After school fun

Maddi, my 12yr old was at the bakery helping her dad, and decided she wanted to decorate a cake as she was bored. As they are these days....
So, she collected a few different coloured icings, a mudcake, some icing bags & off she went. Here is what she ended up with.

I think she may have inherited her dads talents :)

My Sunday

I spent my afternoon joining my final strips together on my Bonnie & Camille quilt. I am quite happy with how it turned out, but as I finished it late the photo isn't the best....I seem to be always saying that about my photo's. I really must do something about my photography skills. I mean, I have 37,000 cameras & that doesn't seem to be the problem. Maybe it's me??

And, like every quilt I make, no matter how much planning that seems to go into the layout. I always seem to miss something....see those three blue squares that are mighty close to one another, and the three red ones with the same print. It does my head in....

Anyone who knows me well, knows I have a massive stash of fabric in my house, and in that stash you wouldn't be surprised to find a kit or two that I may have bought more than once by accident as I may have forgotten that I bought it. That's how big my stash is.

So when I bought this fabric, I was determined not to let it sink to the bottom, so I bought the bind, the backing & the pattern at the same time. When I don't, the gorgeous "had-to-have-fabric" just gets put in the cupboard while I wait to decide what to make. Then after I make something, it goes back in the cupboard while I decide on a backing, and then I need to decide on a bind....blah, blah, blah.

So here is what I chose for the backing fabric and the bind...
After all that sewing, it was time to pull out my favourite cookbook of the moment and cook dinner, Comfort Meatballs. A perfect dinner for Sunday night.

How delish do they look? So easy and so yummy, another meal that everyone loved. A rarity in our house.

Pioneer Womans Cooks

So, on this blog, Martha is the cook & I am not. I mean, I cook & I like to cook, but I don't really advertise it. I own a Bakery & all, but I am not the baker, that's hubby. I used to cook all the time when the kids were little, and then for some reason I just stopped. I used to cook from cookbooks everyday. The one day I didn't. I don't know what happened, I just got over it & stopped.

Martha, a couple of friends & I have been going to cooking classes for about 18months, which is more of a social event than a class & I in the last month I have been getting back into cooking. I have bought quite a few cook books, done some experimenting, and I must say, I have enjoyed it. It does help when the kids like what I cook, maybe that's what turned me off cooking, fussy eaters?

I saw on Retromummys blog a few weeks back this cookbook & it had me intrigued as we have just been to the States and I was after some true American recipes, so I ordered the book. I am so glad I did. I love it.

In the book she tells a story about how she became a country girl after she was raised a city girl, and had to learn to cook all the traditional American meals for her cowboy hubby. The recipes are basic meals and easy to follow recipes. The first two recipes I made were the Lasagne, which is different to our normal lasagne, as it use Cottage Cheese. The only thing I found, which I will change next time I make it, is that it didn't hold together like my normal recipe. I think that's because it only has one layer of lasagne sheets on the bottom, and then another layer on the middle. I think, I will do more layers next time, but the flavour is so good. The whole family loved it, and in my house, that's a thumbs up. We served it with a salad. Even the visitors loved it.

Now, this probably isn't the best photo, i probably should have cut it. But hey, I can't be a cook and a photographer! In the book she says that this cake is the best chocoalte cake you will ever taste and do not waste another day without it, make it today. So, hey, who was I not to listen to her? We had to have it.

My daughter Grace & I made it, and I must say we were lucky it turned out at all, as we were giggling and laughing as we made it, and the pictures and instructions were numbered going down the page.....but we followed them going across the page and wondered why the picture had a nice runny mix when ours was looking like cookie dough??

Hmm, then we realised we hadn't added the water or the egg mixture...we went from step 5, to 7 to 9...oops. So we had no choice but to the go and add the water and the egg mixture and hope for the best!

My husband said, no wonder he is the Baker of the family and not us.....well I am happy with that as I do not have to get up at 2am to make cakes, imagine what I would do to a cake at that hour??!!
Well, the cake was a hit! It tasted pretty darn good for a cake that was made out of order, so it must be fool-proof!! Oh, and it didn't last very long either, I think the kids are happy I'm back in the cooking mode....

You can order your copy of the book here with free postage! (Usually)

St Pius X Fete

Last week was my youngest daughters Year 6 fundraiser fete at her school. Her stall was a cupcake stall. Lucky for me I thought as we own a bakery....too easy, little effort. But no, Maddi wanted home-made cupcakes for her stall. Bummer. Into the kitchen I had to go...and out came about 48 cupcakes for her to sell...here are just a few.

Some bright yellow ones....

Some pretty blue ones...

Some cute little smiley face biscuits...

...and some little babycakes too!

I did make the cupcakes at home, but stole the icing from the Bakery. Maddilen was happy with home-made cupcakes and shop-made icing!

The cupcake stall was a hit at the fete, and they sold old within ten minutes!!

The Principal of the school has also put a custom order in for cupcakes for a private party....but the Bakery will be doing those ones for sure......I am all cupcaked out!!

