Funnily, these cakes are all from a more up to date version of that book which my mum picked up for £1.50.
Green icing is a bit of a nightmare to get a nice deep, grassy shade. Clever that the design uses coloured dessicated coconut which gives the texture and I’m guessing is also easier to get to go dark.
I am not a fan of sugar paste at all either, tastes rubbish compared to buttercream. I will always go for something mainly buttercream covered where possible. Even the doughnut design uses a runny glacé icing instead which is better.
The answer is that yes the coconut gives texture, no it didn’t retain the colour any better.
I think the version we have is the same as the one in that blog reprinted, which is the ‘classic’ version so it’s sort of the newer version than yours with all the cakes that parents demanded from when they were kids. It’s basically a similar cover but with gold shiny writing all over it.
And it doesn’t have anything that uses that sugar paste so I guess maybe that was part of the appeal of reprinting the classic. The icing on the doughnut looks great, I just think it’s probably a cake that is going to be appreciated more by adults or older kids who can appreciate the majesty of the idea
It has different versions of some of the ones on that list, the castle for instance is a much more refined design that actually looks pretty cool.
Sugar paste seems to be relatively new thing in terms of wide availability for home baking so that is probably why there is less of it in a book of ‘classic’ designs I’d guess.
The problem with the book is that some of the sweets used seem to be Australian things, like the sprinkles on the doughnut in the book are made from something called musk sticks, which I have never heard of…
Don’t go assuming that a digger is just a digger. Jimbo will correct you if you don’t correctly identify an excavator or a bulldozer or a tipper truck or a crane or a backhoe loader (I didn’t even know what one of these was until I had a toddler!)
R is also keenly into ornithology and recognises several bird calls, he enjoys gardening and hosting tea parties and is an avid reader of books on all manner of subjects.
But yes, diggers and fire engines are popular. Also trains, and dinosaurs - all the classics. Not really bothered about normal cars tho.
It is part the excellence of @anon50098204’s fire engine that makes me hesitant about making one myself, it would only be a pale imitation of that masterpiece.
I think it’s because they’re such sponges at this age, and because it’s such a big deal to hear anything that isn’t a seagull that we tell James all about it when we hear something, and also because drag him out into the garden when we hear the likes of a blackbird singing outside to distract him from the television.
