Fancy Food

Fancy food has become the norm these days hasn't it? It’s much publicised in the media and we love it.  Shows like Masterchef, My Kitchen Rules and Heston's Feasts have us believing that we need to aim higher with the family meals. Bangas and mash has been elevated to ‘gourmet herb and mince casings served with delicate arrangements of milk saturated whipped Desiree potato and butter’, all garnished with a hint of pompous! The May household has not been spared.

Miss Five graduated to ‘Miss Six’, two birthday cakes were in order. One cake for the maternal family dinner, and another one for the paternal family luncheon.  

According to Daddy Cool, this was cause for competition.  A cake off! Battle lines were drawn. The contest for the best kiddy cake was on!

Gone are the days where a little bit of sponge mix popped in the oven will suffice. No. Thanks to all these television shows and glossy cook books, kids think anything is possible. Some cake designs call for all the skill of an architect and sculptor.

So just how far would this competition go? Comprehensive internet searches for the perfect accessories and methods were conducted. Whole day outings were spent foraging for the perfect ingredients, serving boards and recipes to compliment the cake design.

Much ado was made about cake choice, design, flavour and size. Miss Six didn’t give me much choice. I protest that the selection she made for me was very ‘brown’. An echidna with chocolate sticks for spikes. You can’t do much with that.

Daddy Cool on the other hand, carefully coerced the birthday girl into a more aesthetically pleasing choice. All of the kid’s cake books were placed in front of her with plenty of ‘gentle suggestions’ made. Finally a ladybug design was settled on. Both cute and symmetrically pleasing to the eye with bold vivid colours. Daddy Cool had the upper hand this year.

But who really won this battle of the cakes? Whilst Daddy Cool has long since staked his claim to victory and run a mile with it, it was Miss Six that really won. Two cakes – that’s a great day for any six year old!

The winning cake - owners of the Women's Weekly Kid's Cakes book will recognise this one. But maybe not my phallic looking losing cake...