A Day Trip to Cornwallis

Yesterday we decided to get the kids out of the house and go to the beach for the day. Not far from where we live, (about 20 mins drive), is a lovely beach called Cornwallis. It has all that you could need- loads of trees, grass, sand, calm sea, toilets and best of all space. We try to go there during the summer at least a few times even though packing for a whole day is quite the mission....hmmm I wonder how it will be when we have to pack to go away to the bach for a week! By the time we get togs, towels, food (lots of it), a BBQ, toys, seats etc the car is quite full.


Luckily for us it wasn't all that busy when we got there making parking a breeze and giving us the choice of spots or trees. As it is so big even when there are loads of people it never feels crowded unlike those horrendous pictures you see of some overseas beaches where you might as well be sitting on each other such is the lack of space. Although the tide was out when we got there and it was a bit windy it ended up being a stunning day and we had a fantastic relaxing day.


I made mini bacon and onion quiches, chocolate cupcakes and we had sausages for the BBQ, tomatoes from the garden, avocado and some bread as well as some other nibbly bits. Harry and his cousin Hollie played for hours making sandcastles and swimming with us. It's amazing at how much more self sufficient kids are when they have each other to play with leaving us ample time to read the paper and just relax...not something I ever get much time to do.


Anyway here are some photos from the day taken on a not-very-good camera as I am still waiting for my good camera to be replaced after the burglary. I never realised just how much I used my camera until I no longer had it so I really miss being able to grab it to get some good photos.

Dons relaxing

Playing with cousin Holls

Looking up to our picnic site (tide out a bit)

View looking down the beach

Finally a nice photo of Reubs...it's hard to get him to pose for a photo these days

Baking for Nightshift- Standby Chocolate Brownies

As you can see there are no photos of these brownies which does make my new posts a little dull I think. In fact I was even thinking about flagging the blogging until I get my replacement camera once the insurance company has processed my claim. However it seems a pity to not post about something new I have made so here it goes. We now only have one remaining camera in the house since the burglary which isn't a very good one and now my son (it's his one) has taken it to his dads house so I have no other options to photograph my food/baking.... actually I did try to use my iphone but the photo quality was rubbish.

Anyway I'm in the middle of nightshift yet again and it is pretty much impossible to sleep due to the heat. Even though I have a fan in my room it doesn't stop you from having to breathe in hot recycled air. Therefore not only do I wake up early and unable to go back to sleep, but I wake up feeling dopey and heavy-headed from the stuffy heat. After I got up I thought I might as well whip something up for work tonight. For Xmas I got the new Donna Hay cookbook called 'Fresh, Fast, Simple'. In that is a recipe for Standby Brownies which are made with cocoa. They were very easy to make and taste really good. They lack the real fudginess of a brownie made with real chocolate but are like a dense moist chocolate cake. I did add chocolate drops to the mix as I really like the little hits of chocolate you get when you eat them. Very easy to make and they will be a great standby when I need to whip something up in a hurry. I think the girls will be happy enough with these tonight.

Standby Brownies (Donna Hay)

150 gm butter
3/4 c (75 gm) cocoa
1 1/4 c (275 gm) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c (75 gm) flour

Melt the butter with the cocoa and sugar until butter melted. Put into a bowl and whisk in the vanilla and eggs. Sift over the flour and whisk in.

I stirred in some milk and dark chocolate drops too.

Put into a lined 20 cm square dish and bake at 160 C for about 30 mins.

Kyle and Melissa Get Married!!!....and The Cake!!!!

Yesterday my little brother Kyle and his (now former) fiancée Melissa got married. We couldn't have asked for better weather especially as today looks like it's going to be raining. Our house was pretty busy as Melissa and her bridesmaid sister Tina got ready at our place. As well as that we had the little girls, the photographer Charlie, Melissa's mum and her friend Bruce here too, not to mention all the hustle and bustle of hair and makeup appointments and last minute organisational bits and pieces. BUT while it was pretty full on, it was fun and really exciting. My brother has overcome a lot to get to where he is today and I am so proud of him. Melissa is a good woman and I really think he has chosen his life partner well. Along with that she brought along one of our nieces, the very lovely Rebecca as well as also giving us our other niece Maddisen a couple of years ago. We welcome her to our family. 


The wedding itself was lovely. A woman I work with is also a marriage celebrant so she did the service. The service was held in Western Springs (The Quarry), and the weather was amazing but very hot. Afterwards we all had a drink of bubbly to toast Kyle and Melissa, milled around for a bit chatting and doing photos before leaving for the reception venue in Pt Chevalier while they continued on with photos. The venue was actually really good. It was in a private part of a bar up there called Harlequins. The room itself was pretty big, had a back deck with lights, it's own bar, and was very art deco. After the food we had speeches (of course I had quite a bit to say), cake cutting, first dance etc before everyone boogied on down. Harry danced all night long once he got a bit of courage dancing with me. Reubs just hung out with all the older kids. So all up it was a wonderful day and now my little brother is married! Dons and my turn next year!


