Cake... cake... oh so much cake!

Hello Steemians and fellow Friday Food Fighters,

I missed last week's food fight and well, actually had a good reason for that... I spent my week cooking! Yeah, no joke there! To give you bit of a background, June is the month of birthdays in my family, so it's lots of fun, but also busy and hectic and there are usually all kind of things going on. This year thought is ever more special because my little man just turned 1! Yes, a whole one year old, cannot call him baby anymore, independent toddler now, boy!

So I was quite busy the whole week, but I enjoyed every moment of it so much! He won't remember anything of it and will just see pictures in the future and wonder who those people were and what was all the fuss about. But for us it's been a year of new life, new beginning, getting to know our new selves and watching him grow, develop and show his little character. The way I see it, the first birthday of a baby is as much a celebration of him as it is of the parents for making it through the sleepless nights, constant learning and changes.

We've been eating so much cake during the last week though, I feel like it will be a couple of months by the time all the calories are burnt.

The week started with some baby friendly cupcakes. We have a little playgroup of kids the same age so we decided to have a little party to celebrate all their birthdays instead of ending up with a dozen parties to go to some of which would have surely fallen on the same weekends! I was happy to offer to make something for the little ones as a training for the bigger cakes but also to make sure what they're having is healthy. Well, my cupcakes were loved by the babies and the grown ups. I even decided to add some sprinkles to make them a bit more festive!

A smash cake followed later in the week on the special day of my grown up now one year old. This again was a very healthy mini cake which my little man really enjoyed. And dare I say so did we! Soft and fluffy even thought I had made the layers the day before. Light and not too sweet, perfect for everyday afternoon tea or desert with a coffee.

And last to share with you all, was my first real attempt at making an actual cake. And it worked out really well! Everybody tried it and some of our guests even took an extra piece for home. Now, I need to be honest and say that the buttercream was a bit too sweet for me, but then I don't have much of a sweet tooth so it was probably quite normal level of sweetness. The only thing that didn't work out and therefore the outside frosting and decoration of the cake weren't as planned, was the Italian buttercream. Oh, that ended up being way more difficult and time consuming than I had thought. And as I wanted all the cream to be fresh made on the day, I was running out of time, rushed the whole process and ruined it. Good that I had some cream in the fridge, so just whipped it, frosted the cake, added some sprinkles all over and the cake was saved.

I don't know when I will make a cake again, but I have really learned so much about baking in just one week, I'm looking forward to practicing more and sharing my creations.

Hope you've enjoyed the photos and a little read :-)

And please share, do you like cake (oh wow this must be a joke, everybody likes cake!!), have you made one, what's your favourite?