An Auf Wiedersehen Cake...

On Tuesday just gone our coffee group surprised four of it's little members with an Auf Wiedersehen tea party.

Expat life is a bit like this - you seem to make new friends and say goodbye to friends at an alarming rate.  This time it is especially hard since the two families leaving have been a big part of our lives here in Switzerland.

But in our coffee group we do like a party, so we conspired and collaborated to give them the Swissiest little leaving do we could muster up.

The day before, I iced my contribution to the day, the Swiss Flag cake.  I used the same techniques I used for Miss S's Hello Kitty cake.

I found a Swiss flag image using a google image search and printed it out, enlarging it to the size I wanted and cut out the cross.  I made one recipe of the white layer cake I made for Miss S's Hello Kitty Cake, and crumb coated it in buttercream.

With the paper cross peeled off, and just starting the white outline in the space left.

I then placed the cut-out cross on top in the middle (the crumb coat holds it in place nicely), and piped the red buttercream frosting in small stars all around it.  Note:  This buttercream recipe is fantastic, tasty and great if you need a bright white, but does not tint well when it comes to darker, brighter colours (lighter colours are usually fine).  Butter based buttercreams are better for dark tinting.  My red was lighter and more coral-like than I would have preferred.

Then I removed the cross and piped in the white.  It was a surprisingly easy cake to make.

The Swiss Flag is actually a perfect square, but I took a little license with it.

Once I got to the party, I wrote "Auf Wiedersehen" and the kid's names on the cake board with a red Wilton gel pen.

And here are a few more pics from the lovely party we had.  We will really miss our little playmates, Marion and Betti, Tom and Gabriela, and I will miss their mums terribly too!

With Swiss National day just around the corner, there's no shortage of Swiss decorations in the shops at the moment!

The sun was shining so we went to the roof terrace so the kids could burn off some steam.

The spread.

Iced Madeleines. 

The kids start the feast....

While the mums hang out in the kitchen.

 

The lovely Bettina & Marion...

... and gorgeous Gabi & Tom, all guests of honour.

Then we broke out the champagne and toasted the leaving mums, because what would a coffee group be without champagne?

Time for cake...

Miss S with her cake.

The three older girls enjoyed dressing up and posing for photos.