Christmas Cakes
Monday, 22 December 2008
 It's amazing what 1/2 and hour and a set of snowflake cutters can acheive! The kids even helped me with the pink one which is destined for Zali's creche on Wednesday. It was inspired by Zali's choice of the very Christmassy pink polka dot ribbon!
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Packing
Thursday, 11 December 2008
 It's funny how much the kids love to pack their suitcases when we go away. If only they had such enthusiasm when we got home! Tomorrow we're heading off for a long-awaited weekend at Bruny Island with our friends Jackie, Bruce and Ben. Whilst I haven't been to Bruny since Zali was about a year old, it has many childhood memories for me. I remember once going there on a camping trip with mum when Paul and I forgot to pack our sleeping bags, so we borrowed mum's and she slept under towels in the back of the car. I also remember a school camping trip there in grade 6 where I sustained the sunburn which will no doubt be my undoing. And even earlier than that I remember dad telling me off for excitedly throwing my teddy bear repeatedly towards the ceiling inside a cabin on a trip there when I can't have been more than 6 or so.
Anyhoo. In other news it's been a blur of a week as usual - I've been trying to juggle a few cake bits and pieces with work stuff, the kids, and exercise not necessarily in that order. Jon's been settling into working from home and the kids are just having their last few weeks of school and creche before holidays.
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Dr Potatohead
Thursday, 20 November 2008
 I think the combination of my big cake week last week, coming down off my post Mt Roland run/walk high, and my normally fun work being a lot less fun lately has contributed to my general feeling of being in the doldrums this week. I've tried to do devote energy to some crafty stuff but it's all been a bit hard so tonight I hijacked Jett's Mr Potato head and gave myself some sculptural therapy. I'm not sure that I feel all that much better, but it was fun while it lasted.
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Three in a week
Saturday, 15 November 2008
 It's been a long time since I've posted any cake photos let alone three in one week! I'm not sure how it happened but I ended up with these three orders all for this weekend - and they really ended up getting away from me. As the black cake wasn't ready in time for the bride to take it down with her, I had to drive it down to Port Arthur on Friday morning - I left home at 6am and was at work in the city by 9:15. I book-ended that day with the IT dinner I mentioned below so it was a very long day! The white cake wasn't hard (the photo isn't that great but they are cupids on it) but the bride also wanted to pick it up early which meant some late nights, and Barbie in the middle was supposed to be delivered last night on our way to the IT dinner thing but again it wasn't finished in time so I've got myself an early trip to Moonah tomorrow morning. Amazingly it's the first doll/dress cake that I've been asked to do as CakeWoman - I guess people make these ones themselves and I generally don't do too many birthday cakes anyway. Am I expected to give Barbie's legs back to the mum who supplied the brand new Barbie? I guess I'd better take them with me tomorrow but perhaps I won't wave them in front of the five year old birthday girl in case it causes distress.
I'm not sure what to make of the fact that my camera auto detected Barbie's face.
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ReeDip
Friday, 7 November 2008
 Amazingly I got the chance to do a little bit of craft recently - this frog is almost finished - unfortunately I have to redo his feet as I lost a lot of tiles during the grouting process. Sadly cakes and teeny tiny glass fragments don't really go together so he'll have to wait for his feet fix for a week or so while I get 3 cakes out of the way. He would have had green feet to match the rest of him but I've run out of tiles. The next frog I make will have to be purple as I'm down to my last few sheets of tiles.
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Spectacular weekends
Sunday, 2 November 2008
One of the many many great things about living in Hobart is that you can get up at 7am, go for a 2 hour challenging and spectacular walk in alpine wilderness, and still be home in time to take Zali to her 10:30 swimming lesson. cool huh. The other stuff we did this weekend included painting the deck (the kids painted the sides of our raised vegetable garden), taking the kids bike riding, delivering a wedding cake, visiting the hardware store, I finished a bit of craft, and Jonno did some preparation for a presentation to one of his user groups.
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Shopping
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
The other day I asked Jon to get some milk from the shops. I also said and I quote 'and if it's not too expensive, get an eggplant as well'. This is what he came home with. He needed a box and that's not even counting the bag the milk travelled in. The bill was more than 60cm long and it was one of those old fashioned ones, not the toilet-roll length new fangled ones. I'm not complaining too much though - although the financial cost is high when Jon goes to the shops, it is always just a bit exciting to see what he's going to come home with - so long as it's not a ride-on-lawnmower... In other news I came across this site recently - it's called Cake Wrecks - this entry in particularly funny... Hopefully nothing of mine is featured on the site!!
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Red Saturday
Sunday, 5 October 2008
 Like the photos, our weekend was a pretty chaotic and busy affair - and the fact it's Sunday and I'm posting Red Saturday is indicative of the fact we just plain ran out of time to do everything - including bake dad's birthday cake unfortunately - well I did bake it but it wasn't out of the oven until we got home from his birthday dinner. dang. And try as I might I couldn't get my Red Saturday photos sit together as neatly as my weekday but I'm especially pleased with the red-umbrella one as I had to stalk the carrier for a block to get in the right position. It's the only photograph I haven't taken on the appropriately coloured day (I took it on Friday) but it was too good an opportunity to miss.
