Happy 2nd Birthday Angus - toot toot!

Angus' second birthday today was Thomas the Tank Engine themed, Fleur supplied the Thomas and James and I made a simple scene for them to drive on, and Angus gets to keep them!

 

 

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Hayley's Gender Reveal Cake

Hayley and Dan had their 20 week ultrasound and got the sonographer to write down the gender of their baby in a card instead of telling them, I was entrusted with said card and made a gender-neutral cake for them to share at a family dinner, only revealing PINK or BLUE when they cut into it!

 

 

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Happy 5th Birthday Lia

I've always wanted to do a Dolly Varden cake so when Lia kept changing her mind about what cake she wanted, I took the chance.

 

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Stephanie Alexander kitchen gardens in schools

This article is in the paper today but not online so I took a photo because I really want to share it.

Border Mail Page 12 Friday April 12 2013

 

For my birthday this year I asked for vouchers for The Essential Ingredient so that I could buy Stephanie's book, The Kitchen Garden Companion. It's not cheap but it is worth it for the wealth of practical information it contains. The front cover reads 'Dig, plant, water, grow, harvest, chop, cook' and it really does cover all those things. One of my favourite parts is the section at the end of each vegetable (there are 73) titled 'Especially for Kids'.

Stephanie's writing style and approach to gardening are both pretty laid-back and whilst giving her best advice, she also recognises that in gardening there are many approaches and opinions.

The website for the Kitchen Garden Foundation and schools program is Here.

One fine morning I shall get out in my own little veggie garden and take some photos to post here.

 

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Something different

If you have spoken to me lately, you probably know I have a lot going on. I'm taking a break from cakes not really because I don't have time, but because I have too many other things buzzing around in my head!

My vegetable garden is coming along swimmingly, with my first pumpkin harvest last week and more still on the other vine. I think the first one I cut should have matured for longer, it was definitely ripe but a bit watery and bland. I've made some pumpkin soup which sort of saved it and I can't wait to have it for lunch today. Busy day today so I whipped it up last night.

Giving this 3.6kg beauty a little longer to cure.

Also, with my break from cakes and my foray into vegetable gardening, I've added a couple of gardening blogs to my list on the right, and also the totally unrelated 'What Ali Wore' which I just thought was really charming. They have formed a friendship from passing each other in the street every day. Cuteness.

Easter camping was fab, Cory, Elise and family were great company. Shane did most of the cooking and it was almost exclusively in the camp ovens. We have decided there should be a spin-off of MKR called My CAMP Kitchen Rules because we would definitely win. Items on the menu included Jones St Butcher chicken kievs, roast chicken and lamb with potatoes and home grown pumpkin, and pizzas. Of course we also had dessert, which consisted of chocolate caramello bag pudding (Fleur's recipe) and a chocolate and marshmallow roll thingy made with leftover pizza dough.

I'll post photos if Elise sends me some, but I think that's it for me for now.

Until next time!

 

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Pretty pink christening cake

This cake was pretty in pink and nice and simple, inside is marble mud with vanilla buttercream.

The booties are a bit like the ones I made for Liana's baby shower which then got used on Jaylah's christening cake as well. They are so cute and a really nice keepsake I think. Everything but the ribbons on the booties is edible.

 

Just as I went to start making the sugar flowers, I realised that I only had a three petal flower cutter but I think the layered six petal flowers turned out really nicely and added a bit of dimension.

I'm going to have a little break from making cakes, I just have so much else going on. That doesn't mean I won't be making anything though, and my vegetable garden is coming along really nicely so I'm sure I will still have plenty of food things to blog about!

 

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Lorna Jane - Local is lovely

You may or may not know that I am a little addicted to Lorna Jane.

I also love getting down to my local farmers markets and (hopefully soon) using my own home-grown produce, so this is particularly relevant at the moment.

 

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