Tag Archives: parenting

Why #allergyawarenessweek is important

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This week is Allergy UK’s #allergyawarenessweek and their aim is to raise awareness of the serious, and sometimes severe, impact of allergies on everyday life.  Their campaign #livinginfear has invited allergy sufferers to talk about the frightening side of allergies, not least of which are the statistics that show an astonishing lack of knowledge about how to deal with serious allergic reactions amongst the general public.  Recent research carried out by Allergy UK shows that 44% of allergy sufferers in the UK are living in fear of a serious reaction, whilst 68% of the people surveyed wouldn’t know how to deal with a reaction; and this lack of public knowledge could be forcing sufferers into a life of fear and anxiety.  This useful infographic published this week uses the acronym FEAR to educate us all on how to recognise, help and potentially save the life of someone struggling with a severe reaction:

Courtesy of Allergyuk.org

Courtesy of Allergyuk.org

Whilst M’s allergies are extensive and challenging, I have always been extremely grateful that he has never suffered anaphylactic shock from anything he has eaten, although the question of whether he could experience one has floated at the back of my mind for quite some time.  We were lucky enough to be able to bring home a training epi-pen after our visit to the Allergy UK annual conference in 2014, though other than a cursory look when it first came home, I have to confess it’s been gathering dust in a box on top of one of our kitchen cupboards since then.  We’ve even gone as far as discussing, late at night, whether we should have an epi-pen on hand at home “just in case”, but I’m ashamed to admit that that is as far as we’ve got in actually doing something about it.

Courtesy of foodb.ca

Courtesy of foodb.ca

However, less than a month ago that decision came back to haunt me and I learned unexpectedly just what the reality of the #livinginfear campaign could be like.  We were trialling sweet potato with M, a previous favourite that we were desperately hoping would bring some much-needed variety to his meals.  The first mouthful on that first Friday night had been eagerly received and much enjoyed by M and although the following day was a little more fraught on the toileting front than it had been for a long time, we hoped it was nothing more than a temporary blip to be overcome.  We ploughed on with the food challenges and M had taken to waxing lyrical about how much he was looking forward to including sweet potato in his diet once again.  He even asked how long it would be before he could enjoy a “whole baked potato” once again.

It was at the 3rd meal and the increase to 2 teaspoons of mashed sweet potato that things suddenly and rather dramatically went horribly wrong.  Mike, rather typically, was out for the evening at a charity whisky-tasting event and it was just me and the children enjoying our evening meal at home.  M tasted his mouthfuls of the mash before anything else and then got on with the rest of his dinner.  He got no further than half-way through when he suddenly grabbed at his throat and started gulping down mouthfuls of his glass of rice milk.  He complained that his tongue was stinging and itchy, his whole mouth was itching and it felt as if someone had grabbed his throat and was squeezing hard.  Two glassfuls of milk later and a frantic phone-call to Mike about what was going on, things settled down and M was feeling a lot better.

I had spent those 20 minutes just about holding it all together, whilst running anxiously through all the possible scenarios in my head and trying to work out what I needed to do if things took a turn for the worse:

  • Option 1 – Jump into the car with both children, trying to keep as calm as possible and race to our local hospital, 20 minutes away and with no car parking options on site:  I’d get there, but what if he stopped breathing in the car and I needed G to get involved, even if it was just by using my mobile to phone for back-up?
  • Option 2 – Dash off to one of several nearby friends who are also doctors and ask for their help:  much quicker, but at least one of those was at the same event as Mike and who knew whether the others would be at home
  • Option 3 – Call 999 and wait anxiously for an ambulance to turn up, all the time acting as the proverbial duck (calm on the surface, but paddling furiously beneath the water): how long would it take for an ambulance to reach us? Could I keep both children calm at home as we waited? What would I do if M stopped breathing? What would I do with G if we needed to rush off to hospital?