So to the foodie part. My gift to them was the wedding cake. Anyone who has ever made one would know that they are time consuming and pretty pricey to make. I was really happy with the result even though all I could see were the mistakes and parts where it wasn't perfect. As well as that I had to borrow a camera as ours was stolen (amongst other things), when our front door got kicked in of the morning of New Year's Eve so the photos, while not too bad, aren't as good as they would have been if I had my own camera. The bottom layer was a 30 cm dense chocolate cake with a vanilla buttercream made with seeds from a vanilla pod. I used my most favourite recipe for the cake as I know it holds up well over time. As it was made over 3 days, I really needed good recipes to make sure we weren't eating a hard, stale cake on the day. The top layer was a banana and coconut cake from my new Ripe cookbook. I actually made 2 cakes but the banana cake from the Heavenly Cakes cookbook, just didn't have the same height as the Ripe recipe. For this one I iced it with a lemon buttercream. 


The fondant was Ivory coloured Bakels fondant (I used almost 3 packs of it once I covered the cakes and the cake board), which I sprayed with PME Pearl lustre spray (cost $30 for a small can). This really topped of the cake and made all the difference as it shimmered without being too over the top. I also piped on some dots with watered down fondant and topped the whole thing off with some beautiful flowers that my lovely friend Leon did, and cascaded over some rose petals. Unfortunately one of the little kids there stuck his finger in the cake so we had to hide the spot with a strategically placed rose petal.


Anyway here are loads of photos of the day.....

Lec (celebrant who I also work with), Kyle and Best Man Glen waiting

Kyle with Dons in the background playing Melissa in

Amazing car Dad arranged as a surprise for Melissa

Tina (Bridesmaid) and girls coming in

Getting hitched

So it's in the wrong place but Melissa coming in with her dad Mike

Maddy-Moo

Becca and Maddy

Dad-am filming

Harry and Dylan

Dons and I

Bobby, Mum, Peter, Dons, Ali and Craig

Kids table

Cutting the cake

The amazing table display that Dons did

Dad getting down on the dance floor

Dancing with Harry

My sister Rochene and Mum

Having a boogie with Harry who danced the whole time

Happy New Year Everyone!

We are now entering into 2011. Isn't it amazing how fast the time goes by and the next thing you know it's the beginning of a whole New Year? There is a distinct lack of photos with this blog as we ended 2010 with a bang in that we had our front door kicked in and our new TV, camera and other things being stolen. Although it was awful and we have that sense of violation that comes with a break in by losers who have been dragged up rather than brought up, we were still able to count our blessings. They include being lucky that our little dog ran out the back and hid rather than getting hurt or getting lost; that we have a monitored alarm; that we have a great neighbour who heard the alarm, came to investigate and in the process got the (probably stolen) car registration number as well as no doubt stopping the  total theft of all our belongings; that my older boy Reuben wasn't here on his own and that I wasn't sleeping in the middle of night shift; that we have a fantastic insurance company; that we have wonderful support. The list goes on but I think it's important to see the blessings rather than to focus on the negatives or else it just means that the losers win. I figure they have taken enough without taking our sense of security...even though that's a hard one to get back.

We continued with our plans of having the family over for a BBQ. My brother, his fiance Melissa, and my 2 little nieces are over from the Gold Coast to get married on Saturday so I wanted it to be a nice easy-going family night. The food was great and the strawberry margaritas even better. Everyone ended up leaving before midnight (how times have changed when you get older and have children), so I saw it in with Reuben before we went to bed. Today my little nieces have stayed and I am soaking in my time with them. They are SUCH lovely girls and I only wish they lived here so I could have more time with them. BUT there is no point wishing and instead we have to make the most of it while they are here. Well enough of this post now. I'll see if I can borrow a camera until mine gets replaced so I can post some photos. I ma making the wedding cake so I would love to be able to get some photos of it to share with you all. Have a lovely New Year everyone.

Baking for Nightshift- Lemon Yoghurt Cake

Even though I have done nothing but bake for the last few weeks, yesterday while I was in the middle of night shift I really felt as if I was being pulled towards the kitchen. I felt the need for relaxation and as I am an 'active relaxer', baking something for work seemed like the logical option. For Christmas I was lucky enough to get 2 books that had been on my list to get. They were the new Donna Hay book called 'Fast, Fresh, Simple' and the new 'Ripe Recipes' from one of my favourite deli's. My aunt also gave me an Amazon voucher as well which I happily used to buy 4 new cookbooks...but more on those when they arrive! Both of my new books are wonderful and I have spent lots of time perusing them and determined to start cooking from them. Unfortunately I suffer from too-many-cookbooks-and-cooking-magazines-syndrome as I'm sure a lot of you can identify with, and therefore can get a little overwhelmed by the amount of recipes I want to try. This can lead to not making them at all or very few of them! I had spotted this recipe in the Donna Hay book and it seemed like the perfect cake to make in a sleep deprived and dehydration headache state as everything is just put into a book and that that. The cake itself tasted really good. It had a tight crumb and a lovely moist texture. The lemon flavour was there but next time I would put in even more rind as I love lemons. I also made a lemon syrup to pour on top even thought the recipe had a sugar and lemon juice topping. It would be good served with lemon curd and yoghurt but I whipped up some cream and took that along to have with it. It seemed to go down well though and I will be making this again.


