Rainbow Cake

Since seeing the amazing Rainbow cake over on www.paisleyjade.com I have really wanted to have a go. So Blair arranged a family fishing trip, Blair, the kids, his parents, sister, husband and his sister and I stayed back. I wasn't feeling to flash so a day sitting in a boat didn't sound too good. After they left the cake jumped into my mind and I thought now was as good as time as any!

Thankfully I did pick a day with no one around as it took ages. I only could do one cake at a time, just due to the oven so I was cooking for three hours. Plus then I had to wait for them to cool and then carefully stack. No distractions was pretty good!

Basically I made a simple vanilla cake times 2. Divided the mixture of each cake into three, giving me six bowls of mixture. I then coloured each one. I used heaps of colouring. I wanted it super duper bright. The purple cake, my first one, didn't have enough colouring and was a bit bland. Even Ryan asked what was wrong with it. Then once cooled I put a whole heap of white chocolate ganache between the layers, helped stick them together and poured a whole heap over the top.

White Chocolate Ganache:

Two king size bars of white chocolate

200mls on cream

Slowly melt and mix together. Place in fridge until at the right consistency.

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. The slices were so huge that even I couldn't eat my whole piece! Ryan had great fun pulling his apart and eating them in order of his favourite colours. You can't be grumpy with a Rainbow cake! Which in a way was quite fitting as a couple of heated discussions came up over wedding plans. I kept saying, come on, eat more rainbow cake, you can't be sad! I think everyone was getting sick of me haha.

Tx

Finally the wedding day!

Don't they look so cute!!!Finally the wedding day was here and then it was all over, quick as a flash. They did such a great job, I don't know if there was ever a ring bearer who took his job so serious. He knew when to move, on what cue and took the wee pillow straight to it intended location. Adele only got a bit worried when she ran out of petals and didn't know quite what to do, lucky Ryan took hold of her hand and moved her along saying it was o.k. Very impressed with my big boy!

After the service, once the bride and groom left for photos we took the kids to a friends house so we could have a bit of kid-free time. It was so lovely, the reception. Blair and I even had a wee dance.

Now we are back into it all. Adele is back at kindy this week, Ryan, school next week. I have signed up to do the Women's Expo in May. I have so much work to do for it. I am excited but freaken out. I am worried about the money side of it all. It is going to be such a huge financial commitment that I hope it at least pays for itself and has a bit of a positive run on. My biggest fear is it is an expensive fail!

I have to do some baking this morning or else poor Adeles kindy lunchbox will be a bit bare.

Tx

RIng Bearer Pillow

Wedding prep is in full swing now, so a couple of days ago I made a ring bearer pillow for Ryan to carry the rings on. I found a few on the net I liked, some I loved but I haven't been the best lately and was feeling a little tired so I sort of made this up as I went. I used inspiration from a bag I made ages and ages ago which was a whole heap of pleats. I used some left over fabric from Adele's dress and a tulle ribbon also from Adele's left overs. The bride loves it and is very pleased. And in a bit of an up-cycling, I used the inner from an old pillow to stuff it. I forgot to buy some, it was after hours and it did the trick!So this is pretty much how I copy recipes now. This is a good old fruit sponge. Love my spelling mistake! It is nice, great with a bit of custard. But the exciting thing (well for me) was I used a jar of apples I have had in my pantry. FOR THREE YEARS!!!!!!! It was one of the first things I bottled. It tasted perfectly fine, looked lovely and no one knew till after every one had eaten it all, some had seconds. No one could tell! So it has re-newed my desire to bottle more fruit.

Right, dinner time, time to feed the troops!

Tx

A Princess dress

In two weekends the kids are being a flower girl and page boy at their aunty's wedding. I have been pretty given free range on what to make Adele. There are so many options out there it took quite a while before I could pick one dress. Even then I thought very long and hard about it. Still checking around for other ideas. I can't imagine I will get another chance for Adele to be a flower girl, so this really is a once in a life time thing for me to make a dress like this. I picked Simplicity 2463. The dress came to a "V" at the front, I didn't really want the "v" so I made it a drop waist straight the whole way round. I am so pleased with the dress. Even Blair, who usually doesn't get too excited about my sewing, love it. "Oh Adele will look beautiful, you have done such a great job" Blair said. So I am feeling rather happy.

Here it is completely finished. I love the wee bunches, makes it look like a real princess dress. It took a while, about 6 hours or longer. And metres and metres of fabric. Very much worth it though as she loves it. I am sure the bride will.

And then to top my day off I made another batch of these biscuits. I had coffee group here today. The kids didn't like the dark chocolate, which was fine by me, more for us adults! Thankfully we had a sunny day so the kids played outside all morning. Loving the great weather and sunny day!

Tx

My Quilt top done, another started

With all this rain I have been putting the inside time to good use. Blair was entertain the kids and I was sewing up a storm. Finally, after I think a year maybe, I finished this quilt top for us! Of course I still need backing and binding but I sort of feel finished when I get to this part. And I think I have even made it the right size. I am so pleased with how it has finished. I can just imagine it is going to look so fantastic once it is all done. I love the bright colours.