We were lucky.  The reaction passed, although the stinging pain in his mouth and throat and the sensation of his throat tightening returned at odd times over the next few days.  Following a lengthy conversation with our GOSH dietitian, it seems likely that M actually suffered an oral allergy to sweet potato rather than full-blown anaphylaxis, though it doesn’t quite fit with the known causes and triggers of Oral Allergy Syndrome.  If you are interested to learn more about living with OAS, then I highly recommend the blog Feeding my intolerant child, whose description of her son’s oral reaction to a simple fruit ice lolly whilst on holiday is definitely reminiscent of those frightening moments at home a few weeks ago.

epipenNeedless to say, sweet potato has been banished from M’s diet for the foreseeable future and we are now seeking a local allergist who can help advise us on dealing with any other more serious allergic reactions that M might experience as we continue along the food reintroduction road.  Oh yes, and we’ll also be pleading to get him an epi-pen for our own peace of mind and for the sake of his well-being and I will make sure that we all know how to administer it correctly.

Dinner Plans

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The beauty of staying in the amazing Applause apartments in East Aldgate was the ease with which we could accommodate M’s current dietary requirements at mealtimes.  Every morning, he and G enjoyed a bowl of safe cereal and rice milk for breakfast, whilst Mike and I had coffee and brioche before we headed out for the day.  Once breakfast was done, the children and I would finish getting ourselves ready and Mike would make and pack lunches for us all.  The ability to prepare packed lunches was just what we needed as not only were we able to meet M’s extreme food requirements, but also the dairy- and gluten-free needs of G.

20150414_174629On our first day there, we stumbled across a fantastic shop called “Planet Organic“, where we were able to pick up some previously undiscovered M-friendly bits and pieces, including mini rice-cakes, which are perfect for his lunchbox.  Of course, with the packet now nearly empty, the race to find them closer to home is on before he finishes them off.  The brown rice noodles have also been a massive hit and make mealtimes just that little bit more interesting than they have been over the last 3 months.  Sadly, the one thing we had been hoping to find, rice pasta, was sold out and so my search for that alternative continues.

The more interesting task was that of our evening meal.  One of the things we have always loved to do is eat out as a family and it is one of the things that M in particular has found hardest about having his tube.  We have had a wealth of experience over the last decade of finding restaurants that will accommodate the ever-changing dietary needs of G, M and even me and we had settled on a few firm favourites that we knew would almost always meet our requirements.  Of course, the option to cook dinner where we were staying was great to have, but Mike and I were both looking forward to having a break from the monotony of 3-ingredient dinners and decided to do some focussed research before we even left the comfort of our own home.  We spent hours one evening trawling the internet, finding restaurants in the areas of London we were likely to be near at meal-times, looking at their menus and investigating whether they had allergen information readily available to read then and there.  To our delight, we found a few where we knew we could cater for G and where it seemed probable we would also be able to order safe food for M, and we couldn’t wait to put our selection to the test.

20150408_181702Our first was Giraffe, which is just round the corner from GOSH and a popular choice for our post-appointment dinners.  When we got to the restaurant, I asked the waitress at the door whether they would be able to cook safe food for M before she had time to find us a table and the response was fantastic.  She turned out to be the restaurant manager and headed off in the direction of the kitchen to talk to their chef and find out exactly what our options were. The chef assured us he could cook plain, boiled rice and grill a chicken breast for M without using any oil, so, feeling hopeful that this could prove a success, we found a table to enjoy our first family meal out for 5 months.  M was delighted with the plate of food that arrived for him and had no allergic reaction to any of it, reassuring us that Giraffe is a safe choice for the future.

IMG_0940As it turns out, Giraffe was the only restaurant we ate at that was able to cook plain rice for M, but we enjoyed 2 other great meals out and  both restaurants were more than happy for M to munch away on his own rice-cakes to accompany his chicken and cucumber.  The second restaurant was Bella Italia, a popular restaurant chain found across the UK and we had dinner at their St Martins Lane branch.   Again, our waiter worked with the chef to ascertain exactly what could be prepared for M and this amazing plate of food arrived – M joked that he thought they had cut him up a whole cucumber to make up for the lack of variety on his plate.  We were also impressed with how much their gluten-free offerings had improved since the last time we ate there as G was able to enjoy some GF garlic pizza bread alongside her GF margherita pizza with pancetta and ham with goats cheese.

