner on Saturday.

And, this is the cake I made for him! What shall we call it, 'face cake'? This is probably one of my favourite birthday cakes I've ever made. ;D

Andy and I made a stencil cut out of his face on a piece of paper and placed it on the cake, then I sprinkled cinnamon icing sugar to make his face appear on the cake. How cool is that! Even we, who made the cut out, was amazed how good it came out and how much it looked like him!

I kept the other decoration simple. The cake was coated with cream and funfetti macarons were placed on the bottom.

For the inside, I did checkerboard cake (I made it for Ony's birthday too, that was vanilla and chocolate...), this time I made brown sugar and mixed spice sponge cake, and hazelnut sponge cake.

Although we were very full after the main meal, we managed to squeeze a small slice of cake;)

I'm so up for doing this 'face cake' again for other occasions. In fact, I might start taking orders for it...

Happy birthday to Pete, and thank you for the lovely dinner! ;D

Two chocolate cakes

Some people might have already noticed that there are considerably small amounts of chocolate things on my blog... It's because neither of us eat it (unfortunately it gives us a great headache..;(...)

However, that doesn't stop me from using it for cakes and breads. In fact, I quite like working with it! I think chocolate gives cakes and breads just a touch of special indulgent feeling to them. :)

So so so..., at the weekend I made two different chocolate cakes.

One was an ultimate chocolate birthday cake for Brian, who as far as I know loves chocolate. The cake had cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate in it and drizzle of white chocolate, bits of milk chocolate and chocolate cake, and 'Happy Birthday' written with raspberry flavoured white chocolate (which kind of got pressed when I wrapped it...). Hope the cake filled the birthday boy's chocolate hole. ;)

The other one was white chocolate bundt cakelets for Andy to take to the office. Oh see, these mini bundt cake tins are so cute! When I saw it, I had to get it. ;D I added bits of chocolate cake from the cut of Brian's cake in the batter and filled the middle with chocolate sauce.

That was fun doing chocolate cakes, and these are the times that I wish I ate chocolate...

Golf birthday cake for Ony

This weekend we went to stay at Forest of Dean to celebrate our friend, Ony's birthday. I know he is quite into golf so I made a golf cake for him.

I covered the cake with green incing frosting, then sprinkled with coloured coconuts flakes to make 'edible grass'. I placed a bunker which was made with sugar and twice baked sponge cake, and also a pond with blue glitter sugar.

I wanted to put a real golf ball and tee on the cake but we forgot to bring them ;(... However, Nneka helped me to create an edible golf ball out of fondant, thank you Nneka!, and..., there we were, Ony's birthday cake was complete..

Not only was the golf birthday cake a surprise, but also I added another touch to the cake. The inside was a checkerboard cake. ;)

I absolutely loved making this cake. The cake looked just how I imaged, the checkerboard was perfect, and most importantly everyone liked it. :)

Thanks, Ony and Nneka for inviting us. It was an awesome weekend!

Two bunnies cake for two girls!

Our friends' daughter, Ayda's birthday is only 3 days later from Lana's birthday, so last Friday we went up to Leeds to see them and pre-celebrate their first birthday together.

I, of course, made a cake for them. Since they shouldn't be having much sugar, I baked sugar free cake and covered it with fondant so that they could have a bit of inside.

I put two funny looking (or slightly evil looking...) bunnies and golden eggs which Ayda picked one up and tried to eat it! That was hilarious! ;D

The girls seem to have had a good time together as well as the parents. Thanks, Cookie, Chi and Ayda for a lovely time there!

Easter Monday & Joint birthday party

As well as it was Lana's birthday yesterday, it was Easter Monday and we had an afternoon joint birthday party for Lana, Steve and me.

So..., there were three cakes on the table, what a treat! Of course, I started (oh, Lana did too!) with a slice of cake...

My birthday cake was made by my mum-in-law. It was a very pretty iced cake with lemon curd. Umm, yum yum, thank you, Chris!

I made sugar free non baked cheese cakes for Steve. Since it was Easter, I used Easter eggs as a cup and put bunnies and eggs on top.

Andy wanted to make vegetarian sausage rolls so I made a sheet of puff pastry too... I love making puff pastry. It's very therapeutic and much more rewarding when you see a nice rise and flaky pastry come out of the oven. ;D

Considering we had a bit of hectic days beforehand, I'm very pleased that we managed to have a lovely afternoon. :)

Happy 1st Birthday to Lana!

Happy Birthday to my No1 girl!
It's Lana's first birthday today. It sounds like a cliche but I cannot believe it's already been a year since that sunny day this little lady came to us!

This year has been a whole new experience as a mum with Lana and I've learnt a lot from her. I'm looking forward to much more fun things to come and do with her!

I love love love you, Lana.xxx

Happy Birthday to Steve!

Happy Birthday to Steve!
It was my brother-in-law's birthday yesterday so I baked this cheese and herb bread ring.

It has grated Parmesan cheese in the dough and some herbs and black pepper, and cream cheese inside. I thought the savoury taste of this ring would go well with the beers and nuts we gave him. ;)

Hope you had a great day, Steve!

Happy Birthday to me & my sister!

So so so, it's our birthday today! Happy birthday to my sister and me! Unfortunately we cannot be in the same place but I'm sure she's had a fantastic birthday too.

I baked my birthday cake myself... Some people might think 'what? you made your own birthday cake?' But I love it because I get to bake exactly how I want it.

