Bomboniere biscuits

My little sis is getting married! Hoorah!
Preparations are progressing well and I got cracking into making her bomboniere biscuits.

My goodness me these take so mighty long to make!!! But they are well worth it for the presentation. I can see why companies might charge a bit for this sort of product. Easy to make but labour intensive. Especially if you are icing 156 chocolate ones and 260 round ones (ie 130 people get 3 biscuits each).

I took over the kitchen bench for a few days. The pattern became hypnotic after a while. Ideally I would have filled the hearts with brown icing in the middle but after completing the vanilla ones I was going to go a little insane. I actually did fill one up to see what it looked like and it does complete it. Well I figured they looked good as they are so I think I can get away without doing them all. It will be a lucky dip as to who picks up the fully iced one in their bag.

Fruit based cakes

I was feeling creative and liked it when the idea of a fruit platter cake came to mind.
You get to enjoy the fruit and then you get to eat the plate too! Hehe force fed fruit :P
Presentation-wise the idea was better than how it looked because I used ganache rather than fondant but it was fun anyway. I was going to do the same by making a petite four platter and made mini lemon meringue tarts and cupcakes but these didnt end up being needed.

Dinner with school friends and I brought along a peach and berry tart for dessert. This recipe was from a Donna Hay cook book which I had been meaning to try for a while. It was ok but I'm not sure whether I'd make it again. It took quite a while to bake and appeared quite oily and chewy.

Suze & Noods wedding, and North Coast relaxing

Latter February was so busy and non-stop !

I was given the honour of making Suze and Noods wedding cake which I was totally stoked about. (Congrats Suze & Noods). Knowing Suze, it's gotta be quirky, which was exciting for me as I hadnt ventured into that style before. She had a great idea for the design, and I was very curious about the 4inch gummi bears she told me about .
Here's the outcome.

So sad, the one of the bows got crushed in transit somewhere during the course of the afternoon where I had several people assisting. But I'm glad it at least stayed intact. And it was the first time that I had tried out the choc mud recipe too, which was a bit risky, but I was very happy with it and will definitely use it again. (more cake photos further down post)

The wedding itself was fantastic too. So well organised and flowed well. And the food! Held at an Asian restaurant, there were 13 dishes which came out through the night and of course you have to try each and everyone of them. But the end of the night I was sooo stuffed. Snapshots:

Hands on lobster. What an effort!

Fishy. What a pity Lauren missed the chance to suck out the eyeball :P

What a superly fantastic idea for a bomboniere, self serve lollies!

Such a fantastic night. The following day I meet up with another friend for lunch at Liana's in Parra. Still feeling full from the night and knowing that I didnt really need to eat for the rest of the week I thought I would get something small....

Small I had thought, small it was not. The serving of brushetta was not only huge but tasty. Mmm mm I'm a sucker for smoked salmon and avocado. I did manage to get through the bulk of it, finishing off all the toppings of course.
Other dishes on offer, also for the hungry.

The week prior to the wedding I went away to Foster for the first time. It's such a lovely peaceful and relaxing place! We went fishing (I cast my first line!), canoeing, beaching, lots of walking, spotted a dolphin and lots of enjoyable eating. And where of the pictures of the weeks frivolities you wonder? I left my camera behind at home :( Much sadness. Being desperate to capture the moment, went old school and purchased a disposable with limited 27 shots. How different it was to actually stop, frame the shot and count to three. No food photos were taken!
The weekend prior to Foster I hung out with friends at Terrigal to begin the relax beach mode. How luxurious to have a holiday house with the beach as your backyard, and every morning waking up to this sight

Loved it. Thanks for your hospitality Mia and Elissa.

Additional photos / notes of the cake in progress:
Step 1: Bake cake

Step 2: Ganache cake. (Again the first time I have tried this method properly. Note the whole bowl of icing!)

Step 3: Covering and decorating the cake

Step 4: Assembling the cake

Step 5: Transport the cake (whilst trying not to stress too much about it staying intact)

Coincidentally it was another friends birthday during this preparation time and I managed to squeeze in a bonus mini cake with simple decorations. (giant 2 and 5 candles were to be assembled on top) Happy Birthday Saby!

Railway, Sculpture, Wedding

Let's cake it up, firstly...

The wedding cake: Julie & Rod

Ahh. Another happy day seeing a lovely couple with so much joy and love for each other.
I got it easy this time round. Their friend made the fruit cake and all I had to do was decorate it. Julie chose frangipanis as her flowers for the wedding which was good for me and I experimented by adding a touch of pink to them. Overall I was happy with it and they seemed to be too. Gosh I woke up at 5:20am that morning though worrying about it! Oh cake dilemmas :P

Next,the multiple occasion cake: Mixed Berry Cheesecake

Not only was it my bro's birthday cake but also the 'welcome back home from holidays parents and sister' cake.

It also served the double purpose of being dessert and cake. Yumm.

Congrats to Lori and Aron on their engagement.

It was a tasty mud cake. I tried it for 'research' purposes. I have to remember to aim for this moistness and texture next time I make a mud cake.

Other food: Lowenbrau's Casaer with Chicken Schnitzel
Meh. I dont think I'm a schnitzel person.

But something I certainly did enjoy was Bite Me burgers at Bondi

A trolley! How novel. I even enjoyed eating the chippies, which I wouldnt normally!
The Bloody Mary and Vegetari-Ann mini burgers were super tasty too.

After our meet up for lunch it was onto the Sculptures by the Sea.

