Novelty cakes

Ever since Gaia was little, we've had a Jane Asher Book of Children's Party Cakes floating around. I bought it when I was still in good old England, where ready-roll icing and all the other essential ingredients are readily available. The years in Germany have seen me bitterly resenting the purchase of this book. Try as you might, you cannot find good alternatives here - marzipan does it's best but it's just not white or smooth enough for these creations. Yet my children still persist in leafing dreamily through Jane's designs, picking out a novelty cake for their next birthday. In Germany, novelty cakes are such a novelty that noone's started doing them yet - or at least, not to my knowledge. So I guess it is a combination of pride and stubbornness that keeps me trying, each year, to create some confectionierial delight that will put a smile on the faces of my darling children.

This year, Gaia thankfully requested Banoffee Cheesecake (Delia) - no icing in sight and it doesn't have to resemble anything other than what it's supposed to be. Titus, however, had grander plans and that is why I have just spent 2 hours creating a 'mountain with snow, pine trees on the edge and a cable car'. It could have been worse actually; he wanted Mount Fuji first but then changed his mind when he saw the Bavarian Alps.

The mountain doesn't look too bad, considering. I used green marzipan for the grassy bit and royal icing for the snow. The only tricky bit was trying to make a peak - it looked more like Tintin's quiff. To a visually impaired person, the cake definitely resembles a mountain. I know, because I squinted my eyes nearly shut, a bit like when you look at impressionist paintings, and I was convinced. The only thing I cannot do is make the cable car (which is not edible - normally I make a rule of only using edible ingredients; I suppose a goat would eat it though) actually move up and down the mountain. Oh, and the pine trees are plastic.