Birthday Cake(s) and Beautiful Views

Virtually our entire family was away over Em's 6th birthday - so we held our own little celebration for her when we all gathered on the farm this weekend. I made her a double tiered vanilla cake with butter/vanilla frosting and shaped it if you look at it with one eye closed and your head tilted at just the right angle! like a carousel with chocolate bunnies and ducks in place of the more traditional horses.

Her younger brother was spoilt lucky enough to get the outer cake ring with a dinosaur and eggs for himself (when I was his age I insisted on a present for myself on my siblings' birthdays so I know what it feels like!)

Here is a picture of the sunrise...

and another over the dam - we have been blessed not only with the views but also with the most amazing weather the last few days.

I'm not much of a baker but I used the Moist Yellow Cake recipe from Bakerella and just left out the butter flavouring (not even sure if we can get that here in SA). Also I used cake flour and added 1 and a half teaspoons of baking powder and a half teaspoon salt for every cup of self raising flour required.

I think it was a hit...

I made a trial run the day before when it was just my dad and I at home and instead of frosting, I made a simple lemon drizzle using lemon juice and icing sugar and poured it over the cake - and it was also delicious plain with a spoon of extra thick cream and some fresh strawberries.