See pretty big, this is over the bonnet of a car. I have put it over the bed here and it has over hang, so I am guessing that it should be prefect on our bed at home.

Since there was even a few more days of rain I have started another quilt. I cut 21 10 inch blocks from all my scrap fabrics and just had to buy the contrast. So a free quilt! I am doing the wonky blocks. I think I will put an edge around each block and then put them together. Sort of define them a bit. Plus I think it will make them so together nicely. Plus I am sort of making it up as I go. I have seen a few and like them, but I haven't drawn up a plan as such. So hopefully I will have enough blocks.

Plus the other day (New Years Eve day) I cut out 60 ish 5 inch blocks to make a quilt I read about in a crafting mag. Again from my scrap bin. I aim this year is to make a dent in my scrap bins and make up some of the scrappy sort of quilts I have seen and like. I have one here at the beach with me and it was over flowing when we arrived and with the quilts and buntings it has emptied out a bit, I can now fit my iron and a few other things in with the fabrics. I want to finish these two before I look at the next project.

We had a very quiet NYE. We watched the Glee marathon, I was happy, Blair not so much. We saw in the new year and then went to bed. Pretty exciting aye!

Hope you all have a great 2012, I am sure looking forward to seeing what it may bring.

Tx

Chocolate Chippie Biscuits

Blair has been "complaining" about the biscuits I have been making. He really wants chocolate chippie biscuits and I didn't have a recipe. I know, for something so common! Well I most likely have but not here with me. So when I came across the "Women's Weekly Macaroons and biscuits" cook book/magazine, and the first recipe was the biscuits I knew I HAD to buy it. There was a small grumbling about why did I need another book, but once I made them all was forgiven. So of the batch there is only two left so I am guessing they are popular. I used chocolate and just broke up a huge bar of dark chocolate. I just love dark chocolate!

Chocolate Chippie Biscuits:

250 grams butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup sugar (the recipe says caster sugar, I just used normal and it was ok)

1 egg

2 and 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

375 gram of chocolate (I used a king size bar which is 250 grams and that was plenty)

Cream butter and sugar, mix in everything else. The mix is quite sticky and gooey. They spread quite a bit, so when putting on the trays give them room to grow. Oven about 180 degrees, bake for about 15 mins. Yum!!!!!!!!! They are very soft them they first come out, but they sort of harden up after a few minutes of cooling.

The best thing about being over at the beach is we always have people popping in to say hi, so the baking doesn't last too long, so I have to keep making stuff. And baking makes me pretty happy!

It is completely bucketing with rain today. I feel a bit sorry for the people camping in the section next to us. I am sure they will be wet as. Our bach is a tiny wee thing but at least it keeps this horrible weather out and right now we are pretty grateful. I am pretty confident it will be a stay at home and TV day.

Tx

Nutella Biscuits

I can across this amazing recipe the other night. It meant a special trip to the supermarket as we cant keep nutella in the pantry because I cant stop myself from pretty much eating it all in one go. When I walked in with it even Blair commented on how dangerous it was and did he need to buy more bread. Yes, ha ha smarty pants! Once they are out of the oven they need to cool, so the nutella doesn't run off, but Blair and a few of our family couldn't wait and ate a whole bunch so I don't have too many left to make into the layered biscuits. They are a bit messy to eat, but hey, nothing wrong with licking nutella off your fingers!

Nutella Biscuits:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essences

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

nutella

Cream butter and sugar and essence. Add egg, mix, add the rest of the ingredients. Make dough into a ball, wrap in gladwrap and put in the fridge for about 30 mins. Make small, even biscuits, place on tray. I made mine a lot small than I would make a normal biscuit. I thought since I was putting two together I didn't need such a big biscuit to start with.

Bake for about 10 - 15 in an oven on about 170 degrees.

Try and resist!

My sister-in-law is getting married in about a month and she wants buntings as part of the decorating. I made the first of 6 10 metre lengths she needs. It took me quite a bit longer than I thought. I was taking it nice and slow but still, wow! But I am rather happy with the outcome. One or two have a corners that didn't get as trapped between the tape as they should, but over all I am pleased. The best thing about this bunting was I used scraps from my bin. As I used each piece I though of where it came from, what I made, how it looked. So that was nice. And after the wedding I am getting this one back, I am going to hang it around Adele's room. I think that will be quite nice.

Well weather is turning today, forecast is for rain. It is rather windy at the moment with big dark clouds around. I am not too worried, a day out of the sun is probably a good thing. And!!!!! I ended up buying good old white for my quilt and I have put two whole rows together! I am finding it rather tricky making the 15 inch white squares as my cutting board is only 12 inch by 18 inch. So not a lot of room. Just taking it nice and slow. My plan is two rows a night. AND I brought the contrasting fabric for another quilt I am planning.

Nutella and quilt, what more could I wish for!

Tx