September 2007

Skipping forward a year to Millie's second birthday in September 2007, she had a bugs and butterflies theme for her birthday so this called for a ladybird birthday cake.
Again I used the familiar chocolate sponge cake recipe and 'chisled' away at the cake to make a dome shape for the ladybird's wings. In hindsight, the icing would have looked better thicker and perhaps in rolled fondant icing. The large chocolate spots are the most expensive chocolate mints I've ever bought! I couldn't find the large cadbury chocolate buttons! Also I think the ladybird could have benefitted from sitting on a large fondant leaf or green grass jelly.
I made good use of my time though and was a bit over zealous with the theme making butterfly cakes, shaped chicken pasties, sandwiches and jellies.
I also made some nice big creepy crawly decorations for the dining room wall which I was quite pleased with. Millie was really helpful in decorating a couple of butterfly shapes I cut out for her too.
Having researched a bit more on the internet I'm quite amazed at how popular a ladybird cake is for a 2 year old birthday!
Here's the party table and decorations.

And here's what I'd like to aim for next time!