It's fete time!

I moved into my house about 7 years ago. I love the area - the trees lining the street, the park across the road, the family atmosphere. But a little secret gem, which many people new to the area don't know about is the local school fete. Before I even moved in, the Fete Queen (also known as my mother) raved about it, especially the jams, chutneys and sweets. One store she neglected to mention was the cake store. 

I agreed to go with Mum a few months after moving in. I was pretty impressed. There were rides, stores, second hand stuff, but what I was really excited about was the cake store. It seemed like hundreds of cakes of various flavours and styles, all super cheap. I was sold, best fete ever.

When my son was enrolled and accepted into the school, I desperately wanted to be involved in the cake store. When I say desperately, I didn't actually go to any Parent & Friends Meetings or actively search out any information... I just waited to see when the newsletter started mentioning the fete or someone emailed. The request for help came and I responded with a little too much confidence. I wanted them to know I was there to help, to make cakes and that I could do some decorating. Some how I over sold myself and became the cake consultant, offering advice on icing and fondants and was being allocated the "hard cakes" to bake. In the end I was listed to bake 2 chocolate mud cakes, 8 red velvet cakes, 2 hummingbird cakes and the raffle cake - a carnival cake. Phew!

The perfect cake for a little Princess

I kind of feel like a princess after making this cake!

My friend emailed me a few weeks ago asking if I could make a cake for her daughter's 5th birthday party. She then mentioned they were keen on a princess castle cake. As you will very quickly pick up by reading my blog, I have a son and to date have had no excuse to make a super girly cake... until now!!! So of course I immediately said yes and then had lots of fun researching a cake design.

I had already committed to making a Carnival Cake from my son's school fete and had planned on using fondant to decorate it. I had never used fondant before and wanted to practice before the Carnival Cake. While researching for the princess cake, I found many recipe that used fondant and knew this was my chance.

Why you may ask did I have want to make and decorate a girly cake? Well, for some reason I find the older I get, the more girly I become. When I was a teenager, I never wore dresses or skirts and was pretty shy. I never seemed to like typical girl colours, like pink and purple, always opting for green. I don't actually think there's anything wrong with that, however as I reached my mid 20s, I realised I owned NO pants, only dresses or skirts (that includes jeans, I did not and still do not own a pair of jeans), and I even found some pink sneaking into my wardrobe. Now, having recently turned 30, I love glitter and I own a fair bit of purple.

So, back to the princess cake - why wouldn't I jump at this chance. And on that note, why did I wait to do it for a five year old? I should have made this cake for my birthday!!!

 

Rainbow cake makes everything better

As I have mentioned (in almost every post), I have a little boy. He's three and a half and in my eyes, one of the most beautiful things on earth - however, I might be bias. This could come as a surprise to some readers, however I have been accused of mothering him a little too much, possibly over protecting him. But I ask you, is it coddling to swoop in and SAVE him from harm's way? Even if that incident is tiny? Maybe... He is an only child, so of course he will always be my baby. I joke about how much I am going to be one of those annoying Mum's where no girl is ever good enough for her angle son - I'm hoping that's a joke, only time will tell.

Anyway, over the weekend my protection instincts went into over drive. He had a sleep over at Grandma and Popops and hit his head about 30 minutes before I picked him up. I won't go into detail about what happened, as this is a baking blog and my detailed description could gross some readers out, however I did take him to the emergency room and they glued his wound back together. Seeing my baby boy like that, even though he was exceptionally brave, made me feel all kinds of guilt and I just wanted to hold and cuddle him for the rest of the day. We decided to do some special baking, so Reuben picked a cake and some decorations and got to it. Of course he choose a chocolate mudcake! A rich, thick, chocolatey cake - but what's better to cure a sore head?

So this cake is for my little boy, who was the bravest little man yesterday and now possibly has a little scar on his forehead which resembles Harry Potter.

Muffins, stick bread and birthday cake

Some weekends I am so busy I barely have time to prepare dinner, other weekends I seem to spend all my time covered in flour and popping things in and out of the oven. This weekend was the latter.

Friday evening I made a light dinner of coconut prawns with a crunchy salad and afterwards felt like something sweet, so threw together a coconut cake. Then Saturday morning my breakfast plans changed at the last minute (by changed I mean I read the text message wrong and was a week early), so went home and made some lovely pumpkin, blue cheese and candied walnut muffins for my friend, who I was due to spend the rest of the day with. Saturday night I was treated to some outback delights with damper cooked camping-style over an outdoor fire. I've never been a camper but really enjoyed sitting in the backyard, drinking Shiraz and eating freshly cooked (occasionally burnt) damper covered in golden syrup. Sunday I had another friend come over. It was her birthday the weekend before so wanted to treat her with something tasty and made a Caramel Mudcake, the recipe I got from a cookbook I got "free" when donating $2 at the checkout of my supermarket.

Even though I seemed to have the oven running half the weekend, I feel really refreshed and happy with my baking efforts. I even squeezed in a trip to the supermarket where I stocked up on heaps of fruit and vegies for the week, and went to a local kite festival with my three year old boy. Now it's time to kick off another week at work... and maybe another week of baking!

Let's bake some mud cake

There are a few dates throughout the year that I would hate to have my birthday:

• Christmas Day - people would buy you Christmassy gifts or give you one present for the two occasions, or completely forget it's your birthday.
• New Year's Eve/Day - again, people are generally celebrating the start of a new year instead of your birth, or they are out of town.
• The anniversary of a tragic occasion - makes you think of the negatives, like the fact you're getting older!

I have friend's or family who have birthdays on each of the these occasions. Generally, they celebrate on a different day. My friend who was born on Christmas Day throws a Halloween party and our friend who turned 30 on New Year's Day will be having a 30 and a half party. As I am such a big fan of cake, a 30th birthday could not go past without some form of celebration, therefore it was baking time.