Party Shenanigans!

Hi everyone

My niece Amy recently celebrated her 30th birthday. And she did it in style! She hired a barn complex housing 32 of us for the whole weekend. The original venue suffered a boiler explosion, but we were relocated to a beautiful place called Garth Barns in mid Wales. The accommodation was amazing, and the surroundings couldn’t have been more beautiful. I would highly recommend it if you have any celebrations coming up and you want everyone in one place.

Needless to say, hubby and I were the oldest ones there, but the ‘young uns’ made us feel…..well….young again! I was dubbed the ‘Hufflemamma’ by Evie once she found out my Pottermore house was ‘Hufflepuff too!

The Friday night was raucously fun, with a 7ft inflatable unicorn, a ball pool, and loads of selfie props to play with (I contented myself with a pink wig)

As most of the family clan were there, obviously there was lots of singing going on. For once almost all my nieces and nephews were together in one place, and as they all sing…..well you can imagine the result! Myself, hubby and brother Mark (Amy’s Dad) indulged in a few tunes too, and it’s amazing that when you just start singing randomly, everyone joins in!

Saturday was a bit quieter (a few sore heads methinks 😊) but I was kept busy putting the finishing touches to the birthday cake. I went with a purple theme because February’s birthstone is Amethyst. Amy had requested red velvet cake, so I did a 2 tier cake. The bottom was ganached then covered with marbled purple and white Renshaws fondant with some edible silver ‘paint’ made from sugarflair lustre dust and vodka as highlight. The top was also ganached, then covered in a half and half mixture of purple coloured white chocolate ganache, and purple buttercream. I then used a comb effect, and sprayed it with the amazing Cake decor silver glitter spray. This stuff is amazing. It comes in gold and silver in a little pump spray, and lasts ages. I have it in gold too 😀

On top of the cake I made a 3rd tier out of rice Krispie treats which I covered in the same marbled fondant as the bottom. There are lots of DIY videos on how to make RKT on YouTube, but I used this one from How to Cake it.

This was just to create a platform for my fondant ‘Amy’ to sit on. I’m not very experienced at making fondant figures (need more practice) but Amy liked it and that’s all that matters! A few pink and purple sprinkles and silver dragees, white chocolate 30 lollipops (painted silver) and that was it! 😍 ❤🎂🍰👅

Unfortunately, hubby was ill from Saturday afternoon (not alcohol related!) so we missed the ‘reveal’ but were there when the cake was cut later on. I had a slice and if I say so myself, it was delish! The hybrid buttercream/ganache is something else, soooo yummy, and I’ll definitely be using it again 😋

Here is the finished cake: