1st June is my daughter Rachel's birthday and yesterday she was 11. The years have flown by so quickly and I'm clinging on to that last inch before she is finally taller than me! I thought it might be fun to take a look back at her birthday cakes over the years. You must take the oath not to judge though, as there are a couple of shockers in here... You promise? That's good :-). Proving that we've all got to start somewhere when we try something new, and the beginnings often aren't pretty. So I guess what you are seeing between then and now is 10 years of graft and my own learning curve :-)

I don't think I had ever baked a cake before Rachel's 1st birthday. Oh my word... shocking result but I loved making it for her and she enjoyed eating it!

I get the bad mum award for not baking a 2nd birthday cake. We were in the middle of relocating back to Scotland from Derby and had just moved into our new house two days before Rachel's birthday so were up to our eyes in boxes. I think we probably bought one from the Co-op. There is no shame in that of course, my husband's birthday cake this year was from Asda!

By the time her 3rd birthday came I was firmly in the kitchen. It was during that past year I'd discovered the world of cake, so was very excited about making this one. I was also uncovering my OCD streak - you can see from the sketch I made how accurately I tried to recreate all the details - everything with a black outline as per the book illustrations. That attention to detail has stayed with me over the years, and is a good thing and a bad thing in equal measure: the cakes look good, but the time it takes to make them is often quite a bit more than anyone else would care to spend...

4th birthday time, fairy stories were the order of the day, and a Princess and the Pea cake in Rachel's favourite rainbow colours. I modelled her favourite Pink Bear for the top. The mattress design was recreated from a lovely one I found online - I never did manage to find out who made that cake but am keeping my eyes open in the hope of being able to credit them one day.

5th birthday, a venture into buttercream, and one of my very first sugar flowers. Not the prettiest result but all part of the learning curve! Buttercream is something I've only ever dipped my toe into.

The fairy castle cake for Rachel's 6th birthday is probably one of my favourites. I completely went to town with this one.

Pretty pastel flowers for Rachel's 7th birthday cake.

Rachel's 8th birthday party was at a local pottery painting studio, so 'children's art' became the theme for her cake. My favourite part was always the little sugar sharpener.

Rachel designed her 9th birthday cake herself - I wasn't allowed to interfere, I just had to follow the instructions. We ended up with an interesting combination of rainbow cake lace, orchids and little blossom flowers.

10th birthday time and something a bit different. I baked the cake, filled it and ganached it and then handed over completely to the birthday girl who had a ball decorating it all by herself, with a little bit of help from Gran. I stood well back and let her get on with it. She did a brilliant job! Anyone who has a child/niece/nephew between the ages of 6 and 16 will recognise the theme she went for.

11 yesterday and we're up to date. Whoosh, just like that. And this time a grown up cake. More buttercream, another sugar flower, and a very happy birthday to the birthday girl!