Nyan Cat Cake

Hello lovely people! This is a bit of a random post without a new recipe as such, but my first proper solo cake decorating adventure so I thought I would share it with you :) I also have a fair bit of exciting news at the end too!

It was my better half's 25th birthday last friday, prompting many 'quarter of a century old' jokes, and it was our first birthday shared together so I wanted to try and make it a good'un! I got him a few prezzies, including an engraved pewter tankard so he can act like the lord of the manor, and I also made him a little toy hamster which you can see above (with slightly bent ears there for some reason!), as that is one of his nicknames for me..10 points if you guessed chubby cheeks!

A birthday isn't a birthday without a cake though is it! I knew this dark chocolate Guinness cake with Bailey's buttercream would be a hit with Pete and the guys in the house so chose that as my starting point. Seriously, I forgot how much I love this cake! It's pretty rich but oh so scrummy, and another great aspect of this cake is it keeps beautifully. We took it away in a tin whilst camping this weekend and it's as fresh and moist now, 5 days later, as when I first made it, win! Absolutely everyone adored it, so if you are after a very easy, memorably delicious, no fuss cake to whip up in the near future I strongly recommend you give it a go :)

Decoration wise I chose something I thought would be a bit fun :) I'm not sure how well known Nyan Cat is to you all but it is a bit of a YouTube hit which I was sure all of mine and Pete's friends would know about. The original version can be seen here, but there are also other versions including a 10 hour one. It is on the to-do list to sit with it on in the background all the way through one day..if that happens I fear you may never see a sane me again

I decided to do a roll out fondant icing design on the top, and it may look simple but my goodness..it was an intensive 2 day job put it like that! I won't go into the in's and out's of how I made it exactly (unless anyone would like to know in which case don't hesitate to get in touch!) but it involved a lot of gel/liquid food dye, hence sticky rainbow coloured hands, and a fair bit of patience. But overall it was SO much fun! I hadn't done anything very creative for a while, so making both the little hamster and this cake was so great, and hopefully Pete liked them too :)

On to the news! Firstly a few weeks ago I graduated after somehow completing 3 years at the University of Birmingham and coming out with a 2:1 in Biological Sciences (Zoology), crazy days! I had many ups, and of course a few downs too during my time, but I will definitely look back on it fondly, I just can't believe it's all over already! 

Secondly, and rather excitingly, when Pete and I met we both had the same wish of going traveling as soon as we were able. The plan was to go from country to country, mostly following the summer's, working as we went to fund our way. On his birthday last friday we booked our first plane tickets..eep! New Zealand is our first port of call, leaving at the end of September with no actual return date! To say Im not slightly nervous would be lying, but I utterly cannot wait :) The current plan is to buy a campervan when we are out there and backpack around the islands, stopping off to work in the major towns/cities. It will most likely mean I will have to stop blogging for the foreseeable future as both cooking and internet will be very restricted...sad times, but I have a couple of months before I have to think about that!

Anyway, sorry for the long post! But thank you so much for reading, and I hope wherever you are in the world you have a lovely week :)