Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday was our son's fourth birthday. We actually needed to wake him up, although not really surprising as the excitement of being four stopped him sleeping the night before! Mid week birthdays in term time are frantic affairs. Getting up and dressed, doing teeth, washing face and brushing hair, eating breakfast and making sure packed lunches are ready, all of this for two children, is hard enough on a normal morning. When you throw in a lorry load of presents, Grandparents phoning to sing "Happy Birthday", Godparents phoning to say "It's in the post", huge amounts of excitement and the production line of Birthday treat blueberry pancakes, it was a miracle we ever left the house at all!

No Daddy, there is not a mute button!

Freddie is a standard four year old boy. He is the most fantastic little chap with a great personality, and yet at the same time is as mischievous as a bus full of monkeys and has the demolition ability of Semtex! Oh, and he's loud! So, the best thing we could have given him would have been something small, soft and quiet. Well, needless to say, that never happened. Instead we gave him an electric keyboard with 20 sound effects, flashing lights and a microphone just in case his vocal chords alone can't reach the desired decibel level! Oh, and thank you to my (and I hesitate to use this word any more) friend who told Freddie that the best thing to do with his keyboard is to wake Mummy and Daddy up very early on a Saturday morning by playing it next to our bed!

We are having a Knights, Pirates and Princess party for him on Sunday so the artistic cake skills will be tested this weekend - we are going to attempt a fort with liberal quantities of chocolate fingers, mini-rolls and imagination! I shall add a photo at a later date. For tea on the day however, we bought a Lightning McQueen cake. It looked like the sort of cake that could keep an entire class full of children on a sugar rush for days - the label, however, assured me, the nervous parent, that there is nothing artificial in it. Not convinced, but I thought the joy in his eyes when he sees an edible version of his favourite character would be worth the potential sugar rush! As it happened, the rush never came.

Tomorrow morning I will do the weekly shop in my own usual fashion to stock up on all the various components for the party tea, sandwich stuff, hula hoops, party rings, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and lots of fruit. Over the years, we have learnt that children don't eat a huge amount. We usually have a mountain of food left over, so this year I am determined to produce just enough. That said, I know I will either end up with ten starving children or sending them all home with enough food for the next week! There will be no middle ground!

I am sure from the content of previous blogs you have all figured out that I love cooking and being in the kitchen. Unfortunately, whilst I can produce soufflés and sauces and all manner of complicated dishes, I am the world's worst baker. My wife, on the other hand, produces the most airy cakes and treats. She is the one who does the birthday cakes, combining the skills of Mrs. Beeton with the organising ability of Wellington and the artistic flair of Rembrandt! I know my place and tend to stay away until called for. It is just safer that way!

Some years ago cake making was hugely simplified when Mrs. P was given a very easy to follow recipe which produces consistently light and fluffy sponges. It can also be readily adapted for different flavours. Another great added bonus is you only need one bowl and one spoon, so less time spent washing up and that means more time eating lovely homemade cake! Yippee!

This will produce two thin-ish 8 inch cakes that can be sandwiched together.

1.    Pre-heat the oven to 180° or 160° if you have a fan oven.

2.    Grease and line two 8 inch cake tins.

3.    Weigh three eggs in the shell.

4.    Weigh out the same of self raising flour, caster sugar and normal flora. The other lighter or cholesterol free versions won't work. You can use softened butter, but I find that somehow the result is not as good. Flora makes for a lighter and altogether more fluffy sponge.

5.    Sieve the flour, beat together with the eggs, sugar and flour with a wooden spoon. Do not over beat.

6.    When all the ingredients are incorporated, divide between the two cake tins.

7.    Cook for 15 - 20 minutes, checking with a skewer to make sure it is done.

8.    Take out of the oven and place on a cooling rack. Leave the cakes to cool in the tins.

We also use this recipe, with less eggs, for cup cakes. Adding some colouring makes for jolly cupcakes and jolly children!

You can add the zest and juice of either one orange or one lemon to the mix for a great citrus cake.

If you like coffee cake, add 50ml strong coffee to the mix. Some chopped walnuts at the same time would add another dimension to the finished cake.

If you just want a plain sponge, add some vanilla extract to give it a great lift.

For a chocolate cake, replace 25g of flour with 25g of cocoa powder.

The above are all for a three egg cake. Adjust the quantities if you're are using more or less eggs.

As for the icing and decoration, I will leave it up to you as the possibilities are endless.

I hope you all have a good weekend and for anyone celebrating a birthday or other special occasion, enjoy!