It's been a busy week. Lots of work on and not much time to do it. Weeks like these, sometimes you get to the Thursday night, knowing you're so close to the weekend, and you just want something to treat yourself. Then you also see that there's nothing nice in the fridge for lunchboxes the next day and the decision's made - it's time to bake!
Last weekend I made fluffy pancakes with maple syrup and bacon for breakfast. I LOVE this combination, it's amazing. The only thing that can top it is to add some caramelised banana slices (done easily on the grill or fry pan with a little bit of sugar to assist in the caramelisation). After breakfast, we had a fair bit of maple syrup left over. And yes, I realise it can be stored easily, however I had the delicious taste of maple teasing my tastebuds and vowed to make my next baking venture in maple!
So, back to Thursday night and the need to bake something... a bag of pecans sitting in the cupboard just waiting to be used, left over maple... it was a no brainer!
I
believe good food makes people happy. Good food and good company make
for a fantastic night. And good food, good company and a great bottle/s
of wine is always memorable. I started getting into baking when I
wasn't the happiest in life, it acted as an escape for me and also gave
me something to be passionate about and enjoy. Eating the food was also
amazing, however did cause a fair bit of weight gain - so a lesson,
moderation ;-).
I
find my baking can make others happy. I am filled with pride when I
present a layer cake to a friend or family member to celebrate their
birthday. I love hearing the mmmmmmm from people when they take the
first bite of a treat I've lovingly prepared. And I
love when friends or family ask me to bake something for them, as it
shows my passion has transferred to them and they want to share good
food with their friends or family. (My photography is not great though,
so I think that should be the next thing I work on...)
This recipe is for my uncle. He has
shared many cakes and desserts with me and during the week asked if I
could make something special for a lunch party he was throwing.
Blueberries are just coming back into season here, so I decided on a
blueberry sour cream cake with a white chocolate cream cheese icing. I
was later told it was a hit!
This week is a massive hub of activity at my work as the exclusive season of The Bolshoi Ballet opens. Almost everyone at work is somehow involved, and having The Bolshoi come exclusively to QPAC (ie NOWHERE else in Australia) is a big achievement. I'm mainly working on other projects, so not heavily involved, but wanted to congratulate my teammates with a cake that symbolised the Bolshoi. I could have played with something vodka infused, or done the Pavlova to link to the first Bolshoi Australian visit, but I wanted to do something that linked to "Big" and "Red" - a Red Velvet Cake. I know red velvet feels more American than Russian, however it is red, it is big, and it will impress!
The main reason I've avoided red velvet in the past is because that on my first red velvet experience, I could taste the food colouring. I hate the taste of food colour and that turned me off. So, wanting to make something special for the Bolshoi but avoiding that bad food colouring aftertaste, I started a search online for a great red velvet recipe with minimal red food colouring. Most recipes called for 2 or 3 ozs (up to 6 tbs) of red food colouring, which was way too much for my liking. Then, via tastespotting, I found a recipe that required just 1 tbs. It even called it a "sexy" red velvet, so I went with that.
As always, I made the cake with my son. He got so excited when we added the red food colouring and cocoa, as it change the cake from ordinary to "OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THAT COLOUR!" We definitely had fun making this cake, so much so, I might try red velvet again. ENJOY!
Another birthday, another layer cake. I really wanted to bake a caramel cake for my brother's birthday on the weekend. I searched the internet for a caramel cake recipe that looked delicious and wouldn't take four hours to bake. I then thought about how I could add texture and found a simple honeycomb recipe that would be delicious between the layers of my caramel cake. Once I had finally decided on what to make, I got baking. The first thing I did was make the honeycomb... first issue, no honey. However, I had treacle, so thought "why not give that a go?" It looked ok, a bit darker than honeycomb, but didn't foam up the same way and wasn't crunchy, so left that. Then I went to start on the caramel cakes. I pulled out all my ingredients to find I had no more brown sugar. So, with treacle-comb unsuccessful and no brown sugar for a caramel cake, I decided to go onto plan B... a white and dark chocolate layer cake.
I don't know how my caramel cake would have turned out, I'll probably tell you next brithday, but I can tell you the white and dark chocolate cake was delicious, and even more special with the white chocolate buttercream! ENJOY!
Things I love about being a Mum:
- The feeling of pride as my son surprises me with a new thought or learning.
- The warmth of his cuddles as he squeezes me.
- The joy I feel when planning special games or activities to share with him that I know we'll both enjoy.
- Having him sit o the counter while we bake together.
- Hearing the stories from his day.
- Knowing I've done something right when I might be feeling upset or stressed and he spontaneously cuddles me and lightly pats me on the back.
- The look of absolute love he gives me.
I don't think I can write down all the joys of being a Mother. I know I can complain about the hardness at times, but I would go through it again in an instant knowing there are so many amazing moments of joy that come with parenthood. I have changed more than I expected since becoming a Mummy. I may have lost personal time and irresponsibility, but I have gained strength, wisdom, courage and a love which cannot be explained or described.
Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums out there. Enjoy the beautiful day you deserve!
This morning I woke up at 4.30am when my son called out from his room. I was daft and checked the time before I went in, which meant as soon as I got back to bed, I knew it was almost time to get up and my head didn't let me go back to sleep. I started thinking about all the meetings I have on today, then about some of the projects I have at work, then about what we're doing for Mother's Day, then I checked Facebook and Instagram (surprisingly not many updates from last night). Then I started asking myself if I should just get up and if I did get up, what I could do... This all feels less crazy when I'm lying there in these moments than it does writing it out now. Anyway, I remembered a recipe I found the other week for a sticky bun. It takes about 20 minutes prep time, an hour to rise and then about 30 minutes to bake. I didn't have the time last week, however being awake so early this morning and knowing I'm leaving for work a bit later today, I thought "why not get up now and make that bun!". So, I did. And here it is in it's gooey, warm, goodness! YUM. Hope your breakfast was as delicious ;-).
Pinch and a punch for the first day of the month. White rabbit. Slap and a kick for being so quick. This is generally how every first-day-of-the-month started while at school. I'm yet to teach my son these games, mainly because he is still figuring out what the days of the week are, introducing dates and months would through him a little too much... So to celebrate the first day of May (HOW DID IT GET TO MAY ALREADY???!), here's a little morning tea treat which many would have experienced in their lunch boxes growing up, with a bit of a delicious, buttery addition. Enjoy.