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Taste testing
Sunday, 28 September 2008
 My friend Clare is temporarily back from the States collecting herself after what must have been a humiliating and soul destroying thanksgiving day baking failure*. In the interests of getting her life back on track we did some pavlova recipe testing yesterday. We also did some choc-chip muffin testing, some spicy-potato-wedges-with-home-made-mayonaisse testing, and some sausage-sanger-for-lunch-in-front-of-the-grand-final testing and I have to say that it was all VERY successful. So successful in fact that today I made my second ever pavlova (actually I helped make 2 yesterday so it's technically my third) with what we decided was the superior recipe. (I'll put it on the cakewoman tips recipe page soon). It looks good doesn't it!
*ok - so she's really back for other reasons. But we did decide that her U.S. pavlova disaster (Pavlagate) was probably due to having to hand whisk the egg whites. Like. Without electricity. I'm not sure that even Anna Pavlova had to do that.
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You be the judge
Saturday, 13 September 2008
 How Jonno's circa 1993 (at least) button-up cardigan has survived 3 moves and numerous clothes culls I do not know - but tonight, to my surprise - and horror - he decided to pull it out of wherever he kept it hidden and head off into public with it (claiming numerous recent cardigan fashion sightings). Now obviously you readers can't appreciate the musty aroma but you can at least make an aesthetic judgement and help us avoid what will quickly turn into a family crisis. I ask.. no I implore.. you to respond to this reader's poll (the old fashioned way I'm afraid):
Jonno's cardigan is:
a) Stylish, cool, and definitely very now - I can't believe he hasn't dragged it out earlier b) Not a fashion choice I would make, but somehow Jon manages to pull it off
c) Um it's great. Really. It would just be too bad if it suddenly went missing one night.. co-incidentally .. bin night.
d) Vomit. (no offence Jonno - but the truth will set you free) Please urgently email cathy at cakewoman dot com with your answer. We need you.
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Hanging out with Zali
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Today was officially one of Zali's four school holiday days so we spent the afternoon hanging out together. Firstly we went to deliver a cake to Barilla Bay. As usual Zali was very keen and helpful. Then we went to the *Fairy Shop and spent what felt like 6 months but was probably only about half an hour choosing the reward she had earnt from finishing her tick chart. Then we checked out some art galleries in Salamanca and finally we sat down in the trendy 'Machine Laundry Cafe' to enjoy some hot chocolates and reflect on the experience. It was really pretty cool! *I learnt some interesting things in the Fairy Shop, firstly, the fairy shop lady answers the phone with: 'Good-afternoon-the-Fairy-Shop-we believe-in-Fairies'. I'm sure she gets some stunned silences at the other end but I guess it's good to believe in your product. Secondly, they had just run a fairy craft class and I watched some big fairies grab a vacuum cleaner from behind the counter to clean up the mess. Who would have thought that the cleaning fairies use vacuum cleaners! Thirdly and most excitingly, they run a fairy school, so Zali is enrolling in a class next week - I'm hoping she chooses to major in wish-granting and maybe take an elective in cleaning.
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Dangerous Cupcakes
Sunday, 7 September 2008
I swear these red back, crocodile, blue-ringed octopus, shark and snake cupcakes look better in real life... These are for a boys birthday party tomorrow. In other cake news I'm two wedding cakes down and one to go on Tuesday before a nice break for a month or so. I've been inundated by questions regarding my fabulous xootr. Well ok - I've been asked by two people but I'm still happy to reveal that it's from planet Xootune where all the natives speak Xoot and they ride about on their two wheeled toys all day. Luckily planet Xootune has a retail outlet in Australia.
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Xooting along
Friday, 5 September 2008
 I've been looking forward to the arrival of my birthday present for months and it's finally arrived. Now I can scoot my way to work from the car in a third of the time and with ten times the fun. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo but it's grown-up sized rather than razor sized, but it still folds up in a snap and sits under my desk until it's time to xooot home. I love it!
In other news Jett is getting better but spent the day at home so I've pretty much got this weeks cakes completely under control. phew.
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Sick Day
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
 Poor Jett is sick today - in fact it's his second day off creche - and whilst I'm loathe to talk down my excellent nursing abilities I have to admit that he hasn't improved a whisker under my care today. It's looking like it will be over to granny to institute a turnaround tomorrow.
It's been bad for Jett but it has given me a chance to catch up on the cake stuff I'd otherwise be doing until midnight tonight so that's some sort of relief. And I have caught up on a lot of kids tv - the highlight being the catchy tune still playing in my head which goes something like "don't bite your friends, don't bite your friends minchy munchy crunch crunch but don't bite your friends..."
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I need a lie-down
Sunday, 31 August 2008
It's just past 11pm. This was my day: - 7:45 get-up (I'm not complaining about that)
- 8:30-9:30 make potato salad and generally pack food for picnic later today
- 10:30 - 12:30 play soccer (we won 3-1 yay)
- 12:40-3pm attend work family picnic
- 3:30 put kids to bed for short nap
- 3:35 start making cupcakes for jett's creche tomorrow
- 4:30-5:30 keep making cupcakes - with children's "assistance"
- 6:00 decorate cupcakes (with assistance)
- 6:30 make & eat dinner
- 7:30 put kids in bed, clean up
- 7:30 - 8:30 rest in front of tv
- 8:30 - 11:00 cover 2 fruitcakes and plan next week (3 wedding cakes & 30 kids cupcakes to do plus Jett's birthday and Tas Orienteering Champs in Launceston
Now I'm not saying that today wasn't fun - cos it was. but boy am I tired. Stuff I also wanted to get done today but won't cos I'm going to bed includes: - making lasagne for Jett's birthday dinner tomorrow
- washing work clothes
- wrap Jett's birthday presents
- get lunches ready for everyone
- unpack bags of soccer and picnic stuff
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