Hobbit hole birthday cake

Today Rachel and I had one goal - to create her Hobbit Hole Brithday Cake. We were rather pleased with the results. :-)
The rest of the post is for anyone who would like to give it a try themselves and would like some tips.

We made two round cakes. I cut the top one in half and then used that extra to add little triangles to the bottom cake - helping to form a more flowing hill.
Rachel then covered the base with butter icing.

Put some icing on the tray too so that the fondant can stick on there as well.

We then rolled out some green coloured fondant and used this tool to create a bit of a grass effect (rather than it just being totally smooth).

Then use that to cover the bottom cake.

Then add the top cake, cover in butter icing,

and then the fondant.

Then start adding your extras. We added a little chimney, the door and windows, the path, steps and even a little bench. Rachel was basing this on Bilbo's home, so the steps and bench were all copied from "his".

For a nice touch - Rachel wrote "Happy Birthday" in elven writing. We used a licorice pen - so it's edible.

And then around the back she wrote in moon runes. :-)

Then add frames around the windows and door - this does a lot to "finish" it. As well as flowers and pot plants and little tufts of grass.
Rachel was so pleased.








And I put this photo in too, just so that you can clearly see the elf ears Rachel is wearing for the photo. :-)

3 course meal

One of the "extra" items for the girls current St John's badge is to prepare and serve a 3 course meal. It's a bit more tricky for our girls as there are a few of us that are gluten free and then Asher and I are off even more foods.
The first thing she got working on was the gluten and dairy free lasagne.
I learned afterwards that a better way of describing this meal would be by calling it a Greek Moussaka. Either way -it's a big job meal.
The white sauce is made out of cashew nuts and a leek. Rachel had fun seasoning the mince as she always does. And then she fried up some zucchini for the "fake" lasagne sheets.
Creating the layers.
For the full recipe you can have a look here. It was such a success that she has made it again for us less than 2 weeks later. It's Brendon's new favourite meal.
Then it was time to get the desert made and into the fridge to cool.
She made dairy free chocolate mousse. The key ingredient was avocado. I had often heard about avocado chocolate mousse - so today was a good day to give it a try (avocados were on a great special this week).
Then last thing to get done was the starter - getting this done just before we were due to eat. So many good lessons learnt this afternoon. I was amazed at how quickly Rachel worked. Well done Rachel.
Starters was a delicious fresh tuna and avocado salad.

She set the table and served us too.
I just felt bad that there were no flowers in the garden for her to use.
She actually ended up making 5 courses as the main meal had 3 options. The above mentioned lasagne as well as a gluten mac and cheese and a gluten free mac and cheese. The lasagne was a bit rich for the children (other than Asher who loved it) so it was nice that they had something they enjoyed. It also meant more for Brendon, Asher and I. She made two big trays of it - so a few lunches were frozen and the 2nd big tray.
The desert was delicately pipped into the glass bowls and topped with berries.
Well done Rachel. A very successful meal.