Living my dream

Trying out a new cake design

Today is my nieces 12th birthday. Happy birthday Kathryn!

I was feeling the need to bake, so I rang Von and asked if I could make her cake. Kathryn is into knitting and water/the sea so thinking the knitting would be a little more difficult than I can handle right now, Sarah and I decided on an under the sea cake.

Earlier in the week we googled how to make a mermaid and came across this amazing tutorial. Very easy to follow and hey, apart from a little chubbiness, I recon our mermaid looks pretty good!

I made the mermaid, and some of the starfish and sea shells. Sarah made the octopus and pretty much everything else.

We crushed some vanilla wine biscuits to get a little sand.

We also used some molds to make the fish, the shells and some of the coral.

Sarah and I had a lot of fun decorating this cake. Even if there were some disagreements when I was doing quality control.

Inside it's blue.

I hope Kathryn enjoys eating it tonight as much as Sarah and I had making it.

A pinata cake

A little while ago I heard of a pinata cake and I just had to give it a go. I wasn't sure how I would work it, but knew I wanted to cut into the cake and find a treasure trove of lollies inside.

So I decided to give it a go.

I baked two cakes in bowls so they would have a round top. Then once they were cooked, I dug the middle out of each side of the cake, filled the inside with lollies, then iced the middle inside edges and stuck the two cakes together.

Once that was done, I was able to ice the outside. I wanted to keep it pretty plain since I didn't want to give the surprise away....

And I think it looks pretty good still. You still think ok, that's an interesting shape for a cake.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of what it looks like when the cake is cut as this cake was for my 'because you are special' kids. But I can imagine.

What a fun cake! And super simple! Now my kids want one for their birthdays. Grin.

Cupcake fun today

Just down the road from us is a fabulous shop (The Homestore) that has awesome kitchenware, lots of baking equipment and each weekend they have different cupcake classes. Today Sarah, Esther (my niece) and I went and learnt how to make cow cupcakes.

Oh . my . goodness. What fun we had!!! Lex has amazing ideas and there is a stand which shows all her different classes. I just want to do them all. And for just $10 it's a bargain.

Here's what we made today. A cow. It was good cause we learnt how to make the round shape. Plus of course the head, ears, eyes, nostrils, tail etc etc.

And then on the inside was a little garden.

Just adore the little leaves we made, plus the handmade roses and of course the grass. That grass nozzle has got to be one of, it not my favourite nozzle ever.

We've booked in for a combi class in a couple of weeks, and then a poodle class. Too fun! I really want to do the ballerina tutu one. It was last week, but we were away. I might try and organise a private one.

An hour well spent.

Easter treats

I don't think I showed you some bickies I made for Easter. They are so much fun! Just typical sugar cookies, but with a special fondant icing....

The kids love them. And I think they look super cute!

I got the cookie mold from House on the Hill Cookies. ADORE that place! And while I was buying that Easter bunny mold, I also bought a chicken one. Grin. Goodness only knows when I'll use it, but I'm saving it for a special occassion, or just because.

Can't wait to show you when it eventually does come out.

I hope you had a super Easter!

A pinata cake

Oh I love a different cake and when Andy showed me a pinata cake the other day, I knew I just had to try it.

So for this months 'you are special' cake, I made one.

It's very simple on the outside, and I don't have photos of that, but take a look at the inside.

This is in the middle of putting it together.

You make two cakes (I made them in metal bowls so the end cake would be round in shape), carve the middle out of each of them. Fill the middle with lollies. Stick the two pieces together, then ice.

It's surprisingly easy and I hope will be quite a surprise for the child who receives it.

The best ever ginger crunch

A little while ago I bought an oaty ginger crunch from the local cafe. It was just divine. I've been looking for it ever since.

Then a couple of weeks ago, when I took the kids out for afternoon tea, I found it again. And this time it had a name.

So I googled "Oaty ginger crunch" when I got home and found THIS receipe.

Today, I made it.

Oh . my . goodness . me

If you like ginger crunch, give this receipe a go. It's amazing!!!!

Just a word of warning, don't do what I did and use the knife with the metal edge straight out of the dishwasher to cut the slice up. You'll end up with blisters like these....

Well, I assume that's what happened cause one minute I was slicing up ginger crunch and the next I had a sore hand.

Enjoy.

Random things from my part of the world...

So, just catching up on a few things here. It seems like I've only been sharing scrapping goodness lately and while that's exciting and I love to, I also like to share little bits of me. So that's what this post is all about.

