Let them eat cake

(The then) Miss2 checking out potential birthday cakes

I wrote in my bio that my family doesn’t have any food traditions, but my very young blog is already showing me that we do. Nice!

One of these is I think a very common one in Australia. And that is the Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book. I remember looking at this book year-round and agonising over which cake I would have for my next birthday. I’ll have to go through my childhood pics at Mum and Dads and work out what I had. I do recall the piano, the maypole and the blackboard. My soccer mad brother had the soccer field and my sister had the swimming pool several years in a row. My husband’s family had the same book (not surprising, the book has sold half a million copies), and he had the fort multiple times. Apparently we aren’t the only ones: there’s a Facebook group.

Mum loaned her book to someone and can’t find it, but fortunately the classic 1980 version was re-released this year. Cryptically, the foreword says that four little friends from the are missing. I’m assuming because of political correctness or copyright. I think there was a Mickey Mouse and some other Disney characters?

Anyway, with my daughter about to turn three, the tradition now continues. My husband has been trying to steer her to the duck, which looks like one if the harder cakes to make, but it looks like she is steering towards the echidna (porcupine/hedgehog). Its actually an ice cream cake, but I think I’ll make a similarly shaped marble cake and decorate as per the book. I’m no baker, or decorator, so I’m sure I’ll empathise with my Mum in the years to come. Watch this space.