A jungle of a birthday

Today is my darling granddaughter, Daisy Jane's 2nd birthday. I cannot believe where those 2 years have gone. Just 2 years ago a tiny perfect baby came into the world and today she is a walking, talking loving little girl. I hope one day Daisy will be able to come back and read my blog and that I have kept many of these special memories safe for her in Jane's Journal.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes you sent and I have promised today to give the grand reveal of this year's birthday cake, the photos are further down. First though I thought I would share a little of my cake making past.

Both of my children have very fond memories of their own childhood birthday parties when I would always made them a cake. We were having a reminisce and my son particularly remembered his Noddy cake when he was 4 (he's now 26).....he had me making a car with Noddy in and all the little skittles too...I have shared this photo before but for my newer readers this is that cake circa 1993. I made everything out of fondant icing other than the bell, the steering wheel, the skittle arms and the windshield.

Noddy Circa 1993

We always had a theme each year so it was no surprise that my own daughter wanted a theme for Daisy's party. She chose Zoo/jungle animals as Daisy just adores animals. She also adores the DVD and books called 64 Zoo Lane. I even managed to get the author to sign some books to Daisy last year. My daughter found this fun party ware, which is very "64 Zoo Lane" style, and this is what I based my cake design on.

Over the last month I have been working on making the fondant icing animals. I use shop bought fondant icing, some is pre coloured some I colour with pastes. I just make these by hand.
Hello Mr Giraffe..................

Here are the basic shapes. I made several frog heads as I was not quite sure which I preferred! A couple were too alien for my liking.

 Of course these needed eyes...I made lots of these....

I gradually added the details...spots, horns, mane etc

 until these happy souls appeared.

Some of the leaves I hand cut for others I used a new set of leaf cutters. This is a great set as they are double edge, serrated or plain.

and yes my little crocodile came into being as well as palm trees and snakes. I cut into the sides of the leaves with a knife to make them look more "jungley" (I know that not a word but you know what I mean!)

Then on Friday after work I spent 5 hours putting everything together...I only took 1 under construction photo as I could not keep stopping and taking photos plus my  hands were covered in icing.
The base cake is my usual all in one simple Victoria sponge with raspberry conserve and buttercream inside. I use an 8" round tin,

I covered it with a thin layer of shop bought white fondant icing for the base.
Below is the sneek peek I shared on Monday. I decided to put my round cake onto a 12" square board so that I could create a jungle scene. I made a sky at the top and a river and water fall flowing onto the cake board. I stuck fondant "rocks" around the edge and "floated" Mr Croc in the water. In the finished photos you will see how I added movment to the water, this was just the start!

OK so here is the big reveal.

The light on Saturday was poor so my camera struggled. Here is Mr Purple Elly and his frog friend and there's a snake in the leaves sleeping.

Mr Giraffe

You can see below how I added a feeling of movement to the water fall and river just by using my modelling tools. 

Some of the details around the edge of the cake..palm tree and coconuts and some sneaky eyes peeping out from the undergrowth ;0)

A happy snake ;0)

The birthday candle holders, 2 of course. These are also made of fondant icing. The candles are of course real!

And some clouds in the sunny sky. I added a wash of coloured royal icing around the corners of the board to give some extra texture. I took some time deliberating where to add Daisy's name and eventually decided to write Daisy's name on one of the clouds. I think this worked well. I often add sentiments on my card on my cloud dies so this was an idea from my cardmaking.

So here is the cake all in place at the party

and the table with my daughter's brilliant cupcakes

She found these fun rice paper cake toppers which matched the party ware.

A fun time was had by all.

Including me and my darling girlie

and of course the party girl who was fascinated when the candles were lit and we all sang happy birthday to her. 

She was helped to blow out the candles by her Mummy and Daddy

and she even helped Mummy and Daddy cut the cake and make a wish.........

What fun family times, we are so blessed.

Happy Birthday darling Daisy, enjoy your special day and your trip  to the zoo with Mummy and Daddy. 

There are a couple of challenges I can enter my cake into so I would like to enter it into;

Pixie's snippets Playground week #202 I have used a lot of snippets of fondant icing for Daisy's cake!

Country View The colour blue I have used the colour blue in my river, waterfall and sky!

 I also have a challenge card of course today and yes it had to be Daisy's birthday card. One of her favourite creatures in the world is our Billy, the cat. I have a wonderful Lily of the Valley stamp which I thought looks like Daisy with our Billy.  I coloured it up with Promarkers and made a special easel card for her.

 I even managed to sneak in my Tim Holtz bird and branch die....I am sure Tim would be shocked to see it used here but I think it works really well. The backing papers are Wild Rose Studio.

Below is the inside, I used my pretty floral embossing folder.

and a side view

I would like to enter my card (my cake challenges are above) into these fun challenges;

NoorUK anything goes
Ribbon Girl any thing goes card
Pile it on leaves
We love to create # 23 anything creative/mixed media
Simon Says Stamp Monday N is for.....November birthday, Nature and Number (2) on my card
Try it on Tuesday create a scene
Crafting for all seasons embossing
Creative Inspirations anything goes
Inspiration Journal mission embossoble

Thanks for visiting me here today. Now that all birthday cakes and cards are are made I will be full steam ahead getting Christmas prepared...there are cards and of course my crackers to make too.......and just 44 days left til the big day ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x