Starting with something out of the blue. The boys signed up for soccer (football) this year. Oh . my . goodness!!! They have been avid rugby players for many seasons now. Dan since he was 3! But last year a couple of their friends 'defected' to soccer and this year, my boys are too. It will be interesting. In some ways I'm sad, they were building up a really good team and some great skills in rugby, but why not change? Try something new?! On the other hand rugby is WAY cheaper to join. It cost $160 for Matt to join soccer and 'only' $140 for Dan since he was a younger sibling. What the?! No wonder rugby has such a great number of players to chose from as the kids get older! Rugby is about 1/3rd of the cost!

We also had a major birthday in the family this weekend. In fact two. My darling husband Andy turned 45. Every now and then it hits me that we're not as young as we used to be. This weekend, it hit home hard and true. With Andy turning 45 and one of our nieces 21, it was like wowzers! Where have the years gone?

As usual the only cake that fits for a "McClune" on their birthday is a chocolate log.....

This one was eaten in 2 seconds flat.

So proud of my wonderful man and the life we've created together. I'm a lucky lady.

Earlier in the day I'd created another birthday cake for my niece Paige....

I created lovely ruffles all around the edges of the cake and left it flat on top for the candles and the banner. It looked pretty cute.

Inside were lots of lovely colourful dots.

It was a very different cake to make and alot of fun. It was especially neat when the cake was cut and Paige lifted up this first piece and everyone drew in their breath. Grin.

A very happy birthday to Paige!

Today the kids have all been home sick. Dan was throwing up again yesterday and the other two have had coughs and colds for a few days so I decided with one home I might as well have them all home.

They're looking and sounding a lot better this afternoon with a good day of rest in them.

This morning our neighbour rang. His cat (which has two bells on it) had attacked on of our chickens. He put her back on our side, but when I went to look for her, I can't find her. I'm hoping she has just decided to hide and recouperate, but I don't know. He said she looked fine, but it's often the stress that kills them and I haven't been able to give her any rescue remedy.

On Wed, I'm hoping to pick up two new girls. Brown Leghorns (just need to check with the lady I'm getting them from). Yay. Plus drop off 8 boys to our special farm that takes the boys we happen to hatch.

I'm looking forward to having the boys gone. They are starting to crow and I imagine the neighbours won't be so pleased.

Well, I think that's about it for now. Better go get dinner sorted.

I hope you're having a great day.

Later.

Sarah's birthday party

It's been a while since I've done anything 'personal' on my blog, so I thought it was time for an update... and I also thought, self, you haven't blogged about Sarah's birthday party yet. So that's what's on the agenda for today....

We decided to do something different for Sarah last year. She was turning 9 and was getting a bit older so we had a party after school. In fact, it started at 5pm! She was quite excited about that!

I did all the baking and decorations, with help of course from my lovely man who hung things up and cursed the whole time. Grin. But it's what makes funny memories.

I've got a ton of photos so bear with me, or log off now. Grin.

I had been collecting special platters, cake stands etc all year (I mean who doesn't love a great cake stand?) and we put them to good use for Sarah's tea party.

She chose most of the food. Including these cucumber sandwiches. Yes, it's one of her favourite types of sandwiches!

I got the cutest little blackboard pegs and used them as place settings. Of course they would have looked just as good on some of the dishes of food!

My MIL gave me these gorgeous little bird cages for my birthday the month before, so they were put to good use! She knows me so well!

I adore this stand which only holds 4 cupcakes, but is perfect as a display piece on your table!

 I think I took photos before I'd finished, but I love how this looks. So pretty, dainty and girlie.

We then had a seperate table for the food.

 
Plus of course Sarah's cake...

She wanted a 3 tier cake, but I restricted it to just 2 layers! She then showed me two cakes that she liked and we made it a cross between the two of them. She loved it.

And I have to say it was one of the easiest things I had to make that day.

Here's some close up's of the food...

Teeny tiny red velvet cupcakes.

A mini cake.

Brownies and sugar biscuits.

Merangues and chocolate topped cupcakes.

I had spent some time making decorations and they turned out so well.

And the balloons in a jar were quick and easy.

I brought these straws and bottles months before the party and was so pleased to get them out and use them. So cute!

All the kids had fun with the photo booth. Plus we played a few games....

Like pop the balloons to get a lollie from inside. Stand on them, scrunch them, sit on them, we had the girls trying everything.

There was also the chocolate game. It got so funny. The kids were throwing more 6's than being able to get changed and eat, so we took away a few props and just let them have fun with it.

Everyone was pretty hungry and were pleased to sit down and eat.

The table looked amazing and the girls really enjoyed it. It made me feel so happy that we could give Sarah this amazing party.

We cleared the table so the girls could make their own headband. It was so much fun! They loved it and afterwards we even had a fashion parade.

And then it was time for cake...

We had one very happy girl.

And a bunch of sugar filled little ladies to send home to their parents.

