Make it Monday - Crochet & Cakes

Now doesn't that sound like a lovely way to spend an afternoon or an evening?

The crochet and cakes don't come together though, rather they are two (actually three) separate makes from last week.

Firstly the crochet.

I was on a bit of a roll with the granny squares this week. In order to get the baby blanket finished as quickly as I could (there are just under 2 weeks left now until our official D-Day, although like I've probably said 100 times before, I have always gone over and expect to do so again), I decided to stick to a basic Granny Square and not do the one with the little sunflower-like shape in the middle like I did for Alasdair's blanket.

Boy did I notice a difference in the speed these ones worked up! I started last Monday and finished it on Saturday, and had just enough of the wool from Alasdair's blanket left over to make it.

Obviously the fact that it is about a quarter of the size of Alasdair's helped me finish it quicker but even so, by my calculations it would take me a month to make a blanket the size of Alasdair's using these types of squares, not the three months it took me to make his.

Here are the two blankets side by side for size comparisons.

Now, onto the cake(s).

Last week our little crofter turned 11. He was supremely chuffed to get a tweed jacket as one of his presents!

He was also very happy that my mum and dad were down for a very brief visit during the week as my dad had some meetings to attend in Edinburgh, which meant that Granny could come to his birthday tea. Shen was unfortunately too busy with his meetings that night. 

I baked the cake, in my giant cupcake mould, for the birthday tea and then largely left the decor up to James (13) and David (7). The result was this rather space age looking cake, which Calum loved.

Then, as is often the tradition with the older boys on the weekend before or after their birthdays, Calum had his best friend round for a sleepover on Friday night. Of course we had to have a cake for him coming too!

At his point, being almost 38 weeks pregnant, I did wish for a moment that we could just nip out to the supermarket and buy a cake for him, but of course no supermarkets do Gluten & Dairy Free decorated birthday cakes so it wasn't an option.

Thankfully I have a 13 year old who loves to decorate cakes and wanted to make it. All I had to do was bake the basic cake and then the rest was up to him. He asked me to bake a square cake and then he carved it into the shape and decorated it. He even coloured the icing black himself, which took some time and left his hands rather stained!

The cake he decided to make was a camera cake, as Calum still loves photography.

The only trouble with all that black icing was that it turned a few tongues black!

Calum has been busy taking some really good autumnal photos with the camera he got last year for his birthday but they need a post of their own so I'll share them with you all tomorrow. 

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