December Daily Days 5 & 6

Hi y'all!
I hope you all had a super New Years Day off! We just had a lazy day at home, I do Love those sometimes! {resting feet up on coffee table}.
Here are days 5 & 6 of my December Daily Album.

Day 5: My new Christmas Wreath! I've been wanting a beautiful wreath for the front door for ages. I didn't have one when we lived in an apartment cos it would have been a waste to decorate that dank dingy hallway! But when we moved to Hotel d'Lam last year, I thought of it every time I walked through the front door! When I saw this one at Target this year I knew it was perfect! Unfortunately it gets the full afternoon sun, so the bright pink baubles are now soft pink and the red ones are now hot pink cos they've faded! Still pretty though {smiles}. The Happy Christmas Washi tape is from Kikki K, it's really pretty!

Day 6: My first Christmas baking for the season! I made these Mini Christmas Cakes using a recipe from the free Coles Christmas mag from 2 years ago. They were super yum! Packed full of fruit and I used pecans instead of walnuts, and I {heart} pecans! YUM! Isn't the little pudding on the stand cute? It's a Doodlebug sticker. I love it!
:) C

Jaimeson's "Under The Big Top" Party

Hi y'all!
Get ready for the photo onslaught!
Happy 1st Birthday Jaimeson!!

 Well, we had such a fantastic time at Jaimeson's "Under The Big Top" First Birthday Party! It was awesome! We had about 50 people in all, so it was a busy day! There were some fun games for the children and lots of yummy yummy Circus/Carnival Themed food!  I didn't get around to talk to many people cos I was running around like a crazy woman for lots of it, getting food, filling and emptying the oven (mmmm.... mini party pies and sausage rolls, even mini Pluto Pups I got at Costco! They just scream "Carnival" to me, seeing as I always get one when we go to the show!)
Here are some of the decorations:
My Big Top Roof! Pinterest inspired, of course! Made from red and white plastic tablecloths. It was soooo cool! And see the bunting in the background, that I sewed? 11 meters of it!! It was soooo pretty and made a beautiful background in the pics! And the string of pics of Jaimeson from birth to one year, that was a hit too! I made sure I labelled each one, it was fun for our guests to look at them all and see how he has grown up from a sweet little bub to a big boy now!

 The food!! How cool is the Big Top tiered cardboard Cupcake holder I found at our local party shop! It's awesome! Will's Mum asked if I made it {giggles}. I was a bit chuffed that she thought I did, cos it's professionally made. LOL! And see the "Big Top" cake I made for Jaimeson, using the giant cupcake cake mould! I was so happy with how it turned out! We had Fairy Bread, the cute little Milky Way Cars, cupcakes, mars bar slice balls, treat cups, Circus Chow (a carnival-inspired trail mix) etc etc. And how cool are the moustache straws I made! (Not to toot my own horn {toot toot!} but they are cool!

 The games! We had a Target Throw game (the one Jaimeson is peeking through!), Knock the Cans Down, a guessing comp, A Duck Pond fish (had to scoop out tiny rubber ducks with a fish tank scoop!), a Fishing Game & a Pop the Balloon game. They were awesome! The kids would earn tickets at the game and at the end they redeemed their coupons for prizes- lolly jars or playdoh pots. That was lots of fun! And yes, the big kids enjoyed the games too!

 And of course, I couldn't have hosted a party without my wonderful family and Willy!! (Missed you Yvette!)

 

Jaimeson was very spoiled! And I want to say a big THANK YOU! to everyone who wished Jaimeson a very Happy 1st Birthday! It was wonderful!

 

:) C

Some Baking Love :)

Is that the wafting smell of baking cupcakes in the air? Well, it soon will be!
I got a sweeeet package in the mail this morning from The Australian Woman's Weekly! You see, Mum bought my sisters and I each a copy of WW "Little Squares and Slices" cookbook for Christmas. It's a lovely book (go out and buy yourself a copy!) and I have made a few things from there now. So you know, I'm not a beginner baker. I mean, I'm no Martha Stewart (cos I don't love myself. Lol!) but I am a bit of a Sally Homemaker, and love to don my apron & whip up a cake, slice or cupcakes with my Kichenaid "Betty Beaters". So I made the Banana Slice from the book to take to Fliss's about a month ago & it turned out nothing like the pic. I read and re-read the recipe cos the pic looked like a layered slice & mine looked more like a flat banana cake! It still tasted good, but I couldn't work out where I had gone wrong! Not one to let it slide by ( I didn't think I could have got it Sooo wrong!) I emailed the publisher. Well, while we were in Nz they emailed back to say I was right & the pic for the recipe on the previous page, and the banana cake recipe, had been transposed! They offered me a cookbook for pointing out the error & this morning it arrived!
I expected a small magazine type book & it was a MASSIVE baking Bible! It's a doorstop! It's got a selection of recipes from all their popular books as well as tips & hints. I'm so looking forward to making something from it!!
It pays to speak up if you think something is not right then!
:) C
Postscript: just sat down to have a read & I see the book has been inscribed to me by Pamela Clark, the director of the WW Test Kitchen! Sweet!!