Lemon Yoghurt Cake


3/4 c vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 Tbsp (20 ml) lemon rind
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 c thick plain yoghurt
1 3/4 c caster sugar
2 c self raising flour


Oven to 180 C.


Grease a 24 cm fluted tin or else a 23 cm tin (and line if you are using this tin).


Mix the oil, eggs, rind, juice, sugar and yoghurt together and sift over the flour stirring until smooth.


Bake about 40 mins.


Pour over a syrup (made from lemon juice and caster sugar heated until sugar is dissolved) while it is still warm.

Stained Glass Jelly for Christmas Day

One of the blogs I follow had a post for this Jelly. My children LOVE jelly and in fact, I do too. You can use whatever colours you want depending on the occasion. I know I should have gone with the Christmas theme of red and green but I couldn't resist going to multi-coloured. It is very easy and I think for the effect it's well worth making again. it is quite sweet but with some icecream or cream it would be pretty good. You can also cut out squares and put them into cupcake liners if you were presenting them as part of a dessert platter. The next one I want to try is the coffee jello which is apparently like the Vietnamese style of making coffee with condensed milk in it. Great for a hot day when you need that coffee but it's too hot to make one.


Stained Glass Jell-O


4 packets of jelly in whatever colour you like (I always use Greggs)
1 tin of condensed milk
4 1/2 tsp gelatin (or 2 packets)


Make each jelly up in only 1 c of boiling water and set in a shallow containers (not a bowl).


Once it is set cut into squares.


In a separate bowl 'bloom' the gelatin in 1/2 c cold water, then pour over 1 1/2 c boiling water and stir to dissolve. Add in the condensed milk and stir until melted. Cool right down or it will melt the jelly when you pour in it.


Take the squares of coloured jelly out of the containers and mix them carefully. I used my hands so the jelly didn't break up. Pour over the milk mixture and set in the fridge before cutting into squares. I lined my dish with cling film to make it easier to remove. 

Christmas Gifts From the Kitchen

This year I decided that some of the gifts I gave would be ones I made myself. This isn't an easy nor is it an inexpensive option but I love that it sends the message that you care enough about a person/people to want to make an effort to spend time making them a gift. It feels like I have spent days and days in the kitchen amounting to at least 2 1/2 weeks with the end of school, Harry's birthday and Xmas day. I must admit that I was almost over the kitchen and especially baking after Xmas... honestly!! This afternoon when I woke up, (I am in the middle of nights), with a headache and feeling really quite dopey I had a fortifying cup of tea and a couple of bikkies then I thought I would whip up a lemon yoghurt cake for tonight and voila headache gone and I now feel much better. Amazing to think a bit of baking can be so relaxing for me that it can even cure a headache!


Anyway back to the post about the Xmas gifts. For the neighbours this year I made this amazing slice called Rocky Road Slice. It is a Nigella Lawson recipe and is very easy to make for maximum deliciousness and effect. Everyone I know loves it and it can be very hard to stop at just one piece. The recipe will follow below.

Wrapped and ready for the nieghbours

Promise I hadn't eaten all this...well maybe just one piece!

Goodies for Maureen across the road

The obligatory Pecan Tarts for Helen- recipe can be found here.

Lemon and Pistachio Shortbread

White Chocolate, Apricot, Cointreau and Macadamia Truffles (Oops I see it says Pistachio...must have the Xmas exhaustion)

Dark Chocolate and Fresh Mint Truffles

Brandied Fruits, Prune and dark Chocolate Xmas Cake decorated by me

Hopefully you can see the edible glitter on the stars...so pretty.

I know I should have taken more photos but because I was busy making all of this as well as other things, I either forgot or just didn't have the time. George and Russ got the Xmas cake (a really lovely recipe from an old Dish magazine) which I covered in fondant and cut out fondant stars to decorate it. I also brushed over some really beautiful edible glitter which sparkled and twinkled in the light. They also got a box with homemade granola, hot cocoa mix blogged about here, the Lemon and Pistachio Shortbread, (found on the Foodlovers website), as well as both sets of truffles. 


I think the gifts went down well and they certainly looked impressive. I hope everyone else had a lovely Xmas day with lots of fantastic food.


Rocky Road Crunch Bars (Nigella Lawson 'Express')


125 gm butter
300 gm dark chocolate (I used Whittakers 62%)
3 Tbsp golden syrup
200 gm superwine biscuits, crushed so there are some crumbs as well as some bigger bits
100 gm mini marshmallows


Melt the butter, golden syrup and chocolate in a pot. Once it's all smooth take out about a 1/2 cup of this and set it aside. Cool a little. Add the biscuits and marshmallows then tip into a lined tray (about 24 cm square). Push in as best you can with a spatula so it comes together. Pour over the reserved chocolate mixture and refrigerate. Slice when cold and dust with icing sugar.