May...our last month before winter

Just thought I'd share with you all what I get up to when I am not baking or trying out new recipes.

I actually haven't baked in a little while. It's really hard to get off the couch and away from the blanket and TV to stand around a cold kitchen. It's not even winter yet but it's so cold, I don't want to know what winter will really be like. The last time I baked anything was a self saucing chocolate pudding for friends who dropped by for dinner about 2 weekends ago. I was in too much of a hurry to eat them to take a photo hence I now have nothing for show.

The weekend that just passed was quite busy. I attended a hen's do at Mamor Chocolates in Collingwood on Saturday. The lady that runs the place was the best and most attentive hostess ever. Her savoury scones, chocolates, muffins and the most delicious rum sponge trifle with cherries was to die for. I would highly suggest going there for high tea ladies.

M and I then went up to Benella for a track day at Winton on Sunday. After my debut back in November last year with the Beat, I have been bitten by the racing bug and even painted my nails yellow to match the car. In the abscence of M's Integra, we were co-drivers this time round, each taking turns to run around on track. The Beat for those of you who don't know, is a convertible Japanese K-car with a 660cc engine. Check out what it looks like here.

I took the subsequent Monday off knowing that I would be too tired for work. So instead, I decided to cook up a storm so that the rest of this weeks meals are taken care of. Hopefully my creamy mushroom bacon and smoked chicken pasta, Japanese curry chicken, and the large tray of shephards pie I made last night should last until the weekend.

Psssst....there will be a cake order coming up soon so keep posted for pics!

Baby shower for dear Nicole

Our office manager at work and also a good friend, Nicole, requested for me to make her baby shower cake. I had also made her wedding cake for her last year so I was much honoured to make another cake for her.

My inspiration came from the baby shower invite which had peas and butterflies and trees in beautiful blue, green and brown colours. Nicole's friends also did a fantastic job of decorating one of their backyard with cute little lanterns, baby socks and shirts.

Anyway, this post is extremely long overdue as the baby shower was at the start of the year and we welcomed Riley Anderson into the world on 21 February 2011.

Macarons

Ever since the first Australia Masterchef aired and featured macarons as a challenge, it pushed this delightful but not so well known delicacy to become the next "in" thing after cupcakes. I remember eating macarons as decorations on French gateaux but was completely clueless as to what it was.

So after grabbing the pistachio recipe off the Masterchef website, I went about to attempt my first macaron. How naive was I to think that it was a good idea at all. It was a complete FAIL!

My next attempt, also my first attempt at making a traditional almond macaron was surprisingly a success after following the italian meringue method recipe in "I Love Macaron" by Hisako Ogita.

I tried green tea and chocolate macarons next. These didn't turn out that fantastic so I'm too ashamed to show them here. But then after taking a short course at the Savour school, I was motivated to try to make a caramel macaon. I am happiest with this batch by far.

Cake for a little girl

I was asked to make a 1 year old's cake back in March by a friend, Anne. She couldn't make up her mind at the start but knew that the cake for her little girl had to be something special.

Finally she forwarded me a photo of Hoot of Giggles and Hoot. I have never seen this character before so I decided to Youtube the children's show to get a feel of what Hoot was all about. My first impression was for someone to please get this annoying blue thing off my laptop!! I guess I'm out of touch with kiddies shows but apparently, according to the forums and new parents out there, Hoot is actually a very popular children's TV character.

Anyway, after studying Hoot for a while, I decided to replicate him with fondant and incorporate buttons and cushions from the show. I also made alphabet blocks to spell out the birthday girls name. When I was done, I was actually quite happy with what I'd created.

Presenting my Hoot birthday cake:

Battered Hoot. Photo off Anne's Facebook.