More December Daily Pages

Hi y'all!
I'm happy to announce that I have finished my December Daily Album! Wahoo! {punching the air with delight!} It was on my "Achievable To-Do List" and I finished everything bar one (taking ebay pics) but I feel like I did lots of other things that I hadn't put on my list so I'm still a happy chappy! Why did I title a list "Achieveable"? Cos usually my lists are acres long and I list everything I need to do (like... everything I need to do in life, LOL!) and it would take me forever to do it all and I never get the time then I feel bad about it, so an "Achieveable" list was a better plan. And it worked! I am super happy with what I did! I should do another list to do by the end of this week now!
So here are some more pages from my December Daily album.Day 12: Out to dinner with Will's Dad and brother & sisters. Benny always takes us out for interesting Chinese, but he always orders Sweet & Sour Pork and chicken fried rice for me. LOL! I'm such a cliche whitie! {tongue in cheek!} Tho I have eaten Goat once at his dinners! And chilli crab, and this time they had mango beef (imagine a chunk of mango inside a rolled up minute-steak), a little weirdly textured but not too bad! Fun Stuff: the "HO HO HO" border was all around a 12x12 paper which I'd had for years and thought I would never use. I cut the border off and used it like a decorative strip and used the white paper inside to layer a pic on another layout! Sweet!Day 13: Jai and I had a day trip to Wollongong to visit Mum and Dad before the Christmas rush of visitors. Fun stuff: That sweet angel sticker, which I've had for eons! And I love the paper with the tiny presents on it. Cute!
Day 14: Willy's Birthday! You can read all about that in a previous post, it was a great day anyway {smiles}. Fun stuff: clear acetate page on the right! Love the number stickers with the heart and spade on them :) Suits boy pages!
Day 15: Baking my cookies for our family Cookie Swap. Fun stuff: the acetate page again! It was fun lining up the embellishments so that they overlapped on each side of the acetate and the pages would still look good (and not like the "back side" of the other page! The acetate adds an interesting dimension to my album!
How is your week treating you so far? Still doing Project 365? I am!
:) C

Project 365; Collage 3

So what have Jaimeson & I been up to these last 4 days?

Jan 9: Jai & I called in to have a coffee with Daddy at work! Everyone always loves to come have a cuddle with Jai when we visit!
10: Granny & Papa called in on their way thru to Aunty Alicia's. I totally forgot to take a pic of them with us {gasp!} so mum took this one just after they left & texted it to me. Thanks mum!
11: Jai & I had a day trip to the city to meet up with some old friends from Grafton. It was a great day, so sunny & warm & a great day to go walking around the city! And a lovely catch-up too :)
12: I baked a cake! I haven't baked a cake (other than mini cakes) for such a long time! And it was gooooood!
Happy Friday Night!!
:) C

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bake Cake

Third thing off my list done!Bake Cake {tick!}
I made Sticky Date & Coconut Cake from a "Quick Baking" bookazine I bought at Wholefoods in Hawaii. {sweet!}


Mmmm.... Still warm!
:) C
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bloggy Advent Calendar DAY 23

Yep, I'm still doing some Christmas Baking, with only 2 days to go til Christmas! Phew! {running hand across forehead like I've been running on a treadmill!} I bought all the stuff to make a Christmas Pudding or Christmas Cake about 2 weeks ago, and just hadn't fitted it in yet. Honestly, I've had a to-do list as long as my arm, every day of December! And you know, I can't even tell you what was on it now! As soon as the task is over, I've forgotten it and moved on to the next thing. I have never experienced a December so busy! Is this what it's gonna be like with Children from now on? I'm pooped {flopping down on the bed... to consult to-do list for next task!}
I used a recipe from the free Coles mag. Did you pick it up this year? It's got some really good recipes in there, and Yvette said her MIL made the Mango Macadamia pudding and it was awesome too. I must give that one a go! Is it too late to make pudding after Christmas? Maybe it can be my New Years Pudding. LOL!
The recipe was to make 10 small Christmas Cakes and I used some mini flan tins with removable bases, that I got at Vinnies a few months ago. {$4 for a bunch of about 30 tins?? Score!} The recipe called for Mixed Fruit, but I have a mountain of Sultanas, Raisins and Dates in my cupboard cos I tend to think about making Chocolate Raisin Cake or Lumberjack Cake (my 2 faves!) when I'm doing the grocery shopping. And I inevitably buy more dried fruit and get home and realise I already have 2 boxes of said fruits at home. {sigh!} So I used them in my Christmas Cake, as well as Cranberries and Walnuts, and it's really delicious! They only needed 20 mins in the oven and they turned out super moist and yummy! Hooray! The mini size is great cos it makes so many! I'm leaving some here at Hotel d'Lam for Will's family to eat, giving 2 to a friend at work and taking some down to Mum and Dad's with me. {licking lips!}
Jingle Bells!
:) C

