Bowling Cake

At long last - a celebration cake! Phew, I cannot tell you how bored I am of making cupcakes. It is not-so-little- P's 9th birthday this weekend, and a request of a cake to go with her bowling party has been loudly hinted at for weeks. As this is my last chance for a celebration cake in this current job, I gave in and devoted all of 1 hour to baking, and 30mins to decorating (all the time available with 6 kids running around!) 

Having moved all my baking equipment into my new house, I was rather unprepared for baking this cake - hence the simple design (got to love a tray bake!) and slightly uneven lean to it (I never thought I'd miss my cake leveller this much!) But in true nanny style- I improvised a tin (roasting pan) and spatula (knife) and leveller (copious amounts of buttercream and a layer of chocolate philadelphia that I have found no other purpose for) and voila, a cake was baked.

To the fun part - decorating! An experiment in painting a cake proved to be quite successful for a first attempt! Good quality gel food dye painted on with a very wet brush then almost rag rolling with kitchen towel to give a wooden effect, + slightly drier brush strokes for the darker plank effect = one very quick and easy bowling lane. Add to that fondant skittles with a red painted stripe held in place with cocktail sticks and a coloured fondant bowling ball, and the whole thing is done in next to no time at all! 

Phew! Back in the cake creating game... what next I wonder?

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