20150411_152613My final recommendation is Jamie’s Italian and I can’t begin to tell you how impressed we were with the excellent service provided at their Canary Wharf restaurant.  From the greeter who listened to our initial needs to the manager who came to answer our questions before we even got to the table, they were keen to reassure us that they could meet all our requirements.  As for our amazing waiter, Tom H, he listened carefully and patiently to what we needed, made sensible suggestions based on M’s safe foods, checked with the chef that everything could be prepared safely and treated M just like any other child eating in the restaurant.  He was delighted with the plate of food that arrived at the table as it was presented in the exact same way as G’s dinner and his unparalleled attempt to eat almost all of the food served earned him the same prize that G was awarded for eating her salad – an achievement that we rarely manage at home.

All in all, our trip to London proved to be a fantastic and unexpected success when it came to our dinner plans for our stay.  We found 3 restaurants who were prepared to go the extra mile, make the effort and help us enjoy some great meals out.  Even better, M had the opportunity to feel more “normal” than he has done in a long time, which, for us, was absolutely priceless.

Back to work for a rest

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take_a_breakI’m sure I’m not the only working parent in the world who gets to the end of the latest school holiday with a sense of it being time to head back to work for a much-needed rest.  The last 2 weeks have been undeniably busy, with a mix of work, play, holiday clubs, hospital appointments and tourist attractions to more than occupy our time.

Surprisingly, the first hospital visit of the Easter holidays was with G, who tumbled from her scooter and ended up with a painful wrist that needed a x-ray.  Despite her best efforts to fracture her left wrist with 4 weeks to go to her SATS, G managed nothing more than a severe sprain, though she has also gained a ban from scooters, trampolines, trees and any form of gymnastics until those exams are done and dusted.  Fortunately G is right-handed, so even these desperate measures didn’t get her out of the revision homework set for her time off school.  We are extremely proud of the effort that she has made with her studies during the holidays as she did some work every day with relatively little fuss and it’s nice to know that the end is finally in sight!

2053064-alpha_flightLess surprisingly, our next 2 hospital visits were both with M.  The first was his scheduled tube change at our local hospital and it went just as smoothly as the last one.  Despite the continued problems we’ve experienced with the gastro team, the nursing team in the CIU (Clinical Investigations Unit) are amazing and have worked hard with us to find an approach to the tube change that makes allowances for M’s anxiety.  The play therapists are on hand straight away to provide a much-needed distraction from all that’s going on by entertaining M with a bubble-popping game on the i-pad or a lengthy discussion about the Canadian Marvel superhero team, Alpha Flight.  Our now-experienced team of Gill and Jo sort us a bed in a quiet area of the unit and encourage M to take some deep breaths of entonox before we even start to discuss the tube change itself.  This time the job was done in an amazing 20 minutes, which included M removing his old tube himself, me counting to 10 in an array of foreign languages and only a fraction of the negotiations we’ve had to endure from M in the past.

622d9490d50f3993393fa0084b4793e8We also spent a few days in London following M’s first outpatient check-up with his GOSH consultant since he had his NG-tube and started the elemental feed.  I’m delighted to announce that, at long last and after an anxious few weeks, M has not only regained his pre-admission weight, but has also managed to put another kilogram on.  Whilst we still haven’t progressed any further than his 3 safe foods, the move to elemental has done exactly what we needed it to and M is unquestionably the healthiest he has ever been in the last 9 years.  The next step is an important one: to find more foods that he can eat without compromising this new-found good health.  We are moving from a pure gastro clinic to a new one for those with “complex food needs”, which will mean he is seen regularly by both his consultant and our specialist dietitian, who will then work together, and with us, to plan the next steps on our new journey.  The future is most definitely bright!

