Following on from my previous blog post 'Party Time' the next birthday came at the end of July when my grandson Harrison would see his first birthday. His parents wanted a special occasion as it was Harrison's first. My son and daughter-in-law of course asked me if I would bake 'some stuff' for Harrison's birthday, of course I would.
Almost every member of the family was invited; from our side and our daughter-in-law's side. Their modest two bed semi was soon packed to the rafters on the day, not leaving a great deal of room for guests to move about. Fortunately however the weather was good so the bulk of the celebration took place out in the garden. Everybody had a great time with no disagreements, and of course the home-made baking went down a storm.
I had a budget of just £15 to cover the cost of all the ingredients. As it was a party with lots of guests I decided to do individual cakes or buns so anyone could have their own rather than a slice, plus this also makes the cakes easier to serve; no slicing and handing out portions, our son and his good lady had enough to do.
For the limited budget I managed to bake: 100 mini fairy cakes (very small fairy cakes aimed at young children), 24 Bakewell tarts, 24 lemon Bakewells (like normal Bakewells but with lemon curd instead of jam and a lemon flavour sponge topping), 24 butterfly buns, 24 jam tarts, 24 lemon curd tarts, 24 coconut tarts (pastry base, thin layer of jam, topped with coconut/egg/sugar/butter mix - a firm family favourite), 24 chocolate cakes, loads of cheese straws, and 48 iced fairy cakes. Hasten to add there was plenty to go round.
Didn't do bad for 15 quid did I? What's more, I still had enough ingredients left over to do half as much again.
The point is if you are working to a limited budget then baking your own is much better value for money, plus home-baked goods always taste better than shop-bought if done right.
The next one would be our grand-daughter Tiffany's birthday in August.
Click on this link or right click and 'save target as' to get a free PDF of the recipes.
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