Foodie Friday -Vampy Mermaid

This week's Foodie Friday is themed 'Edible Art'; whether B2's 5th Birthday cake rates as 'art' is unknown but as I have not posted her cake as yet I thought I had better.

Believe me the Bumble Bee'rs keep track of how many of their Birthday cakes I have included on my blog and if one has more than the others then look out Mum you are in for trouble with a capital 'TRUB'.

This cake idea was taken from the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Cake cook book. It calls for spearmint leaves for the scales on her tail but I was unable to get them in Guernsey so strawberries sweets cut in half had to suffice. B2 didn't mind, however, as a pink Mermaid is better than a green one any day. I think spearmint leaves may be a specifically Aussie lolly/sweet. I used candy shrimps for her necklace and the offcuts of cake to make her a fishy friend. The hardest thing was getting the colour of the icing to look skin coloured, we didn't want a sunburnt mermaid after all.



It is amazing all the little things that you take for granted. Spearmint leaves are a lolly I grew up with, so naturally I assumed they were a world wide lolly beloved by all. Sadly this is not the case, even in Australia the old fashioned Spearmint leaves of my youth are quite difficult to get. The new ones available by the packet in the supermarket don't really cut it in the flavour department. The old fashioned ones were available at the corner store in the days when you could buy a handful of lollies for 2 cents. The one and two cent coins are gone from Australian currency now as are most of the corner stores that used to have the jars and jars of lollies to chose from behind the counter. (Can you see me shaking my walking stick now, ranting about those young whipper snappers and how good they've got it and that they wouldn't have survived in my day!) Those jars used to call to small children with a magic akin to the sweet shop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie, either the Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp versions (we own both); although if I am completely honest Johnny outshines Gene in the 'eye-candy' department, even with the freaky teeth.


Thankyou once again to Designed by Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday. I hope the other Edible Art on display today is a little more high brow than my vampy mermaid. She really is a little heavy handed in the eyeliner department; do you think we should tell her?