Izabella Turns 5!!

And so its that time of the year again. I love birthdays! Probably because my own parents made it a point to celebrate my birthday when I was young too. I also got quite a few parties when I was a little gal.

Izabella being the princess of the family will usually have, not 1, not 2 but 3 mini celebrations each year. Her first party usually will be at school, her second and third will usually be with her cousins/aunties/uncles from Hyder's side as well as with my family. Such a lucky little gal eh?

As with every year, I start planning for the cake and theme a few months in advance. I decided on a rainbow theme this year cos I wanted to make her a colourful cake and she is very into colours these days.

Quick Recap on themes
1st Birthday - Sesame Street
2nd Birthday - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
3rd Birthday - Dora
4th Birthday - Princess (Cinderella)

I started out with a cake trial (just to be sure) and ended up doing 2 trials this year because of the complexity of the cake (not the usual chocolate cake which can be whipped up at the snap of my fingers). First trial was based on a yellow cake recipe but whilst the colour was lovely, the cake was undercooked. The layers were also too thick.

Second trial was for another recipe from a mommy friend - http://sweetapolita.com/2011/04/rainbow-doodle-birthday-cake/ which turned our ok but the top red layer was burnt. I also used a cake pan that was rather large so the colours were not so vivid when you sliced into it.

The final cake turned out much better! As the helper was away on home leave, I baked the cake layer earlier on a Sunday and frosted it as well. On Tuesday night, after dinner and changing Izabella into her PJs, I quickly brought the cake out to cover. Whilst I had made the fondant rainbow and her name cut outs on Sunday for it to dry, the dear princess decided that it was too hard to resist. She ate all her fondant name cut outs by Tuesday! And the fondant rainbow also broke!

Nevertheless, armed with experience, I churned out another fondant rainbow, her name as well as happy birthday for the decoration. Although there were quite a few cracks on the fondant covering the cake, I was still happy with the overall results.

Princess was rather happy with the cake too! But mostly with the fondant. As usual, she started nibbling on the deco even before we finished singing the birthday song.

Besides the school celebration, we also celebrated her birthday with her cousins on Hari Raya Puasa. Grandma bough her a princess ice-cream cake! Yumz!

On her actual day, we celebrated her birthday at Ian's hotel (Orchard Hotel) with Sunday Brunch! She really enjoyed the chicken rice and ice-cream.

Sadly, we were all too full with lunch to do cake cutting at the restaurant so we had a mini celebration back at home. Lucky gal, one birthday, 3 celebrations and 3 cakes!

Some days, I really cannot believe that my tiny little baby is now 5. Five years have flown by so quickly, before we know it, she will be 10!

1 day old

1 year old

2  years old

3 years old


4 years old

5 years old

Chilli Mussels Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of Mussels - washed and scrubbed
• 3 cloves of Garlic - finely diced
• 1 large White Onion - finely diced
• 3 large Red Chilli - sliced into small pieces (add chilli padi if you want it extremely hot)
• Parsley - 1 heaped handful roughly chopped
• 1 can of whole tomatoes (dun use local fresh tomatoes)
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon Mixed Herbs
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste

Steps:

1. In a large pot, heat up the olive oil first before adding the onions.
2. Sweat the onions till they are soft (almost translucent) before adding the garlic.
3. Once the garlic starts to brown, add the red chilli and fry till you can smell a hint of chilli in the smoke.
4. Add in the entire can of tomatoes and use the spatula to break it up into smaller pieces.
5. Fill the empty can up with water and add it into the pot together.
6. Add the tomato paste and bring the mixture up to a boil.
7. Then add in half of the parsley, the mixed herbs, salt and pepper.
8. Add in the mussels and cook for another 5-10 mins (not too long, just enough to cook the mussels through).
9. Quick taste test before turning off the heat. (Add more salt if its too bland, add some sugar if its too sour, add some chilli flakes or chilli padi if its not spicy enough)
10. To serve, add the remaining parsley on top as a garnish.

HAPPY COOKING!!!