It's about Friends, not Funds

I want to make a huge shout out to my gorgeous, wonderful amazing friends. I love them and know I'm incredibly lucky to know them. They are all extremely different, yet together we all just make sense. Why this big out pouring of love?

Well despite the obvious bonds of friendship, I wanted to share another example of why I love each of them. We have been a happy 4 some who all came together about 10 years ago. In that time an annual tradition of attending the Medieval Festival has become apart of our lives. It's had a few different locations over the years from Carrick Hill, McLaren Vale to now at Gumeracha. It's a gorgeous day that we frock up in beautiful dresses, gorge ourselves on Baked Potatoes, Mulled Wine, Coffee and other amazing tasty delights, and have a great day catching up. It also usually in between 2 of their birthday's. There's jousting, weddings, woodwork, knights, jesters and so many amazing stall holders with incredible trinkets. Yes I'm excited and can't wait for the fair this Sunday!

Now this year has hit 3 of us pretty hard financially, all for different reasons. So to all make it to the fair has meant some creating accounting for us. In talking to one of my friends yesterday we decided, why not take finances out of the day. One of the biggest money pits at the festival is the food. And it's almost one of our favourite parts!! We love having this once small indulgence. The Baked Potato lunch is almost as much of the tradition as the dresses. So this year...we're taking our own!! We'll cook and keep them hot in a thermos. Everyone will bring a different topping. Plus we'll bring other little snippets of indulgence from home. We've almost made it a fun part of the day to make it still indulgent, but be as tight as Alberneza Scrooge. Since we're all participating in the devine picnic spread, no one will be left to feel uncomfortable either way.

Here's an example of our previous picnic spreads when we went to Moonlight Cinemas

We're all looking forward to a great day catching up enjoying the spectacle that if the Medieval Festival.

Here are a few pictures from previous years.

Gunna List - Update

Checking in to update today progress...

Organise the Laundry Cupboard - DONE!
Washing - 5 loads - DONE!!
Cook a Roast - Cooking and smelling devine!
Bake some goodies for lunch boxes - Apple & Cinnamon Slice and Fruit Buns - DONE!!

Still to do

My friend's homemade present
Create a mock up of some cupcake designs


Also completed...

Cleaned the shower
Cleaned 2 toilets
Cooked a pot of Spicy Lentil Soup
Decorated cupcakes with my daughter


So I can feel comfortable I've been productive today and there will be absolutely no guilt if I don't get the whole list checked off. In getting through today, it occurred to me how many tools we have to get things done, I wonder if we use them all as often and efficently as we should?

For instance, baking with yeast. I know alot of people are afraid of cooking with yeast, and are of the opinion it's very time consuming. I beg to differ. My experience has been that yeast is very forgiving as long as you follow the principles and allow the process to complete fully. Now that did make it sound like a long process, which it is, but you don't have to stand around watching the time! I would suggest your total "hands on" time for most yeast products is no more than 5 -10mins! Who doesn't have that available??

Ofcourse I am referring to being able to use a bread maker for the task, however, I do also enjoy kneading by hand if I want to make a triple batch of dough. I love my breadmaker, but must admit, it took me a few years before I catually started to use it. And here's the thing...I never cook a loaf of bread in it. Or anything for that matter. Embracing the dough setting has changed the offerings in the kitchen!

An example from today is making fruit buns. Pop everything into the machine, go off, put a load of washing on, scrub the shower, have a cuppa , quickly catch a few pages of a book..then beep dough is ready! I just divide it up into balls and then while it was enjoying it's second rising, I quickly threw the ingredients together for the Apple Slice. Once done, they both went into the oven. 15 mins later the buns are done, and another 15mins the slice was done. The hardest part was working out which smelt better coming from the oven.

Here is the finished Apple Cinnamon Slice..

You've got to be quick around here, I didn't even get to take a picture before one of the kids tucked into it!

As for the breadmaker, here as some ideas to get you started..

 From Top - Apple Scrolls, Pizza Scrolls, Pizza, Fruit Loaf and Hot Cross Buns

So what equipement have you got lying around you haven't used in a while?

Just before I head off, I mentioned decorating cupcake with my daughter. Here is her proudly displaying some of her work

Today's Gunna List

Today is one of those rare and glorious days we term "Day Off". I've got plenty I'm hoping I'm "gunna" do, let's see how much of that is still on the list by tonight.
The List...

Re arrange the laundry cupboard
Trial 2 new cupcake recipes - I'm still looking for the prefect recipe
Create some decorated mock ups for an upcoming cupcake set
Make a dent in a friend's homemade birthday gift (I've only got til next Sunday)
Washing..blah
Cook a Roast with all the trimmings for tea
Make a few goodies for the kids lunch boxes.

Wish me luck! Ambition doesn't always meet ability around here, but hey, close is still better than never trying.

Making things easier

The other day I mentioned heading out to grab some tools to learn how to make sugar flowers. I'm still busy practising.

 In doing so, a few things have been highlighted.

The right tools for the job.

