I’m a writer and a mum of two young people.
The tiger safari remains on hold, and most of my trekking takes place near Lake Hawea and Wanaka in New Zealand.
If you suspect (as most women do) that Barbie's legs are just a tad longer than is strictly necessary or realistic, try making a princess cake for a Barbie doll.
So, we have a glass bowl which is a good shape for a skirt but alas nowhere near tall enough unless you hack Barbie's legs off at the knees. Which I did consider as a viable option at one point.
So then I made a two-layer cake to go underneath the bowl-shaped cake. Which was all well and good except that by the time I'd hacked them all into shape and stuck them together with jam and cream my enthusiasm was flagging.
Somehow I thought it would be quicker just to dump all the icing sugar and butter in a bowl together and beat them for the buttercream icing, rather than creaming the butter and gradually adding icing sugar.
You may remember last year Ali came to the rescue with the castle cake? This year she arrived to find me enveloped in a cloud of icing sugar with the egg beaters making an odd groaning noise in a weird gloopy icing. (I panicked and added too much milk.) She calmly prescribed more icing sugar and the day was saved. Even if the decorating was a bit slap dash by then and (the shame of it all) you can still see the layers of cake through the skirt.
We quickly decamped upstairs to sing happy birthday to the birthday girl and cut some very long thin wedges of cake. Five minutes later I looked over and noticed that the entire top layer had fallen off and was lying upside down on the table. Definitely not one for the party - I wonder if I can talk her into a simple butterfly? Once I've bought the new electric beaters, that is...
So, we have a glass bowl which is a good shape for a skirt but alas nowhere near tall enough unless you hack Barbie's legs off at the knees. Which I did consider as a viable option at one point.
So then I made a two-layer cake to go underneath the bowl-shaped cake. Which was all well and good except that by the time I'd hacked them all into shape and stuck them together with jam and cream my enthusiasm was flagging.
Somehow I thought it would be quicker just to dump all the icing sugar and butter in a bowl together and beat them for the buttercream icing, rather than creaming the butter and gradually adding icing sugar.
You may remember last year Ali came to the rescue with the castle cake? This year she arrived to find me enveloped in a cloud of icing sugar with the egg beaters making an odd groaning noise in a weird gloopy icing. (I panicked and added too much milk.) She calmly prescribed more icing sugar and the day was saved. Even if the decorating was a bit slap dash by then and (the shame of it all) you can still see the layers of cake through the skirt.
We quickly decamped upstairs to sing happy birthday to the birthday girl and cut some very long thin wedges of cake. Five minutes later I looked over and noticed that the entire top layer had fallen off and was lying upside down on the table. Definitely not one for the party - I wonder if I can talk her into a simple butterfly? Once I've bought the new electric beaters, that is...
More on Florida later.