Here's to the Mummy to be!

My dear friend Lisa is about to have a baby. A few months ago in a flurry of excitement, another friend from work and I decided we NEEDED to throw her a baby shower (as she was avoiding having one at all). How could she miss having a heap of people around telling her awful birth stories, or playing games that would make a non-pregnant person churn, or stressing over whether people will turn up... doesn't sound all that awesome now I think about it, although it was!

We were a little slack in organising, however pulled it all at the last minute. We had many grand plans with the styling and decorating, but in the end decided simple was best. I also had a disaster day in the kitchen. The food I have baked perfectly a thousand times before stuffed up and the food I usually have trouble with was amazing. I even made two batches of sugar cookies, both for some reason came out of the oven crystalised (any tips onto why would be great). I ended up making two batches of cupcakes (not all successful), caramel tarts, custard tarts, sandwiches, avocado and tomato bites, and roast pumpkin and onion jam tarts.

Lisa was a beautiful Mummy-to-be and we had a wonderful morning. I can't wait to meet the little man! Counting down the weeks.

Ladies who afternoon tea

On Friday, my friend at work was nice enough to share a lemon tart her boyfriend had made. The pastry was so delicate and the filling subtle and smooth. It made me want to bake tarts again. I had an old friend come for a visit on Sunday afternoon, so thought that would be the perfect time to make some tarts. The toddler was strangely behaving himself in the morning, so I started baking. I wanted a crumbly shell, something that wasn't too sweet, so went with the amazing Maggie Beer's sour cream pastry (I didn't roll it out as thin as I would have linked, but no worries). Then for the filling I had a massive bowl of fruit, so thought I'd do a creme anglaise with caramelised apples and pears.Accompanied with a nice hot cup of tea, they were the perfect afternoon snack to catch up over!

Something for the kids that Mummy will love

It's no secret I like to bake. It relaxes me, it gives me an avenue to show off, it confirms I am actually good at something. So, when I'm invited to someone's house, I generally like to bring something homemade. Whenever my friend Dani invites my son and I over for a play date, she specifically tells me not to bake - so of course, I always bake.

Luckily, whenever I bake for Dani, I don't feel like I need to bring something overly healthy, like oat bars or date slice. Not saying she injects her kids full of sugar or doesn't feed them properly, just that she's a pretty cool and level headed Mum.

I had some passionfruit in the fruit bowl so wanted to base my treats on that. I did a quick search of my "go to" recipe site and found these Vanilla Custard and Passionfruit Scrolls. I love custard and remember whenever we use to visit people as kids, my parents would buy a bun - my favourite was always the custard bun. So, these scrolls are an homage to my parent's "drop in" days as well as a delicious treat for kids and mummies!