For the Love of Cars & Balls

To be honest, after the whole day of doing eye-straining sugar cut-outs the day before for 60 cupcakes, it was the thought of this cake that kept me going. I was looking forward to making this little cake for my ex-manicurist. Her only son turned 2 on Saturday and she's been planning for a cake from me since last year! We've been talking about her son's favourite things and that got her into the mode of observing her son more carefully. After a couple of months, she told me that her son's very fascinated with cars and balls. Now, that's a tough one. How do I get these two things together and make sense? Well, I put that thought away for some time and just last week, it hit me! Dhaarmin is 2 and when my two children were at that age, I used to let them watch The Wiggles. It's an Aussie educational programme with songs and dances, and they loved calling out "Wake up, Jeff!!!" In that programme, the four guys have a car they call... The Big Red Car. Yes, just exactly that. The whole cake theme would be an episode with The Big Red Car introducing popular sports to children! So, I bake an Orange with Chocolate Swirl Cake for the car and a couple of sports balls (1.6kg in total). I had The Big Red Car driven by not the boys but the a smiley Snooker Ball and 3 other popular sports balls - the Baseball, Basketball and Football. I also made out of sugar paste a small tennis ball and golf ball as candle holders (which I didn't photograph). Mum was ecstatic when she saw the cake and I hope young Dhaarmin recognises The Big Red Car and names all the sports!