A tri-umph of rice-themed goodies!

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Recently I’ve been spending my time baking and cooking up a whirlwind as the days ahead have been looking busy.  With a day for G and M at the holiday club run at Mike’s work, an appointment with M’s consultant and dietitian at GOSH to review his progress 4 months post-tube and a planned short stay in London to see the sights and to dip our toes into the world of being away from home with NG-tube in tow, a plethora of safe snacks and treats for M were much in need.  I prepared rice pudding, rice-flour sugar cookies and rice krispie cakes to satisfy the appetite of my youngest and to reassure myself that we would have some things with us to feed him whilst the rest of us enjoyed some much-missed meals out.  I also used the opportunity whilst trialling banana to add some to the mix and made some banana sugar cookies too.

The recipes can be found in the everything-free recipes section and are so easy to follow that next time round, my plan is to be sitting back with a cup of tea, whilst G and M get on with the task of creating their own delicious masterpieces!

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Who knew you could make so much from rice, sugar, rice milk and canola oil?  Any other suggestions for simple recipes will be very gratefully received!

“Muuummm, what’s for tea tonight?”

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Oh how this resonates..

If your family is anything like mine, that question usually comes just as you’re struggling through the door: with house keys in one hand, car key gripped firmly between your teeth, handbag on one arm, cello on your back, mobile phone pressed to your ear as you attempt to talk to the dietitian/consultant/other healthcare provider, who’s asking if now is a good time to talk and you can’t say no as you’ve been trying to contact them urgently for at least the last 3 days and who knows when they might call again; plus the school bag(s)/shopping bag(s)/extraneous bag(s)* (*delete as appropriate) you’ve picked up along the way are weighing down your other side and threatening to upset the delicate balance you’ve perfected in your struggle to cover the 100 yards or less from your car to the house.  Meanwhile, your curious offspring are waltzing in behind you, or possibly squeezing past you, through the already impossibly small and too-narrow-to-negotiate-safely doorway, bearing no more than a half-empty water bottle and their coat, worn superhero style to leave their hands free to carry absolutely nothing else at all.  And just as you think you’ve achieved it and managed to get everything safely inside, they open their mouth and ask that unavoidably fraught dinner-question and the peace shatters and your world tumbles down around your ears.  Does any of that sound familiar or is it just my household?

For M at the moment, my answer is fairly standard, although he adds his own unique twist by asking if dinner will be “chicken with rice and cucumber” or perhaps “rice and chicken with a side of cucumber”?  For a while, when he was still 100% elemental, he would even ask if he could have “air-sticks” – “like bread sticks you see, but without the bread” – showing that the ability to laugh his way through this experience is his greatest strength in beating this disease.  I have become a self-confessed expert in cooking with 3 principle ingredients – rice, chicken and cucumber – and the bonus extras of herbs, rapeseed oil and sugar.  Rice has been broadened to include its derivatives and the inclusion of rice milk, rice cream and rice pops (as long as they’re gluten-free) has added to my ever-increasing repertoire of 3-ingredient recipes.

Rice-flour sugar cookies

Rice-flour sugar cookies

In the past few weeks, as well as my fall-back favourites of roast or grilled chicken with plain boiled rice, I have also perfected deep-fried savoury rice balls, chicken nuggets, chicken and cucumber curry, fried rice, chicken stir-fry, rice-flour sugar cookies and rice pudding.  My Mum has also made M a chicken breast stuffed with rice and cucumber, courtesy of the inspiration and some nifty hints suggested by our hairdresser and which was an instant hit with our young diner.  It’s surprising just how many different recipes you can create with just a few ingredients and there’s even a few more that I’m hoping to try out in the coming weeks.  What started out as a daunting challenge to entice M’s appetite and encourage him to once again eat whilst navigating the tricky world of identifying his food allergies, has become yet another success story in our household.

