While Googling ourselves (yeah, we all do it) we discovered Renee's blog.
She had posted a fantastic review of Custom Icing and so we contacted her...
This is the cool blog post that we stumbled upon in the interwebs...
See that slightly excited look on my face?
That’s me at around 9pm the night before my daughter’s third birthday party. I’d finished all preparations for her party, including making an amazing looking cake, and was getting ready to put my feet up.
Usually, a snapshot of me at this time of night before one of my daughters’ birthday parties would involve a kitchen bench (and floor) full of icing sugar and crumbled pieces of cake, and me on the verge of tears, as I attempt to recreate a cake out of The Women’s Weekly.
Not this time, my friends. Not. This. Time.
When Miss Three requested a Clifford the Big Red Dog birthday cake, I went into a panic. I turned to Pinterest for answers and had to pick my jaw up off the ground when I saw the creations before me.
There was no way I could recreate what I was seeing. It would be Clifford the Big Red Mess if I had anything to do with it. I scoured the internet for answers and finally found one.
Friends, it took me five long years to find the secret to creating a spectacular* birthday cake with little effort and next to no skill, but I got there in the end.
Do you want to know what the secret is?
Lean in.
Edible icing sheets.
Right?! Uh-huh! Yep, I am telling you this for free, my friends. These things are absolutely amazing. They will give you an impressive looking cake for minimal effort. High fives all around.
It’s no secret I’ve not had the greatest track record with birthday cakes. There was the number one cake, which critics claimed looked like a giant penis thanks to the icing that was a little more skin coloured than pink, and the bottom of the number one that was a little more rounded than it should have been. Then there was Dorothy the Dinosaur, which turned out almost real-life dinosaur-size and the rainbow layered cake – or should I say Leaning Tower of Pisa.
On the eve of my daughters’ birthday parties, I would usually send my friend and baker extraordinaire Lauren a frantic text declaring disaster.
This year though, I texted her completely calm and proud of the decision I had made. The cake even broke and it didn’t phase me.
I can only describe edible icing sheets to you as life changing. This is not a sponsored post, I simply want to share with you the secrets to my cake success.
I googled edible icing sheets and found a company that met my needs.
All I had to do was go to their site, upload an image, choose my postage method and Bob’s your Uncle. For around $30, I had a Clifford the Big Red Dog icing sheet on my doorstep within two days.
I tell you what, that icing sheet took so much pressure off me and resulted in a cake that I can still say I made.
The best part of all was seeing Miss Three’s eyes light up when she saw Clifford her best friend on her cake.
Gotta be happy with that!
*Not quite spectacular, but close enough in my three-year-old’s eyes.
Are you a kids birthday cake pro? Or are you a disaster zone like me? What’s been your biggest cake failure or win?
Now fast forward a few months and we contact Renee to say thank you and to compliment her on her fantastic blog post.
We also offered to run a giveaway for her blog readers. Renee was so excited and got to writing another excellent blog post...
When I was a kid, my mum would delight me every birthday with spectacular cake recreations from The Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake book. The swimming pool, the sweet shop, the butterfly – everything she made looked perfection.
I was keen to continue this tradition with my daughters. With mum’s good baking genes and my dad as an ex-baker, I thought I was a shoe in for producing these beautiful birthday cakes.
Well, that idea can go to hell.
Critics claimed the first ever cake I made for my daughter – the number one cake from the Women’s Weekly Cake Book – looked like a giant penis. With pink icing that was a little too skin coloured and rounded rather than straight lines, the odds were really against me on that one. I can’t tell you how awkward it is to serve up a penis cake for your daughter’s first birthday.
I was beaten that year, but I powered on to the next, where I actually produced a pretty awesome-looking Peppa Pig cake. There was praise all around. I became cocky and thought I had what it takes to make amazing birthday cakes.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Year after year I had one disaster after another – a Snow White cake with a bad case of cellulite, a sweet bunny rabbit that looked evil, a rainbow cake that was a dead-ringer for the leaning tower of pisa – only with mangled icing.
Again and again I tried, and again and again the tears flowed. The pressure I placed on myself was intense. I did not want the cake to beat me. Why could I not get this?
The night before every birthday party would be filled with stress as I stood at my kitchen bench with pieces of cake, icing, and decorations everywhere. Not a surface would be clean as I gorged myself on broken pieces of cake.
I cursed the Women’s Weekly, I cursed my parents, and I cursed Pinterest.
Each time one of my kids’ birthdays rolled around I would get a sinking feeling. When my daughter requested a Clifford the Big Red Dog cake a couple of years ago, I wanted to roll in a ball and cry.
The kids and I scrolled through Pinterest together as we looked at one perfect Clifford creation after another. How are these women so talented? They make it look so easy. As I felt the Clifford pressure coming down on me, a friend suggested I try an edible icing sheet.
Enter customicing.com.au – specialists in edible icing sheets.
Halleluia!!!
Can you hear the angels singing? This my friends, was the answer to my prayers, and it will be the answer to yours.
In a few easy steps, you can order a custom-made icing sheet to adorn your cake.
All you have to do is go to the Custom Icing site, click on design your own cake, select a size, upload an image of your choice, choose your postage method and pat yourself on the back for being so darn clever. You can even leave it until the last minute thanks to their fast delivery.
I used custom icing again last year for my four-year-old’s birthday cake. A kid with a newly broken bone was enough trouble, I didn’t want to add pressure to myself with a tricky to make cake.
We sat down together and googled Tinkerbell images, chose the perfect one and sent it off to custom icing.
Voila! A cake she was thrilled with and a cake that took me no time to make.
Want to try customicing.com.au for yourself?
Thanks to customicing.com.au, I have 5 Custom Icing prize packs to giveaway valued at more than $50 each.
If you would like to enter Renee's competition on her blog, head on over and follow the instructions to enter!
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