My Dad loves golf.  He plays a couple of times a week.  It was his birthday on the weekend, and I offered to make the cake after I had the inspired and very simple idea of making a ‘golf green’. I know, just what every man in 60’s wants, a novelty birthday cake!

In execution it was heaps easier than the ‘dinosaur that ended up looking like a dragon’ cake I made for Scarlett last year, or the disasterous ‘sheep that looked nothing recognisable at all’ cake I made when India was 2.

If your Dad needs a novelty cake and likes golf, here’s what you need:

1. a round chocolate cake

2. a skewer and some paper or a sticker to make a flag

3. fondant or icing coloured with green food colouring, and

4. cool mints for golf balls.

And I did find that:

1.  japanese ‘sushi grass’ – not sure of the official name but the plastic grass you get with your sushi (and I bought it in a packet at Daiso) was handy for the edge of the cake

2. dessicated coconut mixed with a bit of water and green food colouring hid MANY sins

3. spaghetti dyed green made terrific grass clumps (note: refer to the instructions below to see why it is not necessarily edible)

Anyway, another birthday cake made, some cake decorating inspiration to share and a crafty lesson on dying pasta for me (imagine all the great beading projects the kids could do if the pasta was tubular … ) … Oh and no one died from the green spaghetti …

How to dye pasta (thanks Pinterest)

In a glad bag put about 20 drops of food colouring and a squirt of hand sanitiser. Like the stuff you use at hospitals. You can buy it in little travel sized bottles at the supermarket for a couple of dollars. Add the pasta and shake.

Note, the hand sanitiser is basically alcohol and it really smells when you take it out of the bag. So here’s my tip … I put the dyed pasta on some paper towel and microwaved it for 30 seconds. This helped the smell disappear quickly.