Oh forgot to tell you....

Remember that cake competition that I put the Thanksgiving cake in that Sean and I made??

Well....

We won!!!!!

I came home a few days later and there was a box on my doorstep from Simon & Schuster with some books in it.... As I love being in the kitchen and 'creating' masterpieces it was brilliant... like Christmas had come early!!! Here is the list of books they sent...

An autographed copy of 'Cake Boss'
Bon Appetit Desserts
Foodista - Best of food blogs
The World Kitchen - Williams Sonoma
Cooking Essentials - Williams Sonoma
Cooking from the Farmers Market - Williams Sonoma
Tools & Techniques - Williams Sonoma

I made some Indian Korma and substituted the chicken for Turkey with an excellent recipe from The World Kitchen.... My only disappointment was that I thought Aarti (Aarti Paarti) would have been in the Foodista cook book. As soon as I got it I combed the pages looking for one of her recipes and much to my dismay there wasn't one!

I haven't quite made my way through all of them yet, I love reading cook books.... but, if you like making cakes, desserts, squares etc... Bon Appetit Desserts is an excellent book to have in your cooking library. I did get a lot of my Christmas baking recipes from it. I have been trying to collect all the Williams-Sonoma collection cook books so I was really happy that there were a few Willams-Sonoma books in there too!!

Thank you Simon & Schuster!

Thanksgiving Cake Project

My husband and I made our first cake together!!! We wanted to do something nice for our family thanksgiving dinner and his Mum's 70th birthday. Sean really wanted us to do something together and was adamant he wanted to help out!!! So I made a red velvet cake and got to practice my basket weave again!!! (sigh) I baked orange coloured mini bundt cakes to use for the pumpkins then we went about decorating. Sean is so good and modeling the fondant and all the little details. I was actually pretty impressed that he got the hang of working with the fondant right away where as it took me a few tries to get the hang of it.

All of the cake is edible... all the veggies (which the kids tried to eat with their dinner instead of the real ones), the basket, the fruit..... It turned out pretty good! There is always the stress when I make these cakes that it will be a complete disaster... and I am turning up with a grocery store slab cake instead!! A friend posted on my facebook wall about a cake decorating contest so I decided to enter our cake! You can vote for it here.

A very productive day

So I had a super productive day today... I made two cakes.... Toopy & Binoo.


Went for a really long walk with a friend EVEN though I was feeling super lazy and just wanted to go back to bed....

Cut the grass... I was hoping I was done with that for this year.... I started pruning my apple tree... My neighbors probably think I am crazy! Especially when I was hanging from the tree 6ft up with my husband's cordless saw in my hand and the ladder tipped over... I hope no one was watching!! I also picked apples so I think next week will be an apple/pumpkin pie making week!

Made ham & scalloped potatoes for supper and I am about to put the kids in the tub and get them in bed before I tidy the kitchen.

Then..... I am going to crash!

Cake Post....

I spent yesterday making cakes...

This one was for Lainey's 2nd birthday!! Time flies I can't believe she is two already!!!!

For another birthday party...

I just have to make Caleb's now... talking of time flying he is 5 on Tuesday!!! And he wants a Batman cake... surprise surprise...... :)

If I could bake cakes all day I would be happy...

I love making cakes.... So when C asked me to make a cake for a stag and doe that she was organizing I agreed to do it for her... she figured it would be the perfect gift for the bride and groom and I figured it would be a great opportunity to get to do a cake with fondant. I figured it wouldn't be that hard... I mean I have made a ton of cakes... and I watch 'Ace of Cakes' and 'Cake Boss' all the time... They just roll out the fondant and just smooth it on. Easy! This is what I was going to attempt...
Ok I was wrong. It was not easy at all.... The baking was easy.. but the fondant was stressful!! Getting the right texture. Kneading it enough but not too much..... And the cracking!! Oh the cracking!!!! How they get it on smooth with no cracking or tearing...?? More practice needed!!!! Luckily I had my friend (and expert cake maker) Hilary on speed dial for help and coaching over the phone in emergencies and Lisabeth on standby in case I ran out of fondant!!! I love the decorating.. making all the little flowers, dusting them with pearl dust... the piping although I do wish that I had an easier time with the icing I made. I would have liked to have used a smaller tip but due to time constraints and my icing already bagged it came out a little less delicate than I would have liked. I also decided to do 2 tiers to make it look a little less weddingy. I couldn't believe how heavy it was! It took two of us to carry it to the car! All in all I was pretty proud of my effort... it looked pretty impressive and I managed to cover up the bad spots with flowers and piping... now I am dying to perfect and want to make a 'real' wedding cake that looks perfect!!!!


