Once upon a time, my kids went camping. Note the word 'once'.
They were in a pop up tent in the backyard, in the middle of Summer. They had a lamp, books, quilts, pillows and toys, and were all set to sleep outside for the night. It was also a few weeks after we had artificial lawn installed, and the novelty hadn't worn off yet...
They lasted until 9:30pm, when they came inside and went to bed.
We aren't a camping kind of family. The closest we get is our church event called ManCamp, where Husband and Ben have been going for the last 3 years (and where I, and the other two children, stay at home in the nice warm house, with cosy beds and a TV).
And even then, Husband sleeps in the car.
Well recently, after a long battle with my mind, I made the decision to take some time 'off' baking. But when Husband came to me last week and asked if I felt up to making a small and simple farewell cake for his boss, who was leaving their city office to head up a new one in a country town, I believed that I did, and I wanted to really try and make it simple.
Husband's boss loves camping... Real camping. Like, not in a car or on fake grass. Camping with a tent, on proper grass (or sticks and rocks), in the middle of nowhere. I looked up some ideas for simple camping themed cakes, and came across campfire ones that looked simple enough to re-create.
I thought that I was going well with not over-complicating the cake. In fact, I cheated with most of it - the 'icing', was actually Nutella! But the next morning, as I was creating the 'fire' with my little fire shaped pieces of fondant, Ben said to me "I thought you were making a simple one."
"This is a simple one" I replied, considering the many other options I contemplated while in the designing phase.
But, when there's a campfire...
Regardless, I continued on the cake, and began the final touch of 'toasting' some marshmallows (for decoration purposes, but the kids all had test ones with their breakfast) with my lighter. I'm not sure they tasted quite like a campfire marshmallow, but hey - who says no to sugar!?
So with the Nutella, fondant, Cadbury's chocolate biscuit stick things, and marshmallows on skewers, the finished cake looked like this:
And as Husband's boss is moving from city to country, his going away present was a tool made specifically to be able to cut through long grass, bamboo, and jungle-like plants... A machete.
... Which his boss used to cut the cake, of course.
And just for fun, here's a picture of Husband on his most recent ManCamp-ing weekend, with the added addition of giant sparklers that I found at a discount shop on Friday:
And the annual "sparkler tower", which is usually consists of about 200 sparklers, but was increased to 1000 sparklers this year, all taped together, and set alight:
They were in a pop up tent in the backyard, in the middle of Summer. They had a lamp, books, quilts, pillows and toys, and were all set to sleep outside for the night. It was also a few weeks after we had artificial lawn installed, and the novelty hadn't worn off yet...
They lasted until 9:30pm, when they came inside and went to bed.
We aren't a camping kind of family. The closest we get is our church event called ManCamp, where Husband and Ben have been going for the last 3 years (and where I, and the other two children, stay at home in the nice warm house, with cosy beds and a TV).
And even then, Husband sleeps in the car.
Well recently, after a long battle with my mind, I made the decision to take some time 'off' baking. But when Husband came to me last week and asked if I felt up to making a small and simple farewell cake for his boss, who was leaving their city office to head up a new one in a country town, I believed that I did, and I wanted to really try and make it simple.
Husband's boss loves camping... Real camping. Like, not in a car or on fake grass. Camping with a tent, on proper grass (or sticks and rocks), in the middle of nowhere. I looked up some ideas for simple camping themed cakes, and came across campfire ones that looked simple enough to re-create.
"This is a simple one" I replied, considering the many other options I contemplated while in the designing phase.
But, when there's a campfire...
There's gotta be marshmallows!
Regardless, I continued on the cake, and began the final touch of 'toasting' some marshmallows (for decoration purposes, but the kids all had test ones with their breakfast) with my lighter. I'm not sure they tasted quite like a campfire marshmallow, but hey - who says no to sugar!?
So with the Nutella, fondant, Cadbury's chocolate biscuit stick things, and marshmallows on skewers, the finished cake looked like this:
And as Husband's boss is moving from city to country, his going away present was a tool made specifically to be able to cut through long grass, bamboo, and jungle-like plants... A machete.
... Which his boss used to cut the cake, of course.
And just for fun, here's a picture of Husband on his most recent ManCamp-ing weekend, with the added addition of giant sparklers that I found at a discount shop on Friday:
And the annual "sparkler tower", which is usually consists of about 200 sparklers, but was increased to 1000 sparklers this year, all taped together, and set alight:
Boys will be boys when they're put out in the fresh air with no supervision! ;)
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