A Piece Of Cake
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday June 29, 2005
BIRTHDAYS for children mean presents and parties, which mean invitations, party games and, most important of all, a cake.
Some children are happy with a store-bought creation topped with a few candles, but many discerning youngsters crave flights of fancy when it comes to their cake.Fairies, cars, animals, castles, sporting equipment, trains and numerals have always been popular thematic choices for cakes.Some are easy to make, others more difficult. But now, thanks to The Australian Women's Weekly, these creations are easily achievable following the release of the third edition of Kids' Party Cakes.With more than 100 ideas contained within its brightly illustrated pages, the only thing that has become more difficult is your choice of cake design.The youngsters in my family have already been turning the pages looking for their next birthday creation, although one has decided that she needs as many cakes as she does candles.All the recipes and cake decorations have been triple-tested by the Weekly's kitchen. The director of the kitchen, Pamela Clark, said all the designs were based around the basic 20-centimetre round cake pan."People have certainly become braver over the years in what they'll attempt for kids' parties," Ms Clark told GT."But today's parents also have less time to prepare these masterpieces so a lot of the new cakes we've developed are quick and easy and we also used toys and decorations that you can easily buy in chain stores."A large chapter in the book deals with little cakes, or cup cakes, which are popular when it comes to sharing a birthday celebration with schoolmates or day-care playmates. Previous editions featured a few, but the third edition features plenty of great cup cakes, all brightly decorated along different themes."We spent a lot of time coming up with cute ideas for little cakes in this book because we know that schools and kindies prefer these over large cakes at birthday time," Ms Clark said.When it comes to a cake choice that is in the too-hard basket, a patisserie whiz like Steve Bampton of Euro becomes a parent's best friend.Bampton loves birthday cakes, which is just as well, for in addition to turning out dozens of birthday and wedding cakes each week at his New Lambton patisserie, he still gets called on to make his children's cakes."My daughter is having a western-themed party so she wants a chocolate box full of wagon wheels," he said, adding with a laugh that his daughter would be turning 21.In his experience, themed birthday cakes are just as popular with adults as they are with children.While kids tend to want cakes based on their cartoon heroes such as Spiderman and Bob the Builder, along with animals, fairies and dinosaurs, adults tend towards the more obscure (and the obscene)."Men still love boob cakes, but these days there are leather straps around them and they have pierced nipples," Bampton laughed.And it's not just the blokes who prefer body parts. "I've even got a mould for an eight-inch, well, you know," he said of some women's favourite cake design.Other novelties for adults range from sporting shapes to a recently commissioned lighthouse for a couple's combined 40th and 50th birthday celebration, held at a lighthouse."At first it was difficult, but once you work out how to construct it, it's not that bad," he said of the lofty lighthouse cake. "And I've got an exceptional decorator, Angie Carles, working with me."All the cakes made in his kitchen are photographed and the images downloaded so that choosing a cake is easy."If it is for a birthday from one to three years, the parents choose. After that the kids look at the screen, scrolling and picking the one they want," he said.With special cake tins in a variety of shapes and sizes, he can whip up Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder cakes easier than a home cook can. "We end up doing the more complicated cakes," he said."People have certainly become braver over the years in what they'll attempt for kids' parties."
© 2005 Newcastle Herald