Naughty Desserts

Check out these desserts we made at cooking the other night! Oh my goodness....they were divine, and oh so healthy. Full of fresh strawberries and berries, cream and greek yogurt, and home made meringues. The only thing that was missing was a drizzling of chocolate!! Oh and my cooking partners....Martha & Kylie were on holidays, and the other one was MIA. So I ate them all myselfess. Joking of course, I teamed up with three other lovely ladies.

Of course I had to come home and make the same dessert for the rest of the family to try. It was a hit, and oh so simple.

Tiramisu

Each Monday evening during the school term Martha and I, with a couple of our other girlfriends, Kylie & Chris, attend cooking classes at the local Highschool. It's like a step back in time for Kylie & I, as the teacher, Sue, taught us in High School when we were naughty teenagers. Not that we were ever really "naughty" as such, but we did do alot of talking and giggling in class. Hmm, I don't think that has changed, now all that has changed is what we drink with our meals at cooking class!!

A few weeks ago we cooked this!! How yummy was it?? Well I will tell you....it was DIVINE. Well, we partnered up and had half a cake each. Well, I cut mine up in pieces and had a piece each morning at morning tea with a cup of tea.

I will also tell you, this Tiramisu is not at all healthy. I put on a whole kilo that week. Lucky we don't cook food like that every week!

Kylie, however is not a coffee lover, so she did not eat hers, and gave it away to her co-workers! How rude, I would have happily gained another kilo eating her half too!!

Yummy Craisins

Not much sewing happening in this house at the moment unfortunately that I'm going to blog about. I have however had my nan over today, and when Nan is visiting, I bake. I made these White Choc & Craisin Biscuits. I got the recipe from cooking class last Monday and thought I'd give it a go. They a bit yummy. I will post the recipe below. 150g unsalted butter
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 cups Rolled Oats
1 cups White Choc Chips
2/3 cups dried Craisins

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C, line 3 baking trays.
2. Cream butter & sugar until pale & creamy, add egg & vanilla. Beat until smooth.
3. Sift flour & baking powder together until combined.
4. Add flour, oats, chocolate & craisins & stir until combined.
5. Roll tablespoons of mixture and place on baking trays, flatten with a fork.
6. Bake for 12 to 15mins or until golden. Cool on wire trays

Enjoy!!

Baking for Stress Relief...somebody stop me!!!

I was bored and stressed this morning so decided to do some cooking....first I baked the kids favourite. Chocolate coconut slice, so quick and easy....this will last five minutes once they get home from school.I had my nan over for the morning, who loves Blueberry muffins, so I decided to whip up some Betty Crocker boxed muffins. Cheating I know, using a carton where you add an egg and some water, but hey, I did decide to add some frozen berries to the mix, which I popped in the blender first. Can never have too many berries. Nan loved them.

Next on the list was a banana cake to use up the bananas sitting on the bench. I had six bananas that were getting past the use-by date, and the recipe only required three, so I decided to make a cake and some muffins!

So twelve muffins with cream cheese icing and walnuts on top to finish my baking morning off. I have no idea who is going to eat all of these as Nan informs me she hates bananas....might have to take them to the bakery to sell off! My butt doesnt need me to be eating it all thats for sure!

Now Nan, pies for lunch from the Bakery, as I am sick of cooking......

Star Wars Cake

I had to make a Star Wars cake on Friday for a local boy who has just turned 21. Obviously, he must be a huge huge fan. I know I loved the movies, but wasnt really into them when they first came out, I was a bit young then. My husband loved the movies, and always wanted to be a Storm Trooper ;-) He made me watch the first movie a few years back, and, under sufferance I did, and loved it. We then went on to watch the other movies pretty much in a weekend - I was addicted.
I will also mention, that after taking this photo, I wasnt happy with the icing, so stripped it off and re-did it, but forgot to take another shot before they customers collected it. They loved it!

I am off to make some fabric bangles, I found the pattern for them here at V&co, one of my favourite blogs. I loved how the pattern was a pdf file, so as soon as I bought it, I had the pattern in my inbox! Voila! No hounding the poor postman for a parcel ;-)

Will post some photos of them soon, have a great weekend!

Rocky Road

Ok, so I just couldn't wait till Monday to post again. I just discovered this photo of a yummy Rocky Road Martha made for her kids. It has rice bubbles and white chocolate in it, and is divine. I just love it! Martha has me hooked on her famous Rocky Road which has Turkish Delight in it, but the kids aren't too fussed on the Turkish Delight, so she decided to whip up a kiddies version, with rice bubbles and colourful sprinkles. Very yummy. (Even for us adults)

Harleys 1st Birthday

Marthas youngest turned one recently, and here is the cake she made him. Harleys older brother Jack and sister Claudia helped Martha decorate it....or maybe they just ate the lollies quicker than Martha could get them on the cake! It was the yummiest chocolate cake ever, and the lollies and freddos just topped it off. Harley was very excited about eating the bright lollies and not the cake!

Marthas White Choc Cheesecake

I have had morning tea with my dear friend Martha, who has outdone herself in the kitchen as always. Her White Choc Cheesecake is divine, and with a lovely hot cup of tea, I was in heaven!

Marthas oldest Cherub turns six on Saturday, and so its patty cakes all round for her classmates. They look fantastic!