Sarah and I had planned this day for almost a year. I was worried her expectations would be too high for reality, but she had 'the best party ever'. It certainly made this Mum very proud of her wonderful girl, great friends and a special day celebrated in a special way.

Red Velvet Cupcake receipe and a couple of tips

(Red velvet cupcakes I made for Sarah's birthday party)

Hey there! A couple of weeks back I took some red velvet cupcakes to my class at Scottie Crafts. They went down a treat and I was asked for the receipe.

So ladies, I thought I'd share where I found it.... right here.

'Divas can cook' is a fabulous new site I've found which is "Old school cooking for the modern woman". That sounds like a bit of me. Grin.

Anyway, her receipe (linked above) is amazing. It's actually a 'cake' receipe, but I just divy it up and put into cupcakes patties as is and it's perfect for them too!

Tip: I've noticed a lot of receipes are putting coffee into their cakes now a days. Dare I say this out loud? I don't like coffee!!! But in the cake receipes, you can't taste it. So don't leave it out! Whatever it does, works!

I've also noticed buttermilk being used in a lot of receipes I use lately. It gives a lovely taste and texture so again, if you don't have any, pop up the road and grab some from your local supermarket. It really does make a difference!

The icing receipe I use comes from I am baker. She has a billion different versions (all of which are amazing), but the one I tend to use the most is this one. I LOVE the addition of salt to the mix. It really does give it something special!

Tip: if I don't have cream to hand, I use milk or water. It doesn't make too much of a difference to the texture, but the taste is ever so slightly different. If you've never tasted it before, or for a long time, you won't notice. But it does the trick if you in a tight situation.

(Red velvet cupcakes I made for Scrapfest by the Sea Christmas party)

Now here comes my big tip of the day.... when I'm baking, or cooking for that matter. And I have an idea in my mind of what I'd like to do, but don't know the receipe. I just google "Best xyz" and then have a look at the receipes that come up.

I then choose one that has lots of good feedback that I can read to ensure it's

a) easy

b) tasty

Or that has lots of comments that I can read to ensure it's what I'm after.

So far it has been the single best way I've found interesting, new, easy, fun, YUMMY receipes ever.

Hope that's helpful! 

Scrapfest by the sea Xmas party

I've had 3 parties in the last couple of weeks so thought I'd better share some of the photos. Since I was a slacker at our Scrapfest by the sea party and didn't take too many photos, you get to see them first.

These are the wonderful ladies who came along and shared the afternoon with me. We chatted constantly, laughed alot, ate more. It was a wonderfully relaxing way to spend some time.

Everyone brought some food with them - thanks guys but as I said, I was a slacker with the camera, and didn't get pictures of everyones.

I did however, get some of mine before everyone arrived.

With Matt's party the following day, I just had to get out gumball machine and make sure it was working. It was.

It's so much fun. The kids love it and the gum is really nice!

Being Christmas, I had to try a new idea of Xmas cupcakes. Complete with snow beneath the tree, and a white chocolate star.

And what Xmas party would be complete without some chocolate dipped strawberries?

Of course my old favourite fudge receipe came out.

Along with my new favourite receipe for coconut ice...

All in all it was a sugar filled, indulgent day.

Goody bags were even arranged for everyone and waiting as they arrived...
And yes, that is Christmas bark made in a cool Christmas shape. I'll have to give instructions here one day soon.

A wonderful time was had by all.

 

You are special - Octobers cake

Today was delivery day for "You are special". I just had the one cake this month so it made it easy.

I decided to try the 'zebra' design I initially saw Ruth try. But mine is pink and yellow instead of brown and white.

I then cut the cake in half, filled it with buttercream, and then iced it with two colours. The crumb coat was yellow. With pink as the main colour.

From there I decorated it with lots and lots of jellybeans. I decided to just go for it and see where it took me.

Loving the flowers!

And of course I added in some glitter. Grin.

Next month I've got about 5 to do. They will need to be done for I think the 29th November. I know a few of you were keen on contributing when I first started talking about this, so if you still are, please flick me an email or leave me a comment and I'll get in touch with more details.

I'm really enjoying the process of making cakes and delivering them. Knowing that someone is going to love it.

Cakes for 'Because you are special'.

Today I delivered my first two cakes to a new organisation I'm working with.

I will be doing approx 28-38 cakes for them in a year. And chatting to them, I feel really priviledged to be little part of something that they are doing.

The children involved are about the same age as Sarah so I had a lot of help and input from Sarah. She even helped me with the little fondant animals.

Here's a look at the first one...

I have to say it's my first time playing with fondant, but Sarah is so confident with it, she made it look easy.

We always buy white fondant and then colour it ourselves. It takes longer and is a little trickier, but it means we get the exact colour we want at the time we want it.

