Mother's Day inspirations

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!

A birthday cake for Zenna

As I have mentioned a few times in this blog, I have a little boy, Reuben. He's two and a half and I love him to bits (although he can throw a mean tantrum that really tests my unconditional love at times). Reuben's best friend is a lovely little girl named Zenna. They are so adorable playing together and it's so much fun watching them interact (not so much fun watching them fight, but you take the good with the bad). While they are young, I love that Reuben has a girl for his best friend. I get to play little girl games and on occasions get to shop for gorgeous little girl things. I might change my tune in 15 years when they start wanting to play by themselves with the door shut, but that's a blog post for another day.

Last weekend was Zenna's third birthday party. When baking for family, I don't get to do anything too pretty and generally avoid pink. So when I was told Zenna was having a party, I muscled my way in and offered to do some baking. Luckily, we're friends with Zenna's parents and they were more than happy for the help. So, I baked :-). Zenna's Mum, Natika, has a fantastic eye for style and has a great business called Indi Lola Designs. ILDs did all the styling in the below pictures, and you can buy similar items for yourself.

ENJOY! 

Watch out, a Strawberry Charlatan

We survived Christmas for another year. 

Since having a child, Christmas has completely changed. Santa is once again part of the equation and we set "traps" for him and his reindeer. We also get up at dawn and spend the day with a sugared-up toddler. We are then generally too exhausted to get drunk and end up falling into bed and going straight to sleep.

Another thing to note is Christmas in Brisbane is hot. For some reason, most of us follow the traditions of the colder climates and serve ham, turkey, roast veggies and pudding, ie hot and heavy. As I generally make some kind of dessert to share at our family's Christmas gatherings, I decided this year to make something a little light and fruity. And with the above comments regarding our change of Christmas routine and our cold climate charade, I've decided to call my dessert a Strawberry Charlatan (instead of a Strawberry Charlotte).

Wowzers chocolate cake

Last week I was very excited to get a delivery from The Book Depository. It was the Miette Bakery Cookbook, something I have been dreaming of buying for about 6 or so months. It came at the perfect time, as over the weekend we had a belated birthday BBQ for my brother-in-law. The request was for a chocolate or caramel cake. I flipped through the pages and decided on the cake from the book cover, with a few decorating changes to be more suitable for a boy (ie, no pink icing).

The cake is similar to a chiffon cake, using oil instead of butter, and it also called for the use of both cocoa and dark chocolate, giving it a rich chocolate flavour and a crumbly yet moist texture. I then made the vanilla buttercream frosting, which is based on a french meringue mixed with about 650g of butter - that's not a typo! Ignoring the possible coronary I would be giving my family, the final product was the smoothest, glossiest frosting I have ever made. It provided a wonderful sweetness and balance for the cake.