Barbie cake

This is a cake I made for a friends daughter who is having her 3rd birthday tomorrow.
Chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache filling and fondant finish.



To see the evolution of this cake see pics below...

The cake out of the pan


The first layer of buttercream or crumb coat,


and then the second layer of vanilla buttercream,


then the fondant is rolled on top,


and the barbie image placed on the cake.


All I needed to do was add the final decorations.

Monday Night, Family Night

For a long time now, well 10 years to be exact we have had a night in the week where all the family and any extra waifs and strays all have dinner together.
It began after Owen and I married and it was a way for me to get mums home cooking (despite Owen's excellent own cooking of meat and 2 veg). As the years have gone on we've added a few extra children to the mix too and its become an important part of staying in touch with each other and, despite the sad lack of my brothers attendance (overseas, boo...), it is still a very noisy event! It has also evolved over the years to be on a Monday night and lately due to mums busy schedule at work Dad has taken over the cooking duties. And I must say he's doing excellently. Tonight meat loaf was on the menu and it was the best I've ever tasted. Sadly I didn't take a photo, which Dad might say was a good thing as it did fall apart when he served it up but that didn't take away from the flavour. Sorry for mentioning that dad...

Dessert was a new recipe I tried as I was given a bag of fresh roasted hazelnuts from my sister-in-law. I made a Norwegian Hazelnut Cake courtesy of allrecipes.com and although it was a little saggy in the middle (my fault) it was delicious and declared a great recipe to add to my big blue folder. Usually served with a chocolate ganache I was all out of cream so I made a chocolate pate of sorts to accompany as chocolate and hazelnuts go so well together.

Mothers Day

Mum hosted us and the Janes/Dobson family for Mother Day lunch so I thought I'd contribute towards dessert and add a girly touch to the afternoon.
These went down a treat...



And the kids loved them too!

Saturday bakes

So I was down to two kids this afternoon with not much else to do and a surprisingly tidy kitchen I decided it looked wrong and I had to mess it up again! haha. Anyway here's what was cooking today:



Caramel Oat Slice



And mini lemon meringue pies.

Lemon cake

This is a cake I made for Owens grandmother who was hosting a morning tea with her friends, two of whom were having a birthday.
Lemon cake, with lemon cream filling and fondant.