In saying that, I think we'll definitely be buying some black fondant next time I'm at the cake shop. It's so hard to get a true black colour when mixing any type of icing!

I LOVE my Wilton grass nozzle. I've used it a ton of times now and it's amazing.

It's my favourite chocolate cake receipe in a huge big tin. I had to lower the temp of the oven by 20 degrees and leave it in longer, but it meant that it cooked evenly throughout. Was another new trick for me.

The second cake was more along the 'princess' theme. All pink with sparkles. Sarah gave it the big thumbs up.

I'm still learning to get those sides right! I think in this case the icing was too thick. It needed to be slightly thinner.

I have done this style of cake before but it is so easy and effective, I just had to do another!

It felt really good to drop these off today and come home to a clean kitchen knowing what had been happening in it just a few hours earlier.

Fun times!

 

An outside the box way to use some embossing folders

Who loves cupcakes? ME! Who loves Spellbinders? ME! So what happens when we put them together? Let’s take a look shall we?!

I’m sure some of you will have seen this before, but it’s not that ‘common’ so I thought it would be fun to share.

And yes, you’re guessing right. I DID put some fondant icing through my diecutting machine.

Here’s how I did it….

Step 1:

Choose the colour you would like your cupcake topping to be and add to white fondant to create your colour.

Step 2:

Roll your icing between two sheets of grease proof paper to your required topping thickness.

Step 3:

Cover your chosen embossing folder with cornflour. I’m not sure if the product I’m using has the same name all around the world, but it is a very fine flour. Make sure once you’ve coated the folder, you then shake it all off.

Step 4:

Now place your fondant icing onto the folder, and cut the overhang off.

Step 5:

Close the folder, and put through your die cutting machine.

Step 6: Gently pull the folder apart so you get your beautifully embossed icing. Now cut into circles to put on top of your cupcake. If you don’t have anything that quite fits, look around for cups or similar to use.

Step 7:

Grab your cupcake and layer with some butter icing (if you have some, add some edible glue to the top of the icing to help stick your top on without having to ‘squish’ it too much). Add your cupcake topping.

Step 8:

Eat and enjoy!

Spellbinders Product you can use:

Spellbinders Grand Calibur® Machine

ANY Spellbinders embossing folder – I used EL-010 Paisley

You could also use any others that you like. I also tried  EL-009 Flora which was gorgeous as well.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my take on using Spellbinders M-Bossabilities. They sure are fun and can add so much interest to any project you want to tackle.

T

Please note: “Spellbinders does not endorse the use of dies on food products.”

Forgot a cupcake

Forgot to show you this cupcake from yesterday

I used fondant icing and a mold I have from House on the Hill.

I first found out about House on the hill from Bakerella. She had used the same mold I eventually chose to create cupcake toppers.

I initially tried the mold out on sugar cookies, but as you can see, I've dared the cupcakes...

It's such a pretty mold, and soooo easy to do.

Today I've made a cake for some special people that need cheering up. Will show photos later with a wee tutorial.

Have a great day!

SPCA Cupcake day

Well, when I found out Andy's work was taking part, I just couldn't not participate and Sarah helped too.

We spent alot of yesterday getting supplies, baking cupcakes, then decorating them.

I made mine. Sarah made hers.

At the end of the day Sarah told me it was the best day she'd had all week. Is that a good thing? Just all week? LOL.

But I agree. We had a wonderful day together baking, chatting, learning. She taught me all about edible glue as she made several gorgeous cats and dogs....

Isn't she clever!!!!!!

Here's a look at all of Sarah's cupcakes.

She made them with the SPCA in mind. There are cats and dogs, an SPCA sign and even some crosses (to show the cats and dogs where to go if they are hurt!).

She made a plan before she started, then coloured separate pieces of fondant to get all the right colours. Then made all her pieces to go on top of the cupcakes.

So very very proud of her!

Here's a look at what I made....

Can you guess where I got the idea? Pinterest?! LOL.

I just wanted to try something new. I got a few things wrong, but in general it worked out pretty well.

It's called a Toffee Crunch cupcake with caramel icing. It was the first time I used my candy thermometer. But gosh, it was good to have that!

There were several steps involved to put it all together, but pretty simple really.

We had some cupcakes left over at the end of the day so packed them up into little boxes and gave them to a couple of neighbours. One who took Matt to the rugby on Sat. How cool was that?! And one who looked after our chooks while we were away a few weeks ago. The second neighbour rang to say thanks and asked where I got the fancy cupcakes from. She couldn't believe I made them. Grin.

I also made some others but they'll be appearing on the Spellbinders blog shortly, so you'll just have to be patient to see them.

Did you participate today? Hope you made lots of money! The SPCA is a great organisation that can always do with a helping hand!

Later.