Ten

On Tuesday of this week Lily turned 10. A whole decade. To celebrate reaching double-figures I laid on an after-school afternoon tea for her and six close friends. It was relaxed, fun and I hope memorable. Celebrating such moments in life is time well spent in my book.

So I set to work making tiny cheese & cucumber rolls, filling pretty striped paper cups with chipsticks, baking sausage rolls and filling cocktail sized vol au vents. Then there were mini strawberry & cream meringues, individual coconut & cherry loaf cakes, mini chocolate cakes, mini orange & almond cakes and paper cups filled with lemon cupcake popcorn, berries and chocolate discs and to top it all off a 'fox' birthday cake.

It's the decorations and tableware that also make a gathering an occasion and, in this case, turn one of the most special days of the year into one of the prettiest. All the decorations and tableware in this shoot are from My Little Day, a French online boutique that sell all the kit required to host the most beautiful children's birthday parties. From bunting, confetti-filled balloons and tassel garlands to paper plates, cups, straws and napkins in contemporary patterns. I even made party bags using the paper bags and mini paper rosettes  - they were the icing on the cake.

The Simplest Orange & Almond Cake

Now this recipe is a real gem. Never before has a handful of ingredients and a bit know-how received such appreciative swoons and gushes. I came across this recipe a couple of years ago in the Observer's Food Monthly. It belongs to Rosie Lovell who the Observer introduced as 'the queen of the new cafe society; a comfort cook who hangs out with musicians in her Brixton deli'.

I read the article and made the cake. It was sublime. At the time I was writing food related features for the UK design blog The Beat That My Heart Skipped, and I contacted Rosie and she supplied us with a few of her amazing recipes from her beautiful cookbook Spooning with Rosie. I'm now a bit of a Rosie fan, it has to be said.

As I made this cake for an occasion, I tampered with it a little. I added a topping of glazed flaked almonds and some orange rose petals to enhance the overall beauty and to ensure those appreciative swoons and gushes. But when making this at home I stick to the original plain version dusted with a little icing sugar and serve it with a dollop of plain yoghurt and maybe some fresh raspberries on the side. Mmmm.

Orange & Almond Cake.

Makes 12 slices

6 medium free-range eggs

300g golden caster sugar

200g ground almonds

1 large juicy orange

2 tbs water

For the topping (optional)

1 small juicy orange or satsuma (or just use a splash or two of orange juice from a carton)

15g butter

1 tbsp golden caster sugar

50g flaked almonds

1. Grease and line a 25cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Preheat the oven to 160C/Gas2.

2. Separate 3 of the eggs, putting the whites aside in a mixing bowl. Beat the egg yolks with the remaining whole eggs in a large bowl.

3. Add 200g of the caster sugar and all of the ground almonds and mix thoroughly. Grate the orange zest and add this too, keeping the rest of the orange for later.

4. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Using a slotted metal spoon, fold the egg whites into the thick cake mix, a spoonful at a time. Be careful not to knock the air out of the whites.

5. Now pour this foamy cake mix into the lined tin and place in the oven for 40 - 60 minutes. The cake is ready when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

6. Leave the cake to cool in the tin and make the syrup. Put the remaining caster sugar in small saucepan and add the juice from the orange and a few tablespoons of water. Place this on a really low heat in order to dissolve the sugar and slightly reduce the syrup. Using a toothpick, plant holes all over the cake and pour over the syrup. Allow the cake to cool and absorb the syrup before removing it from the tin.

7. If you want to go down the flaked almond topping route, here's what you do. Put the juice from an orange or a splash of orange juice from a carton into a small non-stick frying pan with the butter and sugar and melt it all together. After it has sizzled for a minute or so and begun to caramelize, add your almonds. Give it a stir and occasionally tip the pan to keep it all moving. Once all of the liquid has disappeared and the nuts are glossy and coated in the orange-scented glaze, remove to a plate to cool. Then sprinkle with merry abandonment on top of the cake. 

What A Swell Party It Was ...

Yesterday afternoon we threw a small party at home to celebrate Arthur's 2nd birthday. It was delightful. All the little guests seemed to enjoy the celebration. Experience has taught me that the under 6's actually make perfect guests, so long as you keep the numbers low (our party was for 8). A simple meal and plenty of toys to hand is a winner for them. Those who know me are aware that I have difficultly keeping things 'simple', but I think I did okay. I forcefully limited my creative bursts to the cake, a bit of decor and a little take-home gift. The weather was dry so we decided to bring some of the party outside. The children enjoyed playing in the red house (which was a rather weather-beaten pale pink until I got handy with a paint brush last week). I put table and chairs outside complete with printed place names and little floral arrangements (I know they're only two, but just humour me!) for an alfresco tea of fish-fingers & chips. When plates were clean out came the birthday cake. Arthur simply loves cake and ice-cream, so I kind of combined the two, making individual ice-cream cone cakes. They are basically a cupcake baked into an ice cream cone. The result was complete silence, a high usage of wet wipes and 100% approval from the little people! After more play came home time, which some guests find a little hard -  after all who ever wants a good party to come to an end? But I hoped that the take home gift of a jar of homemade playdough and a bag of No. 2 shaped chocolate-chip cookies made it a little bit easier to bare.

Party Time - Part One

This weekend was the 'big' weekend of Lily's 6th Birthday party. An event that I had been preparing for for many weeks and a day referred to on a regular basis by Lily for about the last 6 weeks .... no pressure then for me to pull it off! I have a reputation for going the extra mile when putting on a party. Some people really do think I'm a sandwich short of a picnic. I relish in the creative freedom you can choose to have with a party, particularly that of a six-year-old girl's.

Lily likes to have a certain amount of involvement, but also likes a balance of surprise. So she was involved with some details such as the making of the party hats (which almost became a part-time job!), yet the cake was made after dark in topmost secret.

I set out to document the party and all the bits that I made for it, but some things weren't photographed due to the last minute chaos that always happens when putting on a party no matter how in control you think you might be. So I will share with you what I did manage to record over the next few posts.

I started off with a simple theme of pattern and colour. Naturally it gave a nod-and-a-wink to the nostalgia of the nineteen-seventies. It was to be a simple party at home like we had in the good old days.

We had fifteen children in all. We were certainly pushing the limit in our living room, so we were thankful that the sun came out and we were able to let the children spill out into our courtyard. On arrival each child selected a party hat (which they later took home). We played lots of fun games from pass-the-parcel (with forfeits) to musical statues. I made individual lunch bags for the children each with some mini danish pizza's, cheesy biscuits, breadsticks, carrot sticks, grapes and a little pot of cream cheese. There was orange or apple juice to wash it all down with and then came out my homemade strawberry and rainbow sprinkle cupcakes and No. 6 shaped chocolate-chip cookies. The lunch concluded with the birthday cake and a song of 'happy birthday'. After a pretty crazy two hours it was home-time and everyone left with their hats, a party bag, a tissue paper pom and a piece of birthday cake. Lily throughly enjoyed herself and I dare say that the children probably all slept rather well that night. 

I however, have decided that next year we shall either take the party out of the home or do something on a smaller scale. Six year-old's parties are, shall we say, quite a few steps up the scale from a five year-old's party. A large glass of wine was much needed once I had got my house back. Now I can get back to normality with a much reduced to-do list. Lovely!