I didnt notice at first but this isnt any soldier, but a toy soldier. Note the seams if you go.

"Feed me. Quack"

Cool.

It was good and you can see a lot of talent in the art but I didnt enjoy it as much as I did last year. There seemed to be less too. Maybe it was because there wasnt really any food ones :P

More cool art: The Sydney Model Railway Exhibition at Hurstville.

I was originally going primarily to hang out with John and his family but it really caught my interest. It wasnt so much the trains itself but the scenery and placement of the pieces. All that fine detail that people go into to place every tree, log, rock is amazing, you could look at it for hours and still see something new.

I loved the Lego one, it was huge. Look, a little pub with jug and all.

I took this pic for you Suze. Familiar ? :)I learnt something new too. The models aren't all the same small size. There's small and there's teeny-weeny From having ~40mm short people to ~10mm short people!

And as small as it is you cant help but see the intsy-wincy toilet paper.

Home Alone

Paaartay!

Mum, Dad and one of my sister's have gone overseas for some time away in Hong Kong / America for 2 weeks leaving my other sister and I fend for ourselves. It's the first time that we've ever had the house totally to ourselves so it's very exciting. So we thought we'd make the most of the opportunity and invite some friends over for lunch.

I was really looking forward to catering for Chris & Alicia and Emma & Craig on Sunday. After a few hours of thinking and straining I was finally able to put together a menu I was satisfied with, with Irene's help.

- Pumpkin & fetta tarts

- Nachoes

- Honey Soy Chicken

- Hot Potato Salad

- Caesar Salad

- Garden Salad

Followed by my Apple Crumble with Ice-cream

Yum Yum Yum.

For once I was actually very pleased with how it all turned out. Chicken was cooked throughly and tender, not bad for a first attempt. Aside from serving 1/2 hr after I had intended to, it all worked out well and everyone enjoyed the food and each other company.

I didnt feel like it was an excessive amount of work - I was tired by the end though. Ready to do it again next weekend...perhaps less dishes though. The novelty of it does wear out a little bit.

Hoorah for left overs too, though it does seem to last quite a while with only 2 people!

21st's and Suze engagement

Bits and pieces of things happening, but generally not much...


Happy 21st Irene! Have a cheese cake!
I was happy enough with it and would make it again but with a little tweaking. Liiiike using chocolate chunks! I prefer low fat recipes that I've tried over the full fats.


And Happy Engagement Suze and Noods. Thanks for having me over :)
Pretty.


And Happy 21st Kim.
Mm cakey.

It was evident that purple and blue were her favourite colours.

It was a dress up as someone/thing fictional, and after some thought I decided to go as Jill (without Jack). As I did a last minute scrounging about it turns out that we had no buckets that werent filled with water. So was just an oddly dressed person. Ah well, the thought was there and the fun had.

Haha, this was in the hall. "For animal fats and vegetable oil fires"
Heh heh. Fire. Heh. Let's like make a fire. Heh. What's around? Oh canola oil. Yeah. Bacon fat. Yeah. Heh heh.
Golly it's most likely just me but I dont really hear of many vege oil fires about. It's just so specific, but understandable. It amused me for a second.

Buffets, Bdays

And finally some scheduled wasting time. This post is dedicated to you Suze :P

Quite a bit of food oing on this 1 and 1/2 months. Here we go. Let's try to keep you awake with minimal text and restricted "mmm"-ing.

Experiment: Roasting pork in the Weber (BBQ). Outcome: Tasty but dont try roasting veges.

A snapshot of High Tea at the Swissotel. Highly rated. Doesnt look like much food displayed but by the end of it you'll be rolling through the doors.

From right to left: guava JUICE, mango JUICE, lychee JUICE, cola JUICE (a had to be there moment)

At this point I must add, the toilets get a 5-flush rating rating. Fantastic, definitely an asthetically pleasing design. The cubicles are for giants...*restraining from further detail waffles that solely amuses me* Point being, I'd go again for them...and the food.

On the buffet theme, the next week out west : Blacktown RSL for a farewell lunch.

I went into a bit of a work mode as I was chewing the potato cube that was a bit too firm for my liking. But I managed to resist the urge to reach for the serviette and discard it. Nice mousse though.

It's not for any particular reason, but I noticed that I only ate 2 small pieces of 'meat'. I'm just not drawn to meat. There's limited colour unlike veges. Which is probably why this top appealled to me...

Oh my cute happy Veggie friends! It's not true, I do eat meat, hence my scrawlled additions.

And then there's an abundance of meat at Almustafa's Lebanese on Glebe Pt Rd, Glebe; for Saby's birthday.

All very good. You've got your usual tasty baba ganoush, hommous, tabbouli; lamb kebab, lamb sausages, lamb rice, lamb mince, lamb lamb, and my choice of beans...with lamb :P

We had a cake comp at work to raise money for the drought relief, and here was my submission (Choc-vanilla butter cake).

I was thinking about it all week, and as per usual I was disappointed with myself (I was also limited by time). Especially when you compare it to cakes like these - for ppl that do make the time:


One that was auctioned off looked ugly but it was a matter of size, giant piles of solid rich chocolate can still be a go-er. And you have your usual cupcakes and iced cakes. Margaret took pity on my and bought my cake for your team. Very kind of her.

One home-made goodie that I actually was proud of and would make again was my strawberry tartlet for Chris and Alicia. Made with fresh strawberries and fruit bread. MMM :)

(Congrats to Loz and Cristian on their engagement too - mainly just got ppl photos)

The end..

for another month or 2.