Bloggy Advent Calendar DAY 18

Hi y'all!
Yesterday was my extended family Christmas Party, with my cousins on my Mum's side. Mum had read all about a Cookie Swap, somewhere in our mags after Hawaii I think it was, and she decided it sounded like a fantastic idea for our Christmas party! {up here's for thinking!- pointing at head} We do have a few keen bakers in the family and so we knew there would be some enthusiastic participants {rubbing oven mitts together with glee}! The idea was to make at least 2 dozen cookies and bring them to the dinner in a festive tin/container. The containers all go on the table together and everyone chooses some of each others cookies to take home. YUM! We also brought a copy of the recipe to swap too, so we could make more of our favourites at home! {sweet!}
I dabbled with a few different recipes- Cranberry Apple Pecan cookies, Peanut Butter Cup cookies (both of them were a bit soft- is that common with American cookie recipes? They seem to like them soft...) but in the end I really couldn't go past the Melted Snowman Cookies I had seen on Pinterest! They were so cute! They are just a basic sugar cookie dough for cutting shaped cookies, then you accessorize with white icing, a partially-melted marshmallow (about 7 secs in the microwave does the trick), choc chips (mini M&Ms would have been great too, but I didn't have any) and decorating gels to draw on the arms & facial features. Oh how I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they turned out {swoon!} They are gorgeous! And they don't taste too bad either! I also made cinnamon stars using the same dough recipe, and a Cookie Cutter I got at Williams-Sonoma on our Honeymoon. It makes a slit in the cookie that allows it to sit on the edge of your coffee cup! Pretty cool hey?!
Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!
:) C

Cupcaked to death...

Hello!
I didn't think it was possible but I may not want to make cupcakes again for a while... but I certainly am enjoying the left overs! It was Mum and Auntie Julie's 60th Birthday party on Saturday and I made 90 large and 30 small cupcakes to adorn their cupcake birthday tree. I filled every decent sized tupperware container I had, plus borrowed 2 from Felicity and even had to buy a couple more! When I finally iced them and had no other containers to put them in I put them in baking trays to transport! Ingenious {patting self on back}. My cousin Megan's friend owns this cool acrylic cupcake tower so we filled it with as many cupcakes as can be squished on. That, it turns out, is only about 70, so I ended up not even getting to put them all out! Then, because there were other desserts too, only about 60% of the cupcakes got eaten so I sent some home with Mum, Yvette and AJ and I have a mountain left over! Anyone want to come over for cupcakes? I have 4 flavours to choose from- Coffee with Coffee Buttercream, Vanilla with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing, Strawberry swirl with Pink Vanilla Buttercream and Chocolate Mudcake with Dark Chocolate Ganache ! Once again my work friends "score!" some baking {cheering}.
I may have just sneakily eaten a cupcake while preparing dinner- mental note- eating a chocolate mudcake cupcake is not pleasant when your hands still smell like freshly crushed garlic. Ew! I wondered what that odd smell was.
So... Happy Birthday Mum and Auntie Julie! I'm so glad you had a wonderful time at your party, I know we did! And I hope you enjoy your leftover cupcakes too!
:) C

Mr Mojo is back!

