I have a confession.

(Yes another one!  But fear not…this one does not involve maddening pregnancy hormones or details on why and how I killed Kylie Minogue).

I have three children, who have had a combined total of 10 birthdays between them, and I have gone to the effort of making exactly, um, none of their birthday cakes.  That’s right.  A big fat zero.

I have pored over the gorgeous glossy books with the uber-awesome cakes and thought, “I’m going to give that a go.”  But somehow, it never seems to happen.

It isn’t the baking or even the decorating of the cake that puts me off.  I really love (when I can find the time) making pretty things.  On a few occasions I have even gone so far as to write the recipe ingredients on my shopping list.  On rare occasions I have actually remembered to take said list to the supermarket with me.

(You are nodding aren’t you?  Now you’re smiling too!)

But somehow I always end up bypassing the cakey-bakey-type aisle and heading to the freezer and grabbing an ice-cream cake.

(Oh dear!  And now you are shaking your head and tutting at me!)

Easy?  Yes!

Practical?  Yes!

Time-saving?  Definitely!

Impressive?  No way!

On the big day I always start to feel slightly apprehensive and a bit ‘sucky’ before whipping my frozen dessert out of the freezer, slapping it onto a plate, and whacking some candles into it.  Why, oh why, didn’t I get my act together and just make a bloody cake?  Everyone else makes cakes.  Everyone else goes through the painstaking task of hunting down and selecting the ingredients and the decorations and the candles, and the cake board and the…oh yeah, that’s why I couldn’t be bothered!

But guess what?  I have a new secret weapon in my arsenal of Mummy’s sanity savers…and since I kind of like you…I might be convinced to share it…in exchange for chocolate.  Lots of chocolate!

Oh alright, keep your hard-earned chocolate, I’ll tell you anyway!

Cakes 2 the Rescue.

This week, the gorgeous Baker Girls, Lisa and Lou, sent me a Cake Rescue Kit to review.  Firstly I got to partake in the only part of the process that so far I had managed to fulfill – gazing longingly at delicious looking, cleverly crafted cake designs on their website.  There were so many gorgeous ones to choose from that in the end I consulted with Hubbster.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that his eyeballs almost popped out of his head when he saw them.  I saw the stalks and everything!  It came down to a toss up between the AFL, the Rugby, and the Cricket cake.  I should have known that he wasn’t going to go for the princess carriage or the  mermaid!  Tssk! In the end we got the cricket cake.

It looked gorgeous.  Beautifully colourful, and the perfect cake for sports-mad boys of any age – clearly!

Next – my Cake Rescue Kit arrived.  For those of you who haven’t heard of these yet…you are gonna love me for telling you about this!  The Rescue Kit is like the answer to all my birthday cake woes all in one box.  Inside is not only the ingredients needed to bake the cake of your choice, but everything else you need, from the cake board, to the icing, food colouring, icing pen, decorations, candles etc.

My Cricket Cake Rescue Kit from Cake 2 the Rescue

But…and this is the bit that had me doing back-flips (in my dreams) and a happy dance in my kitchen, the kit also includes an environmentally friendly disposable cake tin!  I kid you not.  The Baker Girls have thought of everything.  All I needed to do was take care of 4 eggs, the margarine and the milk!  Now that is my kind of shopping list!

Included in the kit is a very well presented and simple to follow recipe guide.  The Baker Girls have included step-by-step photographs of the process as well as written instructions and useful tips.  The visual prompts were especially helpful as I had enlisted the help of The Woo and Foghorn in decorating the cake, and the photographic prompts enabled them to really undertake the task confidently.

Me too come to think of it!

Bake in the Box

Foghorn looking like butter (or green icing) wouldn’t melt in his mouth!

Very serious business!

We’re getting there boys!  (And only three smarties made it into their mouths before the cake thus far!

Adding our cricket players.

And the Aussie flags are the finishing touch!

Job well done!

What an awesome way to while away a Sunday afternoon?  The boys and I had so much fun, and they were delighted to share our masterpiece with family later that day.

And I am delighted that now I will be able to join the ranks of ‘super-mums’ who bake and make stunning birthday cakes for their children (which I have aspired to these long five years), without the headache of having to trawl the supermarket or cake decorating shops for all of the necessary bits and bobs!

The only way that the Baker Girls could possibly improve on this service, I think, would be to offer a chocolate, or mud cake option…but then I would, wouldn’t I?

The Baker Girls are giving away a selection of goodies from their Rescue range on the Mums Lounge website…so hurry and click here to enter!  You will want to WIN one of these, I know you will!  (And you will want to send me all of your chocolate too!)

Feel free to pop by the Cake 2 the Rescue website and see the awesomeness for yourself or to their new Facebook page to keep up to date with the Cake 2 the Rescue fun, news and developments.

Me?  I already have plans to get the Aussie thong cake.  How impressed will my friends be when I rock up to the annual BBQ on Australia Day with that?  Yeah baby!