I’ve realised that I haven’t immortalised our family’s extreme cake-decorating efforts beyond the single entry with the Pac-Man ghost cake from last October. This was indeed the cake that tripped the madness switch in terms of birthday efforts.
Below is our ‘output’ since last October – click on pics for larger photographs!
November 2007 – K.’s birthday cake (cake baked by Mum; decorated by T. and S.): Cream cheese icing + fruit Roll-Up fish bits (Roll-Ups are an absolute travesty and shouldn’t be classified as food – hideous) + chocolate-coated sultana rocks + sculpted Mint Slice eyes + melted jelly-snake mouth.
December 2007 – E.’s 1st birthday cake (bought cake [gasp!]; decorated by T. and S. [mostly S., let’s be honest]): Butter icing + Malteser eyes and nose + chocolate mint stick whiskers + piped chocolate details.
January 2008 – C.’s birthday cake (cake baked by Mum; decorated mostly by S.): Dusted icing sugar + “Boss” caramel stick legs and fangs (welded into shape over a gas-stove by S.) + marshmallow feet + sugar-dusted jelly-fruit eyes.
June 2008 – S.’s birthday cake (cake baked by Mum; decorated by K.): Green cream cheese icing, honeycomb and ganached cake ‘boulders’, cactus spination = All Bran and shards of Peppermint Crisp, corn puff gravel, random rubber animals (spider and lizard).
June 2008 – D.’s birthday cake (cake baked by S.; decorated/styled by S. and K.): Citreon CX Series 2 – Coloured white chocolate icing with shaped white chocolate ‘windows’, licorice bumpers and rear vision mirrors (wheels were licorice + dark chocolate), jube lights (T.’s only contribution to the enterprise – oh, hang on, I might’ve done the piping on the number-plates, too), toffee and dark chocolate aerial + bonnet prop, white chocolate license plates with dark chocolate text, lime Aeroplane jelly hydraulic fluid.
July 2008 – my birthday (cake baked and decorated by S.): Purply cream cheese icing, halved Maltesers on the ‘skirt’, mint sticks and a musk stick for ‘arms’ and laser-nose as well as around mid-height, jellybeans on head, licorice detail on base and mid-height, chocolate discs/Wagon Wheels under head.
August 2008 – B. and D.’s joint cake (cake baked by S.; decorated by T. and S.): White chocolate ganache, Smarties and mini-marshmallow details, chopped jelly snake markings, choc-covered jelly snake antennae and probocis. This was an ‘impromptu’ cake at an interstate location!
That’s it for the moment! The next one won’t be till October again, then we’ll have come full circle. The question is: can this go on? Will S.’s creative mania endure? Can we store any more candy/lolly features in our pantry…?!
Dr Tseen Khoo 
>i should make the car cake for X. is there a template for the car? Or did you just make it up as you wet along?
>Oh, that car cake was a total nightmare (from an outsider’s perspective). S. downloaded a model plan from the internet (of that precise Citreon, which is much beloved by D., whose cake it was). S. spent the ENTIRE day doing that cake with the help of my cheffy brother, and time beforehand making car accessories (like tyres, number plates, etc). So, while the result is v. nifty and cool, I’d recommend a very simplified version or something else if you aren’t inclined to spend that many hours slaving over icing and moulding licorice… š
>These are really special. My fav is the Dalek.
>hi matthew – thanks for commenting! š the dalek is my favourite, too, and not only because it was the cake for my birthday…I’d mentioned to john g. that the coolest thing would be a dalek cake and that night – voila!