Today got off to an early start thanks to the birthday girl. She set her alarm clock for 6am so she could open her presents before going to school.
Oh joy.
We gave her a couple of gifts to open and made her wait until after school to open the others. Apparently she's got a "good school day" today - two hours of art then auditions for the Christmas play, Wind in the Willows.
I saw her off to school and walked the dog. Rather than go back to bed as I dearly wished, I set about dealing with her birthday cake.
Oh dear. I'd forgotten to plan ahead and check my ingredients.
I'd forgotten to take any more butter out of the freezer so "only" had an 8oz block with which to make the butter icing. Never mind, I'd also misjudged the amount of icing sugar required too as there was barely enough to make this amount.
I set the mixer whizzing away making a very soft butter-cream. I decided on pink icing... but discovered somebody had used most of my red food colouring making slime. When I tipped in the colour the mixer did one of those kick-back moves and red splashed onto my new, cream jumper.
No, I wasn't wearing an apron because it was hanging on the back door and had been trapped when that door had been used... and locked... I couldn't find the key. Luckily, the finish on my jumper repelled the colour and I managed to remove it with kitchen roll. Phew!
How about yellow? No, that's almost empty too. I tipped it in anyway which had no effect on the colour (cheap colours) but a disastrous effect on the consistency. The icing was nowhere near stiff enough to stay on the cake let alone pipe.
Hmm. I switched off the mixer to ponder the dilemma.
Just in time to hear the phone ringing. It rang off just as I got to it but recognised the number and called back.
It was Mum, calling for a chat and to tell me she'd booked her flights over to us for Christmas. While recounting to her my morning so far I had a brainwave.
Add cocoa powder! This would make the mixture stiffer and, even though the effect wouldn't be as attractive, at least I could complete the job.
Fishing around in cupboards, I found my piping syringe and started. It's a small contraption so needs filling far too often.
The doorbell rang - postman.
Started again. I managed to get the top of the cake done... and then the syringe broke. Briefly I considered making a piping bag, but realised I had no greasproof paper or sensible clingfilm.
So I gave up and am now sitting here with a well-deserved cuppa.
The kitchen looks like an explosion in a cake factory. I'll clear it up in a moment. After another cup of tea.
Here's the cake. I'm not hugely impressed with it, but I will make sure I double check all my ingredients next time.