forklifts, fire engines and the hunt for toilet tissue.

If you know where your spare toilet tissue is, send up a little prayer of thanks. This morning I had 5 rolls of spare toilet tissue. Tonight, so far, I've found 3. This is because Joel likes to play forklift truck. Usually he is content to forklift cushions, random boxes, my clean laundry, all of his nappies including wipes and nappy sacks, blankets, shoes, etc... and deposit them in various locations all over the house. For small items, they are generally deposited in the funpod. (Funpods are worth the money. Like a learning tower but more solid)  Anyway - this morning - he found the spare toilet tissue. I was alternatively occupied (ie: feeding a baby) when he realised that he could fit 3 rolls of toilet tissue on 1 arm and carry them around "Like a forklift Mummy!"  He has since forklifted them to secret hidden locations around the house, and so far I'm still 2 down. But we'll give him grace, because it's his birthday.

It's hard to believe my little guy is 3 already. 1 more year and he'll be at school, in tiny grey trousers and a button down shirt and a little school bag and.....it doesn't bear thinking about.
Today was low key, the weekends are the party times. We've spread it out this year so that
a) he's not overwhelmed, bless him.  and,
b) so that he actually enjoys the presents he's been given.

So far, it's working really well. He has a scooter, which was pristine on Sunday afternoon and is now totally caked in mud from some serious off-road scooting. He's also had a lovely puzzle and some new books.  When I asked him a few weeks ago what sort of cake he'd like for his birthday, he replied " A digger, and a fire engine and a street sweeper cake!"  For the record, I am not the world's best cake decorator (see: The recipe that started the blog)   But I really wanted to make 2 out of 3 wishes come true.  So this past weekend I made the fire engine masterpiece:

Which actually was not as hard as originally anticipated. Time consuming? Yes. Hard? not so bad. This weekend, I attempt digger! I will be using the same cake recipe for that.

So for everyone whose son is asking for impossibly difficult birthday cakes, I give you my best 13x9 inch recipe for a chocolate cake that builds well.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup oil

2 eggs (one day I'm going to try replacing with 1/2 cup soy yogurt and see what happens)

2 tsp vanilla

2 2/3 cup plain flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups boiling water (straight out of a fresh boiled kettle)

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line the 13 x9 pan with baking paper, leaving overlap on the edges if you are going to build with this cake so that you can get it out easily.

Beat together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla.  Mix together all the dry ingredients.  Then alternate mixing in dry ingredients and water to the sugar/oil mixture. Blend well, it will seem quite a liquidy batter. Pour into your prepared pan and into the oven. Bake for about 45 minutes until it springs back when touched or a toothpick in the middle comes clean.

Cut and serve!  OR

If you want to make a fire engine, cut the cake into thirds. (I used Betty Crocker ready made frosting to 'glue' it together and then stuck ready to roll colour regal icing all over it.)   Stack 2 of the 3 sections on top of each other for the back of the truck. On the third section cut two pieces of equal size for the cab, leaving one small rectangular piece to be the 'connector' between the cab and the truck.  Decorate with regal icing and black decorator's icing and job done.