Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts
Thursday, March 07, 2013
The Sydney Morning Herald's new Morning Express blog is fantastic.
I'd never have seen news like this otherwise.
The entry read:
'Poo cakes'. Removed from IKEA. They're having a bad run aren't they? Poor things.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Before I tell you about what I did out at the Annual Dubbo Show on the weekend there were a few days of madness in the lead-up... taking a long weekend anywhere always ends up feeling that you need two weeks to catch up to everything else in life. Unfortunately I've found that very difficult. Especially because I've had cakes to make.
I decided to enter myself as a baker in two cake categories for the show this year, in the basic butter cake and banana cake categories. The banana cake I was really unsure about entering for because I was unsure of how much time I would have when it came to it. But I did.
Wednesday morning wasn't smooth, as any of my Twitter followers may have realised on my feed. Got out of bed after an hour of being half-awake, realised castor sugar was at a horrendous low so had to make an early trip to buy some, then ran late to work without having done icing OR watched my weekly film for Shopper (Marnie, to be seen in next week's Review of the Week).
***
I got home after work and dinner, put Emiliana Torrini's Me and Armini on for the first time and got down to it. Cakes had turned out pretty good, so a lot was riding on this icing to make them real contenders.
Cake number one: butter cake. The icing was runny and hadn't thickened all that much. This happened on a previous cake I tried to make, and here I got a baaaad result.
Cake number two: banana cake. This one was better. Only problem was that I ran out of icing sugar with just over half a cup to go. The consistency looked more like icing and while it tasted as lemony as gelato it just managed to spread all over and look okay. For me personally anyway.
Went to bed all done, put on paper plates and feeling okay about it. On a totally different note I wasn't impressed with Torrini. Jungle Drum was really the only up-tempo song on the album, not what I'd felt like listening to at all.
***
Thursday. Cakes in by 10am to the pavilion. I WOKE UP AT 9.38AM. I somehow made it just before 10am (literally clothes on and out the door), and felt like a failure when I saw the icing and recognised others in the line-up who'd clearly done better with champion cakes and the like. Ugh.
Did I win? Hell no. Jess managed second in the biscuits and slices though which was excellent. We went to have a look on Friday night before I began my official volunteering duties. Saturday saw me help out with one of the horse rings by signing vouchers and writing winners' names for about four hours before a luncheon where we girls were the ones handing out food to sponsors (still got some so that was alright).
The official opening had us standing on a ute with Primary Industries minister Katrina Hodgkinson, who bravely offered to sing the national anthem after people were asked to stand only for there to be no music. Then Showgirl winner Kennedy, Teen Showgirl Sarah and I went around the track on a red glitter trike to wave to the adoring fans. Interesting day.
Sunday: Only official duty was helping judge Mr and Miss Tiny Tot 2012. The kids were absolutely adorable and it was a really hard decision all around. They were so excited to get presents just for entering. I got myself a strawberry pancake before and went on a ride after (yes, one that twists and turns as you go around upside down, I like those). There was also a dinner for the Show committee that I was invited to which was nice.
It was a really fun weekend :D
Sunday, April 22, 2012
I'm in the process of baking a cake as I write this so I thought I'd let you in on my newfound talent. Nothing fancy, but I make a good cake. At least in the eyes of my workmates...
Cake one was a simple creation, using almond meal, sugar and eggs as well as chucking pureed apple in which you couldn't really taste anyway. The winner was my own icing mix of mascarpone, icing sugar and cream. This is the cake I'm making again except without the special icing and seeing how a banana fares instead.
Next was at Christmas when I assisted my mum in making a cake for our feast. With strawberries and cream it was excellent.
There was a lemon cake next, but that presented difficulties when I produced an icing too runny that was oozing all over my benchtop and sticking. I was in a rather shitty mood so I didn't think it was worth a photo.
Sadly, I didn't even get to taste the cake because I took it to work only to fall ill and go home for the day before it was eaten. So good no-one thought to save me a piece apparently. I was asked for the recipe of that one too. I should make it again.
