Labour pains... Christmas cake.

I went on a cupcake decorating course last summer where I learnt how to make decorations and pipe icing onto cupcakes. So in a fit of domesticity I decided that I'd have a go at making and decorating my first ever Christmas cake.

Now, I'm not one for baking. As a bit of a perfectionist I'm never happy with how my cakes turn out... And they rarely turn out well (not that it stops my dear hubbie or kiddies from scoffing the lot). But i gave it a go.

I baked the cake using the celebration cake recipe from the good ol' Be-Ro book. And dutifully covered it in marzipan and white fondant icing. Then came the fun bit... Decorating it.

My mum had leant me a couple of Karen Davies' A Cake for Christmas books and I thought I'd have a go at the Santa and Reindeer cake. I loved the cute characters and it looked quite simple to make. Which was handy as I ended up having labour pains pretty much the entire time I was making them...

I kept it quite simple, and as my cake was a bit smaller than Karen Davies' instructions called for, it's not quite the same as her design. But I was pretty chuffed with the results, and my son thought rudolph's sparkly nose was the best bit! Not bad considering they were all handmade between contractions ;0)

Check out Karen's website here: http://www.karendaviescakes.co.uk/default.asp