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I know this post is not especially related to walking/ outdoor pursuits- on the face of it. Well, I won’t lie, I just needed an excuse to share my pics of Doris (yes, we named her) the ladybird and her babies. Still, I think this will appeal to some of you outdoorsy people anyway.
My amazing, outdoorsy, little tom-boy daughter had her 9th Birthday party last weekend. It was a joint party with her gorgeous best friend who, unsurprisingly is a boy. Imagine my horror then when I thought the icing was going to look pink. However, once the decorations were on and it was clearly a ladybird, somehow it looked “pale red”……hmmmm.
My children are obsessed with anything creepy, crawly or related to nature. My daughter adores ladybirds and bumblebees. We were lucky enough to be able to book a “pond- dipping party”, led by a park ranger at our local country park where we often walk Mango. All the children had so much fun, fishing out newts, sticklebacks, nymphs, leeches, pond snails and of course, a multitude of tadpoles. A fat slow worm was also found and gently handed round.
The cake was super easy to make and no specialised tins or equipment needed. The body was made of a 2 round sponge cakes, sandwiched together with a little raspberry jam http://scrummywalks.com/2013/06/19/raspberry-jam-uncomplicated-unassuming-and-unashamedly-scrummy/ and uncoloured buttercream. The top cake was shaped by rounding off the top edge, giving the dome like appearance. Her head was made from half of another round sponge cake, cut again (so you are left with 2 quarters). These were sandwiched together and the bottom edge rounded. Red and black food gels were used to colour the buttercream. Jazzies (milk chocolate ones would have been better but I couldn’t find them), liquorice, a strawberry lace (for the smile) and some bendy sparkly pipe cleaners added the detail. The eyes were the sweets from the middle of the liquorice whirls.
Anyway, thank you for letting me share her with you. We had so much fun. I hope you like the pictures.
ScrummyWalks 