Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Cake. Believe it...or not.

When I was little it was the done thing to bring a delicious cake or cupcakes to kinder on one's birthday. All the little kinder friends would gather around, sing a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday To You (you look like a monkey...aaaaaaand you smell like one too), and share in the deliciousness of a homemade chocolate cake or a marbled rainbow cake.

These days, it seems, things are a little different. Birthday cake poses a genuine risk for children with allergies, but also suffers because it doesn't fit in with the healthy food picture that we try to paint for our preschoolers.

These days (at my son's preschool, at least) the children still sing 'Happy Birthday' but the candles they blow out are glued precariously to the top of a strange looking 'cake' made from plaster of paris turned out of an ice cream container mold. This 'cake' has been decorated with a liberal amount of fleurescent paint and wildly sprinkled with glitter and confetti, but it's been around for a good many years and is starting to look a bit sad and sorry and not quite as festive as a preschooler might expect on his or her birthday!

So, my son's kinder teacher recently* asked me if I would make them a new 'fake cake', and of course I got on to it immediately.
By recently I mean sometime around July last year...but who's counting?

So here it is. I hope it was worth the wait! It is decorated with real fondant over two polystyrene 'cake' rounds. The candle holders are set into the top of the cake so the appropriate number of candles can be inserted for the birthday child. The cake has been hot glued onto the board and I'm hoping that once the fondant has set rock hard the whole thing will last a couple of years!

11 comments:

  1. That looks amazing Gypsy. The colours are perfect for all the little boys and girls.
    It's quite sad that they all miss out on everything that we had when we were little (such as real cake)!

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  2. Wow ! That is the best cake , I love it !

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  3. WOW! WOW! WOW! this cake is phenomenal!! i'ts really sad that it couldn't be edible, but then again the artistry is just so amazing it would almost be a shame to cut into such a beautiful creation...

    may i use this design for a birthday cake of my own for a future birthday? i've got a 50th coming in about 5 years that this cake would be just PERFECT for!!

    seriously, may i???

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  4. WOW, Gypsy that is brilliant. At my kinder we have a fake cake that has seen better days! I do still encourage children to bring cupcakes if they wish, but often give them out to take home so that parents can make decisions about eating it or not. Even if children bring real cake they still want to use the fake cake to blow out the candles. If the fake cake is put on the special round table at the beginning of the session the anticipation is always great! Your kinder teacher is very lucky to have you as a parent!

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  5. Awesome!! How clever are you!? The kids will love it xox

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  6. You are awesome, best faux cake i've ever seen!! Wow wee!! Our school is Ok with cakes, it's the responsibility of the children with allergies not to take something. I don't enter into the debate as my 4 children are born in school holidays, i'm off the hook!! Love Posie

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  7. um WOW! That is freaking awesome! Its a bummer though that you can't take cupcakes or anything anymore. That used to be my favourite part of going to school on my birthday. I have many many food allergies and I always knew not to eat stuff other kids had brought in cause it might make me sick. Usually my teacher would tell my mum when it wsa going to be someones birthday and she would send me with something to eat while everyone else had cake.

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  8. thats unreal Gypsy!

    thats absolutely FAB U LOUS!!

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  9. Gypsy, you are the Cake Decorating Queen ... even if there is a little bit of polystyrene involved. Your creation is beautiful. I am sure the children will think its incredibly special. I think you should enter show this year .... go on, go on!

    (Coincidentally I was at Jennifer Anne's just today stocking up on fondant, solite and gel colourings. Its cake season here!)

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  10. That is one amazing fake cake. Gorgeous. Love the colours and the shapes and the stripes ... I love everything about it.

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  11. That is incredible!!!! Better late then never lol!

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