Big Birthday Weekend

Daisy cake for Helen

Gumpaste daisies with royal icing centres and edible glitter

Helen's pecan tarts...her favourite

Dons and Harry

Harry and I

Me with my boys

Helen and Reubs

Waiting for the ferry

Helen with her 'babies'- Geroge and Sharon

Cheers from Harry

At Te Whau Winery

Geroge, Shaz and Harry

Russell, Reubs and George

Helen with her grandbabies- Reubs, Harry and Renee

The cake cut---it was really delicious!

This weekend has been very very busy with us celebrating Reuben and Harry's Nana Helen's 70th birthday and Reuben's 14th birthday. 14 years ago we gave Helen a wonderful present of a grandson for her birthday but ever since then, she has really had to pay second fiddle to Reubs on her birthday. Saturday was all about Helen as she turned 70. She doesn't look it at all so for an old girl she is looking pretty friggin fantastic! 


I made the cake which was a yummy lemon syrup cake which you can find here. Although it is meant to be a bundt cake, it translate well to a normal cake tin. This is my 'go-to' lemon cake. Not only is it easy to make but it tastes really good and keeps well. Instead of pouring the syrup all over it I brush each of the cut surfaces with the syrup before icing it with a lemon butter cream. The boys chose (from about 3 ideas), this design as Helen loves flowers, she is very feminine and is also a spring baby, so daisies seemed like the perfect choice. I also made her some of her favourite pecan tarts to take home and indulge in as she sees fit and you can find the recipe here.


The flowers took ages to make as there were so many of them. I made them out of Satin Ice gum paste, put yellow royal icing centres and brushed over some lovely edible yellow glitter to make them sparkle. I coloured the fondant green for the grass and put the flowers onto that with royal icing. The design was a Zoe Clark one. I think it would have been even better if I had made the cake even taller but it was what it was. It tasted wonderful though.


For the day Helen shouted us all (the family), to Waiheke to a place called Te Wahu Vineyard for lunch. We went back to George and Russell's for cake and bubbly afterwards so it was a long and fantastic family day. I'll be posting about the restaurant soon too so won't say too much about it here. Anyway thanks a lot Helen for a lovely day with lots of laughs and good family times. 


Reuben wanted a cheesecake but I'll post this and the recipe soon. As he wanted to make the day all about his Nana we went to Lonestar on the Sunday night to mark the occasion for him with a couple of his friends. So it has been a big eating and celebrating weekend and we are all feeling a little tired today.