Monday, June 3, 2013

Lucy's Ladybird Cake

A few weeks ago my baby turned two! To celebrate, I made her a special cake - you know I love a bit of cake decorating!


I needed something pretty quick and easy, and not too big because I didn't want leftovers. I used my trusty Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book  (you know - the birthday cake bible for Australian families!) That link takes you to the new version just recently published, but I have the old book with the train cake on the cover. This cake is actually called 'Lucy Ladybird' in the book, so it was meant to be! I've mentioned this book on my blog before - I have fond memories of my Mum letting me choose from the book when I was a kid, so I will be continuing that tradition with my kids for sure!

I can't believe my girl is two. We are well and truly past the baby stage now, and I am mourning for it a little bit.


She was pretty excited about her ladybird cake. I used a basic chocolate cake mixture and baked it in a pudding bowl. I also saved some mixture and made a couple of cupcakes to use as the head. (I made two in case one failed.)

I made the Vienna Buttercream recipe for the icing, which is in the book, but I wasn't a big fan. I'll be honest - it's easier to cheat and buy the pre-made can of Vanilla Betty Crocker icing. I know it's probably horrifically bad for you and full of crazy preservatives, but oh well. It's not like as if we eat it every day. Plus from a decorating perspective, the Betty Crocker stuff is a crisp white colour so it tints very well when you add colours. Butter based icings don't tint as well as they are pale yellow to begin with.

I tinted the icing with a red gel colour, but it had a slight orange tint due to the yellow of the butter. I used brown m&ms as the spots and some red licorice I had in the cupboard for the antennae.


It's not my best ever cake decorating effort but I did it in about 30 minutes before we rushed off for a family lunch at a restaurant.


And the birthday girl liked it so I call it a success!

You can check out all my other decorated cakes here.

13 comments:

  1. It looks gorgeous and so does she.

    I squealed when I received the (new) version from my mother in law for my birthday two years ago. I'm still on the hunt for the old one but I honestly love this book.

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  2. I need to get a copy of that book... I'd love the original version too though. The cake looks great... might have to keep it in mind for future little girls b'days ;-)
    Lucy is such a pretty little princess!!! xo

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  3. It's so cute! Happy birthday Lucy!! Isabelle saw it started chattering about ladybugs - a current obsession of her's!

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  4. I think it's really cute and in 30 minutes by golly you rocked it! Birthday girl looks adorable enjoying her slice.

    Max will be two in July and while I will miss the baby cuteness, I don't ever want to go back there, I can wait 10 or so years for grandkids :) (now I've made myself feel old!)

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  5. Cute ... I LOVE the Womans Weekly cake book to ... and Betty Crocker ready-made icing!

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  6. It looks great! I am not that great at cake decorating... Caden and Mahli are already talking about what kind of cake I need to make for Ethan for his birthday at the end of the month. I think I will have to hunt down my copy of the Womens Weekly Cake book, I'm sure it's around here somewhere...

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  7. Awesome ladybug! I have to confess...I love my butter frosting. I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of whiteness for that amazing flavour. Plus, I've made it so often, I've memorized the recipe!

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  8. Looks perfect to me. What a gorgeous little girl. I saw a brand new 3 day old baby today and the cluckiness never goes away. When I made a cake for Emelia one birthday, I didn't want the yellow from the butter coming through the pink nor did I want to buy the white shortening from a cake supply shop. I went to the local bakery and got a kilo of the white 'icky' stuff they put on cake shop cakes. It cost about $3, was really easy to pipe with and ice, the cake didn't need refrigerating and the kids loved it. (Ick.) I think I've still got some in the pantry from 2.5 years ago! LOL Beautiful cake Ros. Just perfect. xx

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  9. adorable. very creative. and yup if the birthday girl likes it, it is truly a success. she has grown so much. it has been fun watching her grow up.

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  10. She is so cute and so is your cake.

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  11. Happy Birthday Lucy! What a cute cake and such a beautiful photo of the two of you when she was a baby. I'm mourning the baby stage too.

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  12. Gorgeous cake! My brother and I had many, many childhood cakes made from that book - fond memories for sure. My mum still has it so I will have to keep that ladybird cake in mind - it looks gorgeous! I can't believe the recent photos I've seen of Lucy - so grown up!!! Happy birthday xo

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  13. The cake is lovely! Happy Birthday to your little ladybug. I hope she had a great day!

    p.s. It was so nice meeting you in "real time" the other evening at the "hangout". I only realized afterwards that I am a slacker and had not been officially following your work through outlets other than our group! I admire your work and look forward to getting to know you better. :)

    Have a great day!

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