It's that time of the year again, I have 3 birthdays within 2 months. My sons, then my daughters and then my husbands. My children are only 51 weeks apart so birthdays have always been joint, however, this year I decided they were old enough to have a separate birthday celebration. I put my sons a week ahead, and put my daughters a few days after her birthday so I had some breathing space! Thankfully they don't know it's early or late. Who knows what's going to happen when they are older!

We had a small gathering of family and friends for Little D's birthday this year, nothing overly fancy. I felt a pang of guilt knowing it wasn't as extravagant as last year, but was comforted seeing him so happy and excited on the day. At this age they just want the smiles, the family, the attention and the love. I'm so glad he still felt loved even though I didn't go all out.

So here are a couple of happy snaps along with the first 'candy' oriented cake I've done. I had 3 hours to bang the thing together! I am quite pleased with the result! I'll share my favourite cake recipe as it makes beautiful molded cakes! Cream cheese and butter of all things!

Pound cake with store bought frosting!!!!! Now remember I only had a few hours to put this together the night before so no judging my store bought frosting! Cost more but saved me so much time!!

Lifesaver wheels, snakes cut in thin slices for the carriage definition, mini and large marshmallows for smoke stacks, chico babies for cable links and buffers, smarties for 'coal', Choc rocks as sprinkles on the island and lollipops for.... Well, general decoration? I haven't really used lollies for decoration before so I was somewhat surprised how well it all worked. I was at the shops for so long trying to find things to work with. I think I did ok first time around :)

My little critic seemed to love it all the same!

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Ingredients:

• Butter (337.5 g / 1 1/2 cups)
• Cream Cheese (225 g / 1 bar)
• White Sugar (565 g / 3 cups)
• Eggs (375 g / 6 pcs)
• Vanilla Extract (1 tsp)
• All-Purpose Flour (340 g / 3 cups)
• Salt (1 tsp)
• Rum (3 tbsps)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line two 8″ round pans.

2. Cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth.

3. Add sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 mins)

4. Add eggs one at a time to creamed mixture, beating well until combined. Mix in vanilla.

5. Combine the flour and salt and sift together. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in two additions, mixing until just combined.

6. Pour into the prepared tins and bake until golden and tester comes out almost clean (just a few crumbs attached). This will take about an hour or more.

Hope you all had a lovely day! Next project, My Little Pony Party! Lots of rainbows to make!