Banana and Caramel Cake

I have been a bad blogger, I forgot to announce to the world on Saturday that it was Mat's birthday! And not only was it Mat's birthday but on that very same day it was our 6 year anniversary. Yep six wonderful years together and it feels like it has all just flown by. To celebrate this fantastic day I baked Mat a banana and caramel cake. I actually read through a whole heap of cake descriptions to see his reactions - mostly it was no, no, no - but then a yes! Yes he likes banana cake and so it was made.


Banana Caramel Layer Cake (from The Australian Women's Weekly Classic Cakes)
Makes a 24cm bundt cake
(I made a 6" cake and 12 cupcakes instead)

185g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
335g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/4 cups mashed banana (I needed 4 bananas)
1/3 cup milk
380g can caramel Top'n'fill (I used half a tin)
3/4 cup thickened cream, whipped
1 large banana sliced thinly (I omitted this)

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 24cm bundt pan well (or grease and line a 6" round cake tin, and line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake liners).
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
3. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients, mashed banana and milk.
4. Spread mixture into bundt pan (or cake tin and cupcake liners).
5. Bake for 40 minutes (took my cupcakes 20 minutes and my 6" cake 30 minutes).
6. Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.
7. Split cake into three layers. Spread bottom layer of cake with half the caramel, top with half the cream then half the banana slices. Repeat next layer. Replace top of cake and dust with icing sugar to serve. (I only split my cake into two layers and I left out the banana slices because I didn't want them to go brown).
   

Happy birthday and 6 year anniversary Mat - love you!

Zoe's 1st Birthday Party

Last Saturday was Zoe's first birthday and it was such a fantastic day. We had friends and family over for a relaxed barbecue and some Beatles Rock Band later in the night. Zoe was brilliant all day long, she even hung out in the shed with the boys to dance and sing to Rock Band - so cute!

And of course you know there was cake...


I made 24 chocolate cupcakes and 24 vanilla cupcakes, each cupcake was topped with orange coloured vanilla butter cream and then topped with a green or blue fondant star.


I even made a little cupcake tower using this great tutorial from Cake Journal - it was pretty easy to do and it looked great. I definitely recommend it if you have a particular colour theme you are trying to follow for a party.


Then of the course there was the cake, a 6" chocolate cake filled with vanilla Swiss meringue butter cream then covered in fondant and topped with a fondant replica of Zoe's favourite toy - Eric the Elephant.


A little close-up of Eric - he was a lot of fun to make!


Cupcake time for Zoe - we lit a candle for her and sang happy birthday. I thought she was going to freak out but she loved all the attention!


Then once the candle was blown out (thanks to me) she had a little taste of the butter cream.


Zoe then continued to destroy the rest of the cupcake - she loved it!


And the all important sliced cake photo - I love those yummy looking layers!


This is Zoe very smily and happy with her grandma.


Zoe opening presents at the end of the night after a quick nap.


After a big day, Zoe gave her new toy puppy a big hug and then went to sleep.

Can't wait for the next birthday party :)

Happy 1st Birthday Zoe!

You've come along way baby girl - mummy and daddy love you very much!

We are looking forward to many more wonderful years with you.

Love + 1

Flickr Favourites - Party

1. Princess Party, 2. Childrens' Parties, 3. 74.365 - Party Time!, 4. flickr.com/photos/44973368@N00/2814909938/, 5. Party time! / Tiempo de Fiestas, 6. Vons, party cupcakes 4 days later (2), 7. Join the party!, 8. Party Time v2, 9. What A Party!

Party Bag Fun

This week I have been a very busy girl preparing for Zoe's first birthday party on Saturday. We are having a small shindig at our place - just a BBQ, some salads and of course cake! We do however have 10 or so kids coming along so I thought I should do the right thing and make up some loot bags - after all it is one of the best bits about birthday parties.


I found some wedding cake bags at a local shop and decided I would use them for the bags, I then got some coloured paper (orange, blue and green - the theme for the party) traced out lots of circles and stars, cut out all the shapes and created my bags. I think they look quite cute.


