Remember, remember....

Since having children my Mum has passed some of her cake decoration books down to me for ideas.  The holy grail of which was the Cadbury's Novelty Cookbook which annually my brother and I would peruse to choose our birthday cake.  I couldn't wait to make a farmyard cake with a tractor ploughing up the chocolate icing in the green dessicated coconut field for my son's 3rd birthday!  Though was slightly dismayed at the amount of butter which was required in the recipe!  A chocolate cake, with raisins in too which I'd not come across before either!

The other great thing to look through now, twenty or so years later, is all of the magazine pages which my Mum had torn out, with cake decorating instructions on.  I remember her creating this enormous teacup and saucer, with silver painted decoration on it which was for a magazine.  Only a vague memory, so I'm sure I've missed some of the details.  

One cake I do remember my Mum cooking for us was a version of the box of fireworks (something I plan to do for my family this year - shhhhh!)  Using sweets which look like packets of sparklers, rockets and catherine wheels, they explode out of your cake 'box'!

I think my Mum used chocolate buttercream to decorate the cake 'box', and possibly used something else for the lettering on the top.  My memory of this cake was that it was so thrilling!  That memory is probably mixed with the excitement of Bonfire Night itself, and my Mum's cakes were always better than the photos in the books or magazines.  I might try to adapt the idea somehow, but something draws me to making it just as it was described in the 80's.  I'm never sure when something is vintage or retro, but for me this cake is certainly nostalgic.