My stress was some what heightened as I had 3 cakes to make for Saturday.... the stag & doe, Ironman and a Cinderella cake for Mason & Alexandra's 3rd birthday party!

Green velvety heaven???

With St Patty's day being tomorrow I thought I would make something green! I am not really into (green) beer and green wine somehow doesn't seem really appealing... we have company coming and I am making Irish Stew so green cake it is for desert! Caleb decided today that he wanted to stay at the baby sitters, now that he is in school I guess he is not getting enough Jeanie time! With Caleb gone for supper it is the perfect time for me to do something fun with Mason just the two of us! A little while back I made a shamrock cake for someone's birthday so I had the cake pan already. Perfect!! A few posts back I made red velvet cupcakes and they were amazing ( so when I was blog surfing the other day I noticed Bakerella had made green velvet cakes substituting the red food colouring for green. Look familiar??

So I decided to make a green cake for supper and a batch of cupcakes for the kids at Jeanie's tomorrow topped with cream cheese icing and of course (the best part if you are a kid) green sprinkles!Get ready to drool Nat!!........

Red Velvety Heaven...

I decided tonight to make Red Velvet Cupcakes with the boys for Valentines Day. Usually we would just make sugar cookies so that they can go crazy with the sprinkles but I have been DYING to make a red velvet cake! Cupcakes are always easier with the kids, the perfect size for them to eat and decorate. Also I don't have a huge cake staring at me in the kitchen begging me to eat it. Cupcakes can be handed out to Grandma and Grandad, the Uncles and anyone else leaving less for me to eat in the kitchen!

I looked on the Internet for a recipe to use and found a ton... so I picked two trusty ones, a Martha recipe and a Paula Deen recipe. I figured you can't go wrong with one of those! I was feeling pretty brave to bake cupcakes with the kids and an alarming amount of red food colouring!

Isn't that colour great!! I read online that you can substitute the red food colouring with beet juice... I might try that next time.

The best part about baking - licking the beater!!

Mason making sure that he doesn't miss any of the cake batter, good job the stove top isn't hot!


Out of the oven and ready to cool for icing! I made the bream cheese icing but I also found another recipe online that had a meringue icing that looked good.

Here are the cupcakes... I have a ton of cream cheese icing left over so I may have to bake another batch tomorrow!! :)

Birthday Weekend

It was Sean's birthday this weekend.. I won't tell you how old! Young at heart that's all that matters!! We had a big family party last night. Here is a picture if the R2D2 cake I made for Sean (he is Star Wars crazy!).

Tonight is Halloween night. I had an awesome idea for a costume for Caleb but I am going to do it next year as Sean doesn't think he'll be too happy in it this year, so I have to save it. Instead he is going as a clown, with blue Kool-Aid hair! Well I am hoping it turns out blue! Haha!!

Booked our vacation today! Natalie booked her flight over here for Christmas today! So it is all set Xmas with my sis then two weeks on the beach in the sun and a week touring London!! So excited!!

I didn't think the last post went up... it was so slow publishing it that I gave up and closed the window!

Baby's birthday was good, we had Uncle Todd and Uncle Perry (godparents) over for cup cakes on Thursday. We saved presents and the Pooh Bear cake until the big party on Sunday. Wow that cake was a labor of love it took me two days to make! But it turned out awesome and baby had fun smearing the icing around and all over his face!