Train Birthday Cake

My son ABSOLUTELY (it seems from the minute he was born!) loves trains! My brother also loves trains and he loves that his nephew loves trains! Bro doesn't have his own kids so he enjoys taking J to train shows.

So, for J's 3rd birthday I thought it would be a great idea to make him a train cake and i must say that it turned out brilliantly! he was so excited when he saw it.

I thought i would blog some pics to show the process of putting it together.  I hope you get some inspiration!

I got the main idea for the cake from a kids birthday cake cookbook.

Step 1
I baked 1 large cake using 2 x packets butter cake and bought a large jam roll for the engine and assembled them as shown.

Step 2
I made some buttercream icing and tinted it with blue colouring and iced the cake.

Step 3
Then I decorated the cake. As i am not that confident at piping detail, I went to google images to found the face of thomas the tank engine and printed it on photographic paper as it is thicker than normal paper and put it on the front.

Step 4
Reveal the finished cake to the birthday boy!

The lollies i used to decorate the cake were:
Licorice straps
Nestle Smarties
Cadbury Flake
Oreos for the wheels

These are the licorice straps:

A recipe for buttercream icing is here:

250g butter - at room temperature

2 1/2 Cups icing sugar mixture

60ml (1/4C) milk

Beat butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar in batches until combined. Gradually add milk. You can also add vanilla essence if you wish.  Add colouring and mix until combined.

I am linking this with these link parties here and here and here.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

N

Luv

Our Gorgeous New Room!

Well our main bedroom is well on the way to completion (apart from a problem with the lettering I wanted on the wall not sticking) and i must say i am LOVING it! I went to Kmart today and found some black cushions for $4 Bargain.  I was so excited cos i have been looking for cushions EVERYWHERE but they were all so expensive!

Here is a photo of our room so far.

I found the tutorial for the hanging ball decorations here. I think they looked great and had to try them for myself!

On my wishlist for this room is new blinds and curtains!

Thanks for looking!

Luv

I have a disorder

... And my disorder is:

I love to clean my house at night time.

It's frustrating as I have all day to do it, but always find something else to occupy my time.

It is a relaxing time tho. It's usually when the children are all tucked up asleep in their beds, the house is quiet, I have my music playing (usually a hillsong or another worship album), the husband is asleep on the couch, and I'm on my own with no interruptions!

Then i stand back, admire my hard work, go to bed ... the kids wake up in the morning ... and all that hard work is undone within minutes!

But I'm thankful for a house that gets messy, cos it means I have a house and I have beautiful kids who do the messing!

Luv

Things i cant live without!

The first thing i've decided that i can't live without is this:

A DISHMATIC!! haha

i decided that while 'trying' to wash up the dish out of my slow cooker WITHOUT  my dishmatic cos it broke last week :(

Whoever invented these things was a pure genius!