By ELLY JEAN-LOUIS
This week Mamamia challenged me to cook an iconic cake from the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book, first published in 1980. When I accepted this challenge I knew I was in trouble.
I love to bake cakes, flans, tarts, pies… you name it. But when it comes to detailed cake decorating, my skills lack a certain finesse (to say the least).
When I started the challenge I looked at the ingredients blankly and wasn’t sure where to start. Once the cakes were cooked I began to assemble (it was a team effort). My mum, boyfriend and I were all in the kitchen congregating around the lollies, sponge cakes and jam rolls. An hour and a half later, we were finally done.
I had spoken to friends who had made this cake before and they assured me that it was a breeze. Despite their reassurance, my cake looked like a five year old had decided to bake their own birthday cake (the kitchen afterwards looked that way too) although it tasted devilishly good I am going to leave the novelty cake decorating to the experts.
I definitely encourage you all to try it. I’m sure you’ll have more success than me and hey, if it doesn’t resemble a cute iconic train… the process is a lot of fun.
This is what it was supposed to look like:
Mine turned out like this:
And this:
Note: I could not locate Jube Rings or Paddle Pop Sticks at any of my local supermarkets (I tried three) so try sourcing these from a different retailer.
If you want to give it a go (because you know you want to) you can get the full recipe at the Australian Women’s Weekly site. Or check out their how-to video here.
What is your favourite children’s birthday cake to make out of the The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book?
Check out some amazing kids birthday cakes for more inspiration…
Top Comments
I used to go through the womans day book when I was little and pick the cakes out - the numbers were obviously the easiest as that is that I got even though i really wanted to barbie princess one. My cousins did get the farm yard...
now at 31 I cant wait to have kids and try out the madness of the most awesome cake book on the planet :)
Here's one of my husband's efforts. All of it was edible apart from the string. The claw actually grabbed the licorice log and you could pull the string and lift it up. A moving cake! He's also made, at my son's very specific request, "a wrecking ball crane knocking down a building" which also moved. He's astonishing! He claims it's not cake making unless power tools are involved somehow!
(for those in the know, he actually used a CMC milling machine to create a mould for the trusses......)
Wow! Amazing!