Letter-to-the-EditorSqareMy victory with such a limited range of ingredients has been all the sweeter given the recent UK news story of the letter sent to the Daily Telegraph newspaper by over 100 top chefs and restauranteurs condemning recent EU legislation requiring restaurants to provide information about which of the top 14 allergens the dishes on their menus contain.  It was never a requirement that they did not cook with these ingredients, but rather that they should be able to inform diners of what the food prepared contains, with the knowledge and pride in their ingredients that I would expect from any talented chef.  Whilst widely welcomed by those of us in the allergy-world as a step towards helping us make informed decisions about eating out, these chefs warned that such requirements would harm “…the spontaneity, creativity and innovation restaurants and others in the industry have enjoyed up until now.”

Like so many others in my situation, I wrote a response on the Telegraph website, pointing out that this legislation will help me to protect my children and give them experiences that will ensure their continued health and enjoyment,  I do not deny that it’s up to me (and they as they grow older) to ask about allergens, but there’s no point asking these questions if the restaurants, waiting staff or chefs cannot provide the information needed and the lack of understanding about cross-contamination risks is sadly common across the food industry.

20140818_143459Our experience last summer in Disney proved that this type of requirement does not need to be restrictive as excellent allergen information was readily available and nearly everywhere we ate produced meals for G and M that rivalled those being served to any other customer there with a “normal” diet. The chefs were knowledgable, came to our table to discuss their allergy needs and made the effort to find out what my challenging duo would like to eat – excellent service all done with a smile.

The big challenge was always to cook M-friendly food and these days that task has become even more testing.  In my opinion, these rules will have little impact on spontaneity or ingenuity – try cooking or baking when you need to avoid wheat/gluten, egg, dairy, soya and potato to name but a few.  Ingenuity comes when you try to prepare a meal that makes your child feel that they’re not missing out and that’s something I feel I’ve proved is possible, even for an amateur cook like me.

Big Bang Science Fair

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Last weekend we travelled to the Big Bang Science Fair at the NEC, Birmingham for a day full of science, maths and electronics fun.  This isn’t an event we’ve been to before and I have to confess that it wouldn’t necessarily have been one that would have even registered in our consciousness before this year.  Since last September, M has been attending a weekly Electronics Club after school and he loves every moment of it.  During the past few months, he has learnt to program a Raspberry Pi, has become an expert with circuit boards, has written his own computer games using Scratch, built a crawling microbug and is now embarking on his latest project, a turning frog.

M getting hands on with one of the exhibits

M getting hands on with one of the exhibits

Electronics has quickly developed into one of the great passions in M’s life and his recent birthday gifts reflected this new-found interest. From solar-powered robots to salt-water cars and night-sky constellations to a build-your-own robot arm, there’s been an awful lot of “building” going on in our household on a nightly basis.  So, when the Electronics Club mentioned a possible day-trip to the NEC for the Big Bang Science Fair, M leapt at the chance and soon had the rest of the family on board too.  We arrived at around 11am, split into small groups and started making our way around the huge number of exhibits that were there.  There was a brief hiatus for lunch and then it was back to exploring the space before the show finished at 4.30pm.

G working hard to power the lightbulbs

G working hard to power the lightbulbs

Mike and M were in one group, whilst G and I were in another and we followed different paths around the hall.  G loved her opportunity to generate enough power to light up some lightbulbs through pedal-power, whilst my favourite exhibit was playing musical vegetables, thanks to a piece of music software and some clever wiring.  M, on the other hand, has been hard pressed to choose his favourite activity, although he is very proud of his memento of a rock-hard silicone glove, created by mixing some chemicals together (don’t ask me which, neither Mike or M can remember!).  He also become the subject of discussion with some university students working there, when a medical student spotted his NG-tube and called her colleagues over as they had never seen a tube in situ before.  Mike was also impressed that one of the nurses working on the ambulance display had not only heard of EGID, but also knew a little about it.

2015-03-14 16.24.25It was a fantastic and fascinating day out and M has already requested a repeat visit next year, with just one proviso:  that we get there right at the start of the day in the hope those extra couple of hours might enable us to see everything there is to see.

