A Few of My Favourite Things !

My little boy has turned one!

Some days seem to go so slowly when you have a little baby to care for, but now I can hardly even remember what it was like to hold my newborn. He’s crawling after his big brother as fast as he can and almost ready to take his first steps. His first word, spoken this week, was ‘Bella’ – my beautiful Russian Blue cat who has just been adopted by my brother & his girlfriend.

We celebrated with family this weekend and I wanted to make a special cake for him. There was something about a robot cake that seemed appropriate, so I baked two square cakes using the Buttermilk Birthday Cake recipe from Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess and Planet Cake’s Vanilla Cupcake recipe. The buttermilk cake is a cinch to work with when you need to cut shapes out. A couple of rectangular blocks pieced together and I had the beginnings of a robot sitting down. He was propped up against the vanilla cake and I used this for the birthday message. The worst part about decorating children’s cakes is having so many leftover lollies (mine usually end up in the bin otherwise they might end up in my mouth). I wrote the message by piping melted chocolate onto baking paper and allowing it to set before placing the letters individually on the cake. This way any mistakes can easily be corrected.

I’ve been a fan of cake pops since seeing them on Bakerella’s (who has just received a kidney transplant from her mum) site. Watching her tutorial, I thought you needed candy melts to make them so I didn’t bother as I thought these weren’t available in Australia (although I have found them since). For Zac’s birthday, however, I really wanted to try making them. Out of sheer laziness, I searched for a one-pot chocolate cake to bake but ended up with this one. I used G&B’s 70% dark chocolate and wanted to devour the entire cake before it even had a chance to cool down. After crumbling the cake, I mixed in some peanut butter frosting adapted from Smitten Kitchen (which I’ve converted to metric measurements below). After shaping the mixture into even, golf ball sizes, a chopstick dipped in melted chocolate was inserted into each. These were left to harden in the fridge before being dipped entirely in dark chocolate, then drizzled with white chocolate. They looked beautiful in makeshift vases of jars and tasted like a decadent brownie. Not too messy to eat either!

Peanut Butter Frosting (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy
2. Gradually add icing sugar and beat until light and fluffy
3. Beat in peanut butter until thoroughly blended

My quick cooking tip for today is

Leave a wooden spoon across the top of the pot to prevent the water from boiling over when cooking pasta.

My 3 year old’s birthday is coming up next month so I’ve been thinking about cakes. I realised after looking back at photos of last year’s cake that I hadn’t even blogged about it. That’s how behind I am in my posts!

I went with the train theme for his 2 year old birthday party and had such a ball making this cake. I actually had a cake mould for the individual carriages from my pre-baby days so I decorated and buttercreamed my way around the moulded cakes, then went all out with various sweets/lollies, biscuits, dried fruit to decorate and desiccated coconut for the grass. I also baked a square cake, cut a ‘slope’ out and arranged the train so that it was chugging up the hill. Tiny teddies are waving at the train from the grassy area and the front. My son was delighted with the cake and could not take his eyes off it.

Unfortunately, the colour from the train wheels – smarties – ran onto the frosting after sitting in the fridge overnight and there was condensation on the biscuits. I’m not sure how to solve this problem but it was too hot to leave the cake out. Of course, what I mean is that it was too hot until it started hailing. It was that day in early March when roads were flooded, hailstones the size of golf balls damaged car roofs and strangers were offered shelter in the safety of their cars to pedestrians. Just as the party was meant to be kicking off, I was fielding callers saying “We can’t make it to the party” or “We are on the way but had to pull over under the bridge because we can’t see the road”. Yes, it was THAT day. I am simply amazed that almost everyone turned up in the end, albeit rain-drenched and late.

This year, I’m thinking circus – maybe a big top cake with clown cupcakes…

So I sent my husband, A, to the supermarket last night:

A: (after looking around for a little) “Do you have sago?”
Girl at Coles: “Sago…do you mean the watch brand?”
A: (incredulously) “That’s seiko. I’m looking for sago.”

That’s all.

I finally made it to Adriano Zumbo’s patisserie! There was a queue,a s expected, but not huge so it only took 5 minutes before I got to put my order in. I got one flavour each f the macarons and four pastries, none of which seem to be listed on the website as yet.

1. The cakes do NOT travel well so don’t try to bring them home on the plane like I did. Just eat it on the day you get them.

2. The ‘Charlie Brown’ is to-die-for, peanuts, chocolate….mmmm… the others didn’t get a fair tasting as they were smooshed and overly soggy by the time I got them home so I won’t even speak of them here.

3. The macarons were incredibly disappointing. The texture was great, with the requisite crunchy shell and chewy interior but, gosh, the flavours were so ordinary. There was oatmeal and ylang ylang (I thought it tasted like soap), pistachio and apricot (my husband thought it tasted like soap), strawberry and balsamic, my memory fails me on the other two. I was ready to be wowed but they did not live up to expectations. In fact, the few that I tried from Cacao upon my return were better, not what I was expecting at all.

4. The patisserie has a greater range than does the cafe but there’s not seating.

This is very last minute so you’d better get on your bike if you’re interested in free entry to the Taste of Melbourne. I have 4 double passes, courtesy of Green & Black’s, valid for Opening night, Thursday 26th or Friday 27th to be won. A great opportunity to sample (yes, one of my favorite words) dishes from some wonderful Melbourne restaurants as I did last year. You’ll also receive a little Green & Black’s gift pack – yum, yum!

Simply leave a comment sometime over this weekend or early in the week. This competition is open to people in Australia only.

You can also purchase tickets here.

Session times:
Thursday 26 August – 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Friday 27 August 12.00pm – 4.00pm and 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Saturday 28 August 12.00am – 4.00pm and 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Sunday 29 August 12.00pm – 5.00pm

There’s a bridge that runs from Flinders St Station to Southgate that I walk across all the time. I discovered recently that there’s a little area under the bridge that you can take the stairs down to and it brings you right up to the water level. It’s a great spot for watching the boats cruising past. WHile down there with my son, I noticed a little beach house building that was for hire.

It’s now been hired and transformed into ‘South Island Cafe’. Not a convenient location for a pram-pushing mum like me but a cool spot if you feel the need for a caffeine jolt part-way across the bridge. You’re not going to know it’s there unless you see the sign that they place just at the top of the stairs leading down. But now you know…

Driving to Kanzaman for dinner on Tuesday evening, got stuck in traffic on that bridge turning from Alexandra Ave into Swan St.

See a man in the opposite lane, also stuck in traffic, checking out our car.

Study the man for a few long moments before turning to A and commenting ‘That guy looks a lot like Federer, doesn’t he?’

Turning to look at him, A replies ‘That IS Federer’.

OH.

Ed and Matt have (separately) written about a certain, self-claimed ‘celebrity’ chef who has sent unsolicited emails to many of us. Have a read here and here – what are your thoughts on this? Did you recognise it for what it was immediately? Maybe I’m just a little naive but I really thought he was being friendly in letting me know about his articles but there was just this niggly little feeling that this wasn’t going to form into the usual blogger friendship…anyway, have a look at the more articulate ramblings of these guys