I don't always give this little snippet the attention it deserves. I'm a "make do" kinda girl. Often having trouble parting with my money if I can think of a cheaper way to get around it. But the other day, I discovered how important having the right tool can really be. Not just for completing the task. It goes further than that. Having the right tool can make the job so much more fun, less time consuming and give you a better result. I'll share my recent example (I will apologise in advance...it's cupcake related..lol)

When it comes to rolling out fondant I've always just used my regular wooden rolling pin. Sounds pretty logical to me! That was until I bought a small plastic fondant rolling pin. How on earth can these 2 things offer such different results? I've discovered the new rolling pin can roll the fondant thinner, faster and used little to no cornflour to prevent sticking, making my fondant looking so much better, and the final product on the cake amazing. I don't like cakes with thick layers of fondant. If you can make it thinner, you don't overcome the flavour of the cake.

Since this has made using fondant so much easier, I've found I've been more inclined to use it. My family are now "Icing Snobs". If my cakes aren't iced, they won't touch them. They're the same with muffins, if they've lost the "out of the oven warmth" they don't eat them. Spoilt! The idea of using the fondant isn't filled with the dread of being a hard task, it's quick, easy and looks great.

The second thing I've realised is

Make things easy to access

I have alot of baking bits and pieces which I keep in plastic containers - almost organised! But I had them in the back corner of the pantry, making it an effort to get to them with out dropping bit and pieces off the shelf. I've committed to using these more often, so I've bought even more containers to sort things even more, and rearranged the pantry so I can quickly grab the right container without creating a new mess.

You don't need to spend alot of money on containers if you look after them. The big containers were $3 from Cheap as Chips and the smaller ones were $2. I've got mine seperated into the following.

Liners and Sprinkles

Cutters and Fondant Tools

Icing Tips, Colours, Ingredients

Flower forming Pieces.

The pink box at the bottom is my daughter's. She has a small collection of her own personal cupcake decorating bits and pieces. Cupcake decorating has become a bit of a Mummy/Daughter activity for us. I'll talk more about that box soon.

Daffodils

Ok..sorry I've been both lazy and time poor this week. So all virtual kicks up the butt are welcome!

In my last post I mentioned my thoughts on overcoming fear very briefly. I also mentioned the story of an old work collegue asking about my cakes. Crazy but true...I've had an old family friend also send me a message on Facebook asking if I could give her a price for doing cupcakes for her parent's 80th birthday party. I was incredibly flattered and found it incredibly well timed.

The theme is daffodils. I have no experience with sugar flowers, so that's my next challenge. I could just buy them from a cake decorating place, but why not learn a new skill? So I've used google for a tutorial, and found what I needed. Armed with my list, I've gathered my supplies and this morning I created these...

I'm pretty happy with my first attempt. Ask me how I feel about them after I've made 100 of them! I'm working on putting together a few different cupcake designs for the event. I'll keep you all posted.

Now I promise this was not meant to become a cupcake blog, despite the direction it has taken. So in other crafty news, I've almost finished a project I promised Kiltsnquilts I would blog about. Here's a very quick sneak peak

Please excuse the rubbish photograhy.

F.E.A.R

False Evidence Appearing Real

This is how Anthony Robbins describes fear, and I'm inclined to agree. Friday morning, that's exactly what I was experiencing. My stomach was doing flip flops, I was feeling on edge and inside going into panic free fall. I was full of self doubt and fear.

In reality, it was ridiculous. I've made easily over 1000 cupcakes in my time. What were my fears? Everything! What if they didn't cook properly, and in all my batches I run out of time or ingredients. What if I run out of liners due to crap cooking? What if I can't get the right colour? What if I run out of icing and my beaters break down so I can't make anymore ( I know...crazy talk!)

 Most of my fears stemmed from the fact I really was going to be pressed for time to get these done. I worked an 11 hour shift at work that day, so couldn't start them until 10pm, then I had to get them to the reception at 9am. So if something went wrong, I had no way of rushing to the shops to get more supplies.

So don't laugh, to ease my fears, Friday morning, before I started work, I actually baked 20 cupcakes, just to reassure myself that, yes, I can cook cupcakes. Plus that night, while baking the actual wedding cupcakes I actually baked 75 of them, just to ensure I could use the absolute best looking ones!

Strangely enough, while actually making the proper wedding cakes, I was loving it. It was fun making them. Instead of being fearful, and stressed, I was relaxed and enjoying what I was doing. I had such a sense of acheivement when I'd finished.

Here's the really cool bit about this experience. I have said no in the past to people who have asked if I can make cakes for big events, claiming, I don't have time, or I'm not good enough. But you know what, I may not be the best, but I certainly give it my best. To add to this new resolve of being open to saying yes, not half an hour after posting my pictures to my Facebook page, I got asked how much I would charge to make a different cupcake from my collection of pictures from a girl I use to work with. How amazing is the world?!?! - if you take a risk, with pure intention, you will be rewarded for your efforts.

So who knows what will come of all this. What I can say is I love cooking cupcakes. And the evidence is in that in my world, I'm never too busy. To take that a step further, maybe that adds weight to my thoughts, if something is just always on you to do list, but never completed, it more about inclination than time.

I thought I'd leave with a few more pictures from my epic cake making night.

Tired Elation

It's been a huge 24 hours..and I'm delirously happy to be on the side! I'm bursting with happy relief. I will write more later as I have so much to say, but a VERY tall, strong coffee is in order. I  have just got back from the wedding reception where I have just finished setting up my very first wedding cupcake tower. Yippeeee!!!

I know you wanna look ;-)