I also made a mean banana and coconut cake after a recipe steal from a workmate. I remembered the egg in my version though so I won that round.
***
Back on form for Easter when I came up with this mutha. Chocolate cake with Nutella spread over the top. YUM.
That was meant to be my last cake for a while, but I needed to use up ingredients. After this I should stop or I'll make people fat.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Last Monday (14-12) was a day off (as always, because of afternoon commitments on a certain radio station...), and with a Christmas party to look forward to I decided - actually no, I was coerced into doing it - to bake a cake. From scratch. Me, cook. Now for those who don't know me that well, cooking's never been my forte. Burnt melted butter in high school Home Ec once and never recovered. So for me, anything past grilling and microwaving is a big deal. ,+me+and+my+cake.JPG)
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I was up for the challenge. Looking through a cake cookbook, I settled on the first (and safest) recipe: a basic Victorian sponge cake. Even I could handle that. Had a few minor setbacks while mixing, and I shouldn't have lined the tin with paper on the sides so much - but I stuck to the recipe and it looked... edible at least. But when I decorated it it looked quite amazing for my standards. It was a hit with the girls and the final product before consumption is my photographic choice for the day. To say I was proud of myself is an understatement.
Unfortunately the group task was a no-go. But signs for it happening eventually are positive!
Tuesday was a quiet day - missed out on a work shift and didn't venture out of the house until 8:30 to go to The Ed. Which had a line AGAIN (so not bothering anymore). Ended up at Cocolat on Rundle:
But during this day at home I thought I'd actually get something else written in the book. Or stuck. Pages 65-66 have a container to transport an object of my choosing; in the form of a metal case, it's defined by them is: 'an object that can be used to hold or transport something'. So to have something smaller than TINAB itself, I stuck a receipt from a boutique in Surfers Paradise in there so I remember the address of the place for my next visit. Which is hopefully soon; it was on the 13-12 last year that I returned from the most fantabulous and perspective-changing Goldy trip ever.
Then I jumped to pages 109-110, which say: This is an excerpt from another book. 1: Pull a book off your bookshelf. 2: Open it at a random page. 3: Write the first sentence you see here. Because I was thinking about possible travel ideas that included Amsterdam I had an urge to grab The Diary of Anne Frank (btw, if you've never read it shame on you). Page 190 had the start of a diary entry as follows:
Dear Kitty,
I was upstairs this morning, since I promised Mrs van D. I'd read her some of my stories.
I really want to read it again.
Day 16 saw me go to the Sherlock Holmes preview screening (check out my review, up on the CPR site now), then have travel talks with the girls. Have worked out a rough itinerary and now need to go to a travel agent! Yay!
Day 17 (Thurs): really interesting. Had my ABC Tour Guides End of Year function and decided to go on a tour of the Adelaide Oval. We went INSIDE the century-old scoreboard. I actually felt honoured. They still use everything old-school, nothing hugely technical, and between two and eight people work in there at any given time. The record to change the info around between a test innings is I think six minutes or something. For hard labour across four floors, incredible...
My photo however was from the final hurrah. The guide (ironic that it was us taking a tour haha) LET US ON THE TURF. Hardly had enough time to take it in but I feel enormously privileged. Hence this image:
My photo however was from the final hurrah. The guide (ironic that it was us taking a tour haha) LET US ON THE TURF. Hardly had enough time to take it in but I feel enormously privileged. Hence this image:
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And day 18 to finish the working week had another 21st, this time the beautiful Claire who I've known since primary school and bonded with through karate (yes that's right, we're black belts hah!). So although the party also included some crazy dance moves and the revelation that Rosh loves Love Shack almost as much as me, the photo is a tame one with me and the birthday girl.
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COUNT:
Pages in progress: 62
Pages completed: 1, 8-9, 7, 65-66, 88, 109-110, 124, 192
Pages completed by others: 7 (Spratt, 1-12-09)
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