Naughty Corner

That's where I need to be sitting, I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. I can attest it's largely due to time rather than inclination. It's been a crazy month, largely due to work commitments. This is only my second day off in that time. So you can expect some baking to be done later today!

It's funny how so much can happen in such a short time. Most of it has been work related, and I won't bore you with those details. But my baking seems to be moving slowly in the direction of taking orders from people who like my work. This to me is the ultimate compliment. After pushing through my fear barrier of "what if people don't like my cakes?" I've embraced baking and I've been making cakes for every occasion. It's been met with such a positive response.

I've had training courses over the past week, these can be long days taking in information, so just to add some spark I took morning tea in on 2 of the days. Cupcakes and Apple Crumble slice. Some might call it sucking up, I don't care, I love baking, and love people enjoying my baking.

Here are a few of my more recent baking creations..

Happy Mother's Day

A big shout out to all the Mum's today. Forget about changing nappies, washing, dishes, dirty faces and a house that never seems to stay clean! Let the kids spoil you, the mess will be there tomorrow ( and the day after that too!)

I love my 4 monsters. I got a sleep in with breakfast in bed. and here are the socks I got to match the new Pj's they gave me.

Witches Shoes

It's been a crazy past week, so you will have to forgive my absence. I've had shifts that start at 6am and I don't do mornings very well, especially when they are 10-12hours long. So my craftiness has been a bit limited lately. Then ofcourse, the few thngs I have done..I forgot to take photos of. What a dill head!

Last Sunday was the Medieval Festival with my best friends. It was a wonderful day. Full of food, fun and friendship. I mentioned we had planned to take a picnic lunch and spend as little a possible there. I can report all I paid for was my entry fee. That wasn't actually on purpose, but we spent so much time enjoying the sights and each other's company, shopping didn't seem to come into it. It was so relaxed. And I must say, we did enjoy not lining up for 10-15mins for cake and coffee.

It's funny what you see just leisurely sitting back. As soon as we arrived, it was a bit chilly, so out came the thermos with hot water, a cappucino sachet and some home made biccies. Morning Tea - devine!
Lunch time we had the biggest spread that I'm sure we were expecting another dozen people or so! Baked potatoes loaded with toppings, Pesto & sundried tomato scrolls and cupcakes for dessert. We were stuffed, and in need of a nanna nap I can tell you.

Since it was a day that we would all be together, I did make up a small Witches Shoe favor for the girls, and I actually remembered to take photos! You can find the instructions for these from Skip to my Lou

Aren't they cute!

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.