Hello Mr Mojo! It's nice that you have returned so soon! Hooray! I did a page yesterday and another one today, so yay to having some creativity back {cheering!}
I realised I hadn't posted this last page I did at Yvette's! I only 1/2 finished it at her house, but I had (reluctantly, cos Mr Mojo wasn't with me) finished it the week we returned but it's been just sitting on top of my album, not even put in there yet! See, I need Mr Mojo for everything!
These sweet cupcakes were something I had been wanting to make ever since I bought the mini-corinthian stick biscuits! I wanted to scrap this pic cos they look so delicious! LOL! I love the pink heart doily Yvette gave me while I was staying in Canberra, I think Mum gave them to her. I have seen bits of them poking out from under Yvette's delicious layers on LO's on her blog recently! I sewed around the edge of mine as I was sewing the paper layers down. I hadn't sewed on a LO for a while, but Yvette inspired me!
Then yesterday I got back to my desk and made this page too! Yay for feeling inspired! I guess cos it was a nice relaxing weekend :) I love relaxing weekends!
These pics are from my Frocks and Fascinator's High Tea for my Bridal Shower back in Feb. I love the pics my friend Dennis took for us! My family are super fantastic when it comes to baking so I had the best "spread" of lemon slice, Lumberjack cake, mini cupcakes, cupcake pops, chocolate crackles, Raspberry coconut loaf etc etc! They were all soooo delicious! I had fun gathering some tea party related scrapping stuff like the gold cake stand and coffee pot rub-ons I got in my last 2peas order, plus the AC "sugar coated goodness" sticker from 2peas too! YUM! Love cupcake related scrapping supplies {LOL}. I hope Mr Mojo stays around for a while yet!
Happy Monday!
:) C
P.S. I just realised the best thing about these 2 pages is their background paper is OLD!! I mean WAY OLD!! Some of the earliest ones in my stash. Hooray!

Hooray for Saturday!

Hi Y'all! Happy Saturday!
I'm just munching on a piece of toasted Apple & Pecan loaf that I made yesterday. Confession time... I bought another sweet cook book {cringing guiltily!} But you know I love baking!! This one is the Complete Magnolia Bakery Cook Book. Remember my page from our Honeymoon of having a Magnolia Cupcake in NY? It's a super famous Cupcake shop and the original owners have put out a cookbook. The loaf was sooooo simple to make and I had all the stuff in the cupboard (well, except the fresh apples, so I used a can of pie apple which worked excellently!) I just cut a piece off and toasted it in the sandwich press and the outside went all crispy & delicious and the inside was YUMMO! Will loved it too which is awesome, I like trying to find sweet things that he actually enjoys and doesn't just eat mechanically cos it's there. LOL!
It's time for some more Honeymoon shares, cos that's all I seem to be scrappin lately! I guess I did have a few thousand pics to choose from {wink!} I wanted to take a pic on the giant "L" from CALIFORNIA which is outside California Adventure Park at Disneyland. We got another white-girl-asian-guy couple who were also trying to take the pic cos his surname was Lim to take the pic for us, then we took their pic. I laughed. It was a humourous co-incidence. It is also funny that the beginning of CALIFORNIA is my new initials C.A.L. Will took a pic of me with those 3 letters but it was blurry so I'll spare you that. See the giant Scallop circle on the LO- look hard, you probably missed it first time {laughing at own ridiculous joke}, Yvette gave that to me years ago, look I used it!! {Patting self on back}. Yay me!!
How would you like another honeymoon page? Ok just one more.... This was our super expensive breakfast at the Pool Cafe at the Bellagio, the $60 breakfast that was worth every penny! Check out the size of my Blueberry Ricotta pancakes! OH SO GOOD! I loved it cos everything was labelled Bellagio- from the butter patties, the orange juice cup to the sugars! Plus the outlook on to the magnificent Mediterranean style sculptured gardens was divine! It made me feel like a real spoilt bride to get to have a luxurious breakfast at my most favourite casino on the strip! Oh it was a true indulgence!
I hope you're having a creative weekend! Now I'm getting back to my desk... or do I feel like another piece of Apple & Pecan loaf? Would you like one too??
:) C

A Cupcake from my mind...

Hello!
I had this idea for a cupcake a while ago when I spotted these cute mini Corinthian biscuit sticks in Aldi. Oh they were so cute and inspired me to dream up a Strawberry Sundae Cupcake! I used a Strawberry Cupcake recipe from my Primrose Bakery Cupcakes book then "iced" them with Marshmallow I made from scratch (remind me why I did that again?!) then poked in the corinthian stick and Will sprinkled them for me with pink and white sprinkle sticks. I had to rope in Will's help cos home made marshmallow is the most ridiculous thing to try and work with. I had it EVERYWHERE! All over the bench, all over all the utensils, all over my hands, up my arm, on my face, in my hair! I was like a small child with a vegemite sandwich. It was monstrous! I should have just microwaved store bought marshmallow then whipped them really quickly once they'd cooled a bit, but you live and learn these things!
In the end (after Will cleaned up my marshmallow tornado for me cos he's the best husband ever and I had to rush off to work- he got a cupcake as payment) they were really yummy Cupcakes! The marshmallow gave them a little something extra, rather than the usual buttercream. The corinthian stick went soft after 2 days in tupperware though, so best eaten straight away. I loved them , and will make them again!!
:) C

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