Today I'm linking up with PaisleyJade for Things I'm Loving.

When I was little, my Mum and I made all of our cakes and biscuits by hand, you know, with a wooden spoon and a bowl.  The hardest part was creaming the butter and sugar together, I used to work up a sweat getting it as light and fluffy as I could, and I loved doing it.

So it is because of these memories that I have held off on getting a proper standalone mixer to bake with.  I only bought myself one of those handheld mixers a couple of years ago, and that just conked out on me right on time for my daughter's birthday. 

So to the rescue was my new friend (the mixer), which I am loving.  My son has a birthday coming up soon also, so with so much baking going on, I put an emergency order in for an early birthday present. Wow, how much quicker and easier is baking now.  I kind of feel like I'm not really doing anything though, the machine does all the work, it's almost cheating.  Guessing I'll get over that pretty quickly though! It just means I can do more baking and spend more time with my favourite people.

Now, as for the cake...that's supposed to be Strawberry Shortcake on top, but her bonnet went missing somewhere in the car today.  I made a heart shaped cake with the Buttercake recipe from the Women's Weekly Kids Party Cakes book, same for the icing, only I decided to go fancy and use an actual vanilla bean, along with a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Pink food colouring was used in the icing also. 

I cut the cake in half horizontally, then filled with a layer of strawberry jam, whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries.  Then topped with the Buttercream, and dotted with white chocolate chips.  For the strawberry leaves I used rolled fondant (bought from a specialty cake decorating shop, but can be bought in supermarket) which I coloured with green powdered food colouring, rolled out and cut leaf shapes out with a knife.

This was not a difficult cake to make, just a little extra time needed for the leaves. I made the cake and the leaves the day before, then iced it  just before serving.  I think the birthday girl was pretty impressed, since she went back for seconds...

She also shared her special day with Nanna and Uncle Scott, over at Nanna's place, and I just realised I didn't get any photos of them.  

Happy Birthday to our Sarah, we love you so much, and you are growing up so fast, right before our eyes.

For more birthday baking so here, and for more strawberry deliciousness go here
Hope you enjoy your weekend!

xSam
*This post has been edited to remove photos of my children for internet security purposes.