“Magic never dies. It merely fades away.”

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This time last week one of my heroes died.  I was saddened to hear that Discworld-creator and Alzheimer’s advocate, author Sir Terry Pratchett OBE had sadly lost his battle against this unrelenting disease and I was left with the sense that our world had become just a little less colourful as a result.  With typical Pratchett-esque humour, a series of tweets, written in his own incomparable style, announced his passing, taking a lead from one of my favourite of his characters, Death:

I first discovered the Discworld and its diverse cast of characters in the late 1980s and quickly found myself reading, and re-reading, his books as I waited, often impatiently, for the next one to be published.  My Dad and I shared a love for the Discworld and my Mum often commented that she knew when either of us was reading one of Pratchett’s books as they caused us both to laugh out loud, something no other author had ever done.  Our joint appreciation for Pratchett’s fantasy world is one of my fondest memories and even now, I find myself transported back 20 years, to times spent sharing our newest discoveries in his latest novel whenever I revisit these tales these days.

tPratchettIt’s difficult to explain what made Terry Pratchett’s books just so un-put-downable to me.  His clever play on words frequently made me laugh out loud – who can forget Twoflowers’ explanation of an “Inn-sewer-ants-polly-sea” in “The Colour of Magic“?  His unashamed use of characters or plots from other authors was delightfully skilled – and the 3 Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth were not a patch on Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and naive Magrat Garlick in “Wyrd Sisters“.  His sense of humour was evident in almost every word he wrote.  I loved nothing more than waiting to see the plot twists and turns that each new storyline would take and spotting the sometimes obvious, sometimes more oblique references to popular culture.  And in every step of my adult life; be it at university, in the work-place, waiting at the school gates or in our EGID world, he has oft become the common bond that starts a friendship or fills a gap in the conversation.

In the days following his death, Terry Pratchett’s fans have given him tribute by taking ideas from his books to create a fitting memorial.  The first was a petition asking Death to “Reinstate Terry Pratchett” because Terry himself said that “There are times in life when people must know when not to let go. Balloons are designed to teach small children this” and already nearly 30,000 people have added their names to this request.

The second took an idea from his 33rd Discworld novel, “Going Postal”, which saw the advent of a communication system, somewhat comparable to the internet.  When a key character dies, a message bearing his name is sent down the lines on an unending journey to ensure that it is kept alive indefinitely because “A man is not dead while his name is still spoken.” Keen Pratchett fans have developed code that is being embedded on websites to ensure that his name is similarly forever encoded on the internet.x-gnu

In the past few days, I have started to revisit his books, many of which reside on my book-shelves, and have found myself to be once again amongst old, familiar friends.  The humour never fades and with each reading, I discover a small nuance that I hadn’t noticed before.  Rincewind, Granny Weatherwax, Captain Vimes and the Discworld have been a part of my life for nearly 30 years and I look forward to introducing both G and M to these adventures in the not-too-distant future.

luggage

“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away…”

– Reaper Man

Photographic evidence

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It was a busy weekend.  So busy that I haven’t had time to write it up (yet), so I thought some photo evidence might be in order.  From the successful face-painting for Friday’s Comic Relief to the Big Bang Science Fair on Saturday and Mothering Sunday, there’s photos of it all!

9th celebrations

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“Sometimes,” said Pooh, “the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.”

– AA Milne

I can hardly believe our beautiful, cheeky and courageous little man has turned 9.  He continues to amaze us and I have no doubt that this year, just as in years past, he will carry on stepping out bravely with his indomitable spirit intact.  Happy birthday little bean – we love you.