Next I got totally OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) like and bought a whole heap of lollies and then sorted them into blue, green and orange colours. The rest of the colours have gone into a big container for "Halloween" (they are quickly disappearing). Don't they look pretty all sorted?


I also bought some little toys to put in the loot bags - again in the same colours. I got little parachute men, bouncy balls, scary finger puppets, little mazes and erasers that you put on the end of pencils.

Scary!

Here is what the contents of one of the loot bags, however I also put a bubble blower and balloon in each bag after I finished taking photographs. I think it looks awesome altogether.

Very happy with the end product.

Happy 27th Birthday to Me!

It was my birthday on the weekend and I got spoilt as per usual. The day started off at 5:30am when Mat brought Zoe in to bed for her morning breastfeed - then he took her into the lounge room so that I could have a lovely little sleep in.

After getting the grocery shopping done my mum, Mat, Zoe and I packed up and headed to Hahndorf (a little place in the Adelaide hills) to have lunch, buy some bum burners (very hot sausages) and wander through the lolly shops.

We finished up the day relaxing on the couch, eating lollies for dinner, crying through Marley and Me and drinking caffiene free Diet Coke. Very healthy!

I was lucky to get some lovely gifts - my new digital camera (which Mat gave me a month early), some books to help me figure out said camera, new perfume, pretty underwear, a few singlets, a beautiful pink felted scarf, $28 worth of lollies and some spending money. Thanks everyone!

Cake Planning

And so it begins...

I have been thinking about Zoe's 1st birthday party a lot lately, so much so that I have been dreaming about party themes and balloon colours. Yes, I have no life. That been said I have decided on a garden/spring/bug theme for the day and now of course the most important thing for me to work out is the birthday cake. I have decided that there will be a main birthday cake, cupcakes and a smash cake for Zoe to destroy. So now I just have to work out how I want to decorate them. So here are a few pretties I found on flickr today - time to get inspired!

1. Samantha and David's Garden Birthday Cake, 2. Sign post birthday message, 3. No.1 Bugs cake, 4. Sign post, 5. Meadowland Cake (fondant cake), 6. Close up of garden, 7. Rose Garden birthday cake - details from back, 8. 1st birthday cake nikhita, 9. 1st birthday cake catarina, 10. springtime flower insect cake, 11. adventures in cupcakes: the garden party, 12. enchanted garden cupcakes, 13. alice in wonderland cupcakes bread and butterfly, 14. Cupcakes, 15. aaron and angels wedding cake, spring cupcakes!, 16. Kids Summer Cakes

One year blog birthday and a giveaway!

It almost went by without me noticing - but yesterday was The Red Deer's one year blog birthday! So I celebrated in style today with a sprinkle doughnut and one big red candle. I like to think that this blog has come a fair way since its humble beginnings - the look of it has been revamped, I have my regular weekly features now to keep me on track and I am loving my A.. B.. Cupcake project. I still think there is a lot of room for improvement on my little blog and so to both celebrate my first birthday and to come up with new blogging ideas I am holding my first giveaway.

Check out the totally awesome prize that you, wonderful reader, could win:


That is right, a copy of The Australian Women's Weekly - Mix cookbook, a packet of Jelly Belly jelly beans and some lovely chocolate coins. If you would like to be in running for this giveaway this is what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment and if you feel inspired tell me what you would like to see as a regular feature on The Red Deer.
2. If you want an extra entry follow this blog (if you are already a follower you will already get an extra entry).
3. Finally if you feel so inclined post about the giveaway on your blog to get another extra entry.
   

Entries will be open until July 23rd 12pm (ACST).

Good luck everybody!

A very happy unbirthday to me!

Hubby got me an extremely early birthday present (since my birthday isn't until August) - a new Canon EOS 1000D!!! I am so excited, I have been wanting a new camera for quite a while now and this is just awesome! I need lots of practice with it, and I might even take a short course in photography - I love it!!