This year was kind of special for me because it's the first time we celebrate my birthday with my daughter, so I wanted to make something that she can have some too as well as Andy and I can enjoy. So, I went for one of my favourite, Swiss roll, again! (I did that for my dad's 60th birthday, didn't I...) But I made the sponge without sugar but substituted with banana, which worked amazingly well. Then added unsweetened cream and fruits in the middle. That was one heavenly birthday cake for me.

I had the whole thing for dinner. After all, it's my birthday, let me eat cake!

Thanks to all my family and friends who made my birthday such an amazing day, and specially thank you to my mum and dad who brought me into this world.

お母さん、お父さん。また誕生日がやってきました。ラナが生まれて初めての誕生日、あらためて誕生日の’ありがたさ’を感じてます。いつもなかなか言葉にして言えんけど、色んな意味で、ありがとう。

Happy Birthday to Chris

It was my mum-in-law, Chris's birthday two days ago, and we had her birthday meal yesterday.

I made a cheese dome cake. I started decorating the cake with Maltesers chocolate because I knew she would love it. As I was putting the Maltesers, the cake started to look like a face, so I decided to turn it into a face, which ended up looking a bit funny...

Surprisingly, Chris had made a dome cake for dessert too! What a coincident! Hers was ice cream cake, hummm, that was very nice.. ;D

Once again, Happy Birthday to Chris! :D

Oh, by the way, the face is not her face...

Happy 60th Birthday to my dad!

Today is my dad's 60th birthday. Happy Birthday to my dad!
お父さん、誕生日おめでとう〜。

I borrowed my mum's oven to make dad's birthday cake. Because I couldn't find a round cake tin and I didn't have much time to prepare the cake, I decided to make a special Swiss roll...

Super light apple cinnamon Swiss roll with strawberries;)

It was not too sweet, which is how my dad likes, and the light sponge went perfectly well with the airy whipped cream.... I was very pleased to be able to bake my dad a birthday cake and celebrate his 60th birthday together. :D

あらためて、お父さんお誕生日おめでとう。

Happy Birthday to my mum

Haaapy birthday to you, Haaappy birthday to you, Haaapy birthday dear おかぁ〜さ〜ん, Haaaaapy birthday to you〜♬

Today is my mum's birthday:) お母さん、お誕生日おめでとう。

I sent my mum this bread dough wall ornament. It's similar to the one I sent to my sister and her new baby. Hope it has been delivered to Japan safely.

お母さん、飾りやから食べたあかんで〜。

Happy Birthday, Andy

Happy Birthday to you ~, Happy Birthday to you ~, Happy Birthday dear Andy, Happy Birthday to you ~♪

It's my dear husbando's birthday today.

Andy keeps telling me that 32 is a great age. Hopefully Lana and I can make his 32nd year ever greater. ;D XXX

Happy Birthday to Shintaro

This post is for my sister and her baby boy who was born last week. I made a little wall ornament with bread dough for them. ;D

My No.1 nephew was born less than two years ago (remember him?) and now there is another boy... craziness..., but yes, he is very very lovely (I've only seen him on the photo. I can't wait to meet him in Japan!) :D

So.., my No.2 nephew is called 真太郎 (Shintaro). Nice name, I didn't name him this time... Anyway, Happy Birthday to Shin Shin, and well done to my sister.

あらためて、くみちゃん、真太郎お誕生おめでとう。

Happy birthday to Pete

Happy birthday to Pete, Happy birthday to Pete, Happy birthday to Pete, Haaapy Biiirthday toooo Pete♪...

Today is my dad-in-law's birthday. Happy birthday, Pete ;)

I made a selection of breads and funny face biscuits for him. They were... "seedless raspberry jam bread", "chocolate bread", "purple grape bread" (have you seen how to make it?), apple and cinnamon roll, and birthday special... "Jumbo cinnamon roll"!

I hope he is enjoying those sweet buns and rolls with the birthday tea. ;D

30th birthday cake for a neighbour's son

It's been a little while since I made this kind of cake...
(if I remembered correctly, the last time was that 5 tire wedding cake!)

So, I had a birthday cake order from our neighbour. It was their son's 30th birthday yesterday. I made a classic sponge cake with jam and butter cream in the middle and iced the cake.

It was nice to make something a bit more "formal" than my usual style. However I have to admit that it's not the most fun thing to do when you have a very demanding little person always needing you for one thing and another. It just so hard to focus!!

Anyway, I managed to deliver the cake on time and we were even given a few pieces of the cake and a glass of champagne. ;)

Happy 30th birthday, Mr G.

Happy 100 days birthday, Lana!

Time flies... Today is our baby girl's 100 days birthday. Happy 100 days, Lana. I know she can't eat cakes herself yet but she will get some treats through my milk...

I love you, you are my No.1 monkey girl! ;D xxxxx

Happy Birthday to Chris

Haappy Biirthday to you ~, Haappy Biirthday to you ~, Haaappy Biiirthday dear Chris, Haappy Biirthday to you ~ :D

This post is specially for Chris, my mum-in-law, because it's her birthday today;)
Happy Birthday!!

I made her a little blue rose cake with the "happy birthday" icing ribbon wrapped around. The small three tire cake came out simple and pretty (just how I wanted!) with white dots and a baby blue rose. :)


We're going to see her this evening, which is a good news for me because I was thinking how I was going to send this cake by post... (I don't think the cake would have survived if I'd posted it...)

Well well well, I'm off to see her now. Hopefully she will like it!