It's a Janosch Theme Birthday Party!

Another Birthday, another cake! 

Well, it's time to bake another birthday cake. For this birthday, I decided to go with the "Janosch" theme again. Janosch (his real name is Horst Eckert) was born in 1931 and is one of the best-known living children"s book authors and artists. 

He has created numerous characters for his illustrated books, such as the "Little Tiger" ("der kleine Tiger"), the "Little Bear" ("der kleine Bär"), the "Frog" ("Günter Kastenfrosch"), and the famous "Tiger Duck" ("Tigerente"), to name but a few. His books include "The Trip to Panama" ("Oh, wie schön ist Panama"), "A Letter for Tiger" ("Post für den Tiger"), "Little Tiger, get well soon" ("Ich mach dich gesund, sagte der Bär") and "The Bremen Town Musicians" ("Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten").

Janosch has published too many books to list them all (some of them can be found in English on www.amazon.com and in German on www.amazon.de).

You can even find some Janosch Apps in your "iTunes App Store". One of the Apps, for example, allows the user to practise his or her English or German alphabet while enjoying all the cute Janosch illustrations.

Especially the design of the "Tiger Duck", a black and yellow striped, wooden pull-along duck, is reproduced on countless items such as clothing, shoes, china and cutlery.

Then there are CDs, DVDs, and many many other things that make my childrens' hearts leap for joy (www.janosch.de).

I bought a baking pan in the shape of the "Tiger Duck" (www.birkmann.de).

Then I decided to bake a chocolate and vanilla marble cake. Actually, since the baking pan is rather small, I always  bake a few  "Tiger Ducks" to feed the crowd.

And then there was a bit of store-bought Janosch chocolate decoration.

Janosch is always a big hit with kids great and small...