Meet Betty!

Yes, it's 7:30am on a Sunday, why on earth am I awake? Maybe it's because I am so excited thinking of all the wonderful, delicious, delightful things I'm going to make with this little beauty! Meet Betty! Betty is my new Kitchenaid Artisan Mix Master. HOORAY!! {crowd applauds} Why Betty? Well, I wanted a bit of a retro name to go with the retro Ice Blue colour, Will suggested Johnny Rockets (after the cafe at Washington that we loved) but she's a girl machine (of course!) and I maybe would have considered it if she was red, but in blue I thought Betty suited much better {wink!}

I have wanted one for, like, ever, LOL! Well, a while anyway. Never more so than since watching Martha Stewart every day and watching her use it for everything, and since listening to Elena, my work friend and second baking mentor along with Mum, rave constantly about how awesome they are and how you can do so much with them. You know I do lots of baking so it's perfect for me! No longer do I have to stand there for 7 minutes beating egg whites with an electrical hand beater while my phone rings across the room and I can't go answer it lest I lose all the fluffy airation from the egg whites! I did my research and was tossing up between the Kenwood Mixmaster, which is what Mum has had and loved for 40 years and what I grew up using when we baked, and the Kitchenaid. I trawled the internet for reviews on both, looked for prices and sales, tossed up whether to wait for a super dooper sale or wondered if they never went on sale like ipods don't. I did too much wondering, some things you need to just buy. Cos during the week I couldn't stand it anymore, the constant internet trawling and searching for a sale, and so said to Will, "Can I buy a Kitchenaid this afternoon" and cos he's the most darling husband ever he said... "You're not gonna wait for a sale?"... not! Actually he really said "ok. You can use the wedding gift money." No really he did! Just like that. HOORAY!! Love you Willy! Cos I love Betty too! I got it from Your Home Depot online, but they also have a store at Castle Hill Supacentre (I paid for it online then picked it up at the storefront). They're on sale at the moment for $632 which is an awesome price. If you're in America and reading this... you have no idea how lucky you are to be able to buy one from Target USA for $200! Buy an extra one for me while you're there wont you??

The first recipe I made was Bahama Mama Banana Rum Cake from my newest cook book buy "Sticky, Chewy, Messy Gooey" by Jill O'Connor. Have I told you about the book? I was having a really bad day on the first Monday back at work after our Honeymoon. It was the realisation that the Wedding and Honeymoon was over and i didn't have another holiday booked in at work (always the most depressing part, even though I like my job!) and I was feeling rather down... I popped into Borders on my way to work and saw this book. I had a tiny flick through it, liked the LO, saw a recipe for "Sugar-Crusted Brownie Sundaes with Whiskey-Walnut Caramel Sauce" and was sold. Plus I thought it was a sign that all the recipe titles were written in our wedding font. Meant to be. I only paid $19 in Borders, don't let them rip you off by paying $30 as listed on their website! Check it out in store.

I love Banana cake and this recipe uses dark rum, (I used my fave Coruba Jamaican Rum) and it is delicious! I would show you a pic of the giant bundt cake I made, but it turned out a bit like a "snickers" cake (deliously ugly) cos the walnut crust stuck to the bottom of the cheap pan (mental note, buy a Nordicware Cast Iron Bundt pan when we go to Hawaii!) and I had to scrape it off the pan and stick it to the top with the sugar rum glaze....ugly, but able to be hidden under a sprinkling of icing sugar (thanks Mum for teaching me that!) So here is a mini rose bundt I made with left over cake mix. Isn't it gorgeous! It's a cast iron pan- now I see the value cos it slid right out! The big cake is for Will's Mum's birthday today. It's only her theoretical birthday, cos when they immagrated to Australia they had to list their birthday and neither she nor Benny knew their actual birthday, so they picked one. She chose May 30. Happy Birthday Cindy!

:) C