…to this

Piece of cake

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20150225_231442 sr_162935_largeThese photos are of the supplies I needed to create this year’s  birthday cake masterpiece for Master M as, after all, this had to be a birthday cake like no other I’ve ever baked before.  In the same way that I had discussed my plans for the food we would serve at their Cluedo party with M, we sat together to talk about the various options for his birthday cake.  I could bake a “normal” cake for him to give to his friends, I could use polystyrene dummy cakes to create an authentic-looking, but totally M-friendly cake or we could try something completely different.  A friend had suggested using small bottles of 7-up to create a tiered cake and then giving every party guest a bottle to take home, which I thought an inspired idea as it’s one of the few things M has been able to enjoy since his NG-tube was passed, but M disagreed.  He preferred the idea of the polystyrene “fake” cakes and we headed off to the shops over half-term to source the cakes, decide how many tiers he wanted and get all the art supplies I might need.

20150225_200407Every year I try to create birthday cakes that either echo the themes of the parties themselves, be that mini-golf, magic or minions; or that are innovative and something the children have never seen before, such as last year’s pinata cake for G.  This year’s Cluedo theme offered me a wealth of ideas and I just needed to decide how to put them into action. I settled on a black base layer and ever-grateful to avoid the nightmare of icing a free-from cake, attacked our 3 tiers with a sturdy brush and bottle of black paint.  “Cakes” fully covered, I liberally sprinkled some silver glitter over them all before the paint dried, positioned the silver 9 on the top and added an emerald green ribbon trim for that touch of old-fashioned glamour and to fit with M’s role as party host, “Captain Emerald”.  I stuck the tiers together using PVA glue and then inserted some wooden skewers, just to make sure there was no chance the cake would fall apart before the day itself.

20150225_210001Next came the fun part of adding the decorations.  I had previously printed out silhouettes to use for the characters and images for each of the murder weapons and had a number of them left-over after I had prepared the cards for the party itself. Choosing carefully, I glued the weapons to the bottom layer and a selection of characters to the middle layer, making sure I included the image of G’s character, “Countess Pearl”.  My final step was to stick Captain Emerald’s silhouette to a piece of black card that I had already covered generously with more silver glitter and added this, leaning against the top-tier of the cake, before leaving it all to dry.

20150227_132323M’s cake sorted, I moved on to the preparation of a cake for G.  Much as I had enjoyed exploring the “crafts” side of my personality, this was the moment I’d been waiting for since Christmas.  Not so much the baking of a cake, though I love decorating birthday cakes to wow my children, but more because I finally got to use the best Christmas present I had received and one that was completely unexpected.  I’ve been drooling over the KitchenAid food mixers for years, imagining one gracing my kitchen counters and last year started saving towards buying one of my own.  To my delight, and absolute surprise, my wonderful Mum invested in a Ice-blue model as my Christmas/birthday present and it’s been sitting in the kitchen, taunting me daily with its absolute beauty, whilst I’ve waited for a chance to take it for a test-run.  All I can say is thank goodness I needed to whip up 24 G-friendly cupcakes as well as the birthday cake itself as I flew through the first task and loved every moment spent doing it!

20150227_141709My birthday cake challenge was easier this year as although G has allergies of her own, I was able to use eggs, an ingredient I haven’t baked with in over 3 years.  I used a simple gluten- and dairy-free recipe and then split the mixture between 5 bowls.  Inspired by both the colourful characters in the Cluedo game and a recent episode of Great British Comic Relief Bake-Off, I added 5 different food colourings – 1 to each bowl – and then marbled the cake mix in the baking tins.  20150228_114150As I waited for the cakes to bake, I turned to my trusty laptop to search out some ideas for how to decorate G’s Cluedo cake and settled on recreating the board itself out of icing.  Working late into the early hours of Sunday morning to finish this final part of the party preparations and when I finally fell into my bed at around 3am, I was delighted with the end results.

The big reveal of my “showstopper” cakes was a huge success.  Both G and M were thrilled with their cakes and liked the fact that even though they were completely different, they both fit our Cluedo theme perfectly.  The cakes had pride of place at the centre of our Dessert buffet table and were a real talking point for children and parents alike.  A job well done, though I’m not rushing to make 2 cakes for the same occasion again any time soon – my nerves just can’t take it!

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