Me Too...

I too had a crack at vanilla cupcakes today.  Mila and i baked a batch in the morning before i headed off to pick up Harriet for some crafty good times.  I used a recipe out of Ladies, a Plate (one of my favourite cookbooks in case you hadn't guessed- thanks again little sister for some astute Christmas gift giving!)

Later in the evening i finally got round to icing them with a vanilla butter cream type icing. I tried to have a go at piping but it turned out disastrous and in frustration i had to scoop all the icing back out of my plastic bag piper and just smear it on with a knife- the end result is tasty but lacking in finesse...Can you tell?!!!

Kate x

Cupcakes + Craft

It was a beautiful sunny morning today and Kate took me (and Juno) to the Kraftbomb, which is a little craft fair held monthly in a hall in Grey Lynn. There were lots of cute things, and some good looking books, I will definitely have to go back one day if I ever have disposable income! There were also lots of people crowded into the hall - so it was quite hard to move, and to take photos of all the pretty goods on display (especially as I get a bit shy taking pictures in such close quarters!).

Kate picked up this cute little print

Waiting for mummy to have a look around

Afterwards Kate shouted me coffee and a red velvet cupcake (thanks, big sister!). Very yummy, and it was so nice and warm sitting in the sunshine...too hot for a jumper! It felt so summery.

Sweet little girl in the background there...she was out with her Daddy having a cup of 'coffee' and waiting patiently for her toast...cute cute cute!

Then when I got home I made a batch of my own mini cupcakes. Not exactly adventurous - this is a simple Vanilla Cupcake recipe which is incredibly quick and easy to make, but with a pretty tasty result. I was missing the vanilla essence and one egg, but I just substituted a few spoonfuls of vanilla yoghurt instead and that seemed to work. I iced them with a chocolate buttercream icing - a little sloppy but tasty - and, oh lord, won't you buy me a decent piping bag instead of this 2 dollar shop crap!!!

Rory and June Bug

Okay so it looks like this is going to be another 'photo post', more about the babies than the baking - it would seem unemployment really is taking it's toll. I can't currently justify the expense of exciting ingredients, and i'm getting bored with making the same old unexciting things. Rory and I did make a slice this week - out of her second hand cookbook - but the best part about that was watching her cook and hearing her cute little comments. I'm a big fan of slices in theory...but in practice, there are very few that are ever really spectacular. Maybe i'm just not a good slice chef.

Anyway the rest of my week in pictures involved making juice (from what I have now decided might infact be tangelos..!) and hanging out with Rory and baby Bug. The juicing is super fun; they are so easy to squeeze (i just do it by hand over a sieve), so juicy, and the finished product has such a wonderful colour and taste ...if a little sour, but that's the way I like it.

I will try to do some adventurous ( or just SOME) baking this week, so there is more to post...in the meantime, how can you not adore these cuties..?

 

 

 I had fun dressing Juno up, first as a very snuggly puppy ....

And then into some cute girly pieces..

And lastly, pretty in its own way, my "is it a mandarin, is it a tangelo?", either way its yummy, juice...

And if there are any 'm's missing in this post, it's because my keyboard seems to be having issues...don't judge my spelling.

xx Harriet

Books and Bikkies

On Friday morning we took the kids to the book fair held annually at Northcote College. As always, there were more books we wanted than there was money to spend on them...especially for the girls, who are not so discerning in their choices. But we came away with a good selection, and on top of all the kids books (admittedly, quite a few of those were mine...), the girls each chose a cookbook while they were stuck waiting in the hall full of grown ups books.

So, the rest of Friday was spent reading...even at my dad's for dinner , James was unable to put down her Paul Jennings find, and I was stuck on Nancy Drew, unable to stop reading until Nancy had solved The Sign of the Twisted Candles. Sometimes I think I was supposed to stop growing somewhere around age 12. Maybe mentally, I did. I love young adult fiction. It's so easy and fun and full of possibility.

Anyway, on Saturday James was looking for something else to do, so she chose a recipe from her new book...based on the ingredients available in my cupboards. And thus we made 'Monte Creams'...otherwise known as 'Monte Carlos', I believe.

These consist of two coconutty biscuits sandwiched together with raspberry jam and a fluffy, cream-like icing sugar/butter/milk mix. Our first few biscuits were rather large, so it's kind of like eating 4 biscuits at once. They looked a bit like scones with jam and cream...scone sandwiches...which is not to say they looked bad; on the contrary...I know I seem to be easy to please when it comes to the visual side of baking...but these babies looked pretty sensational. James is turning out to be a talented baker ... and she looks pretty cute when she's tasting her bikkies, too!

 

Tomorrow is James' first day at her holiday drama class....I reckon she's going to fit in just fine!

xx

Harriet