Tennis Cake

I just finished making this cake for our friends son's 13th birthday. Hope he likes it.

Cake

I made this black and white cake and decorated it for a girlfriend's 40th birthday party. I'm very happy with the way it turned out and think it will go well with her black and white theme. What do you think? 

This Moment

{ This Moment }- A Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor. and remember. Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Birthday

Today was my birthday, I had such a lovely day spent with my family. We had lunch at a Lebanese restaurant then back to Mum's for coffee and cake. I received some beautiful presents. We then headed home, Master M had made a birthday cake for me all by himself.

This Moment

{ This Moment }- A Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor. and remember. Wishing you a lovely weekend

Plum slice with pecan crumble



This was the cake I made for Mum's birthday, so moist and yummy.

180g butter, soft

1 cup(220g) caster sugar sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

5 eggs

21/2 cups (375g) plain flour (all purpose)

2 teaspoons baking powder

11/4 cups (300g) sour cream

12 mixed plums, stones removed and quartered

2 tablespoons caster sugar

Pecan crumble

1/4 cup (45g) brown sugar

1 cup (125g) pecans roughly chopped

60g butter melted

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

To make the pecan crumble, place sugar, pecans, melted butter, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and mix to combine. Set aside.

Per heat oven to 160 c (325 f). Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a electric mixer and beat until light and creamy.

Gradually add eggs and beat until combined. Add the flour, baking powder and sour cream and beat till just combined. Spoon into a lightly greased24cm x34 cm baking dish lined with non-stick paper. Place the plums and extra sugar in a bowl and toss to coat. Top the cake with the plums and pecan crumble. Bake for 1 hour or until cooked. allow to cool in tin before serving.

Enjoy

(Donna Hay)

Christmas cakes

Well I have finished my cake decorating course. I had fun learning new things each week. We had to decorate a fruit cake with things we had learnt from the course. I made two small cakes and decorated one in class and one at home. I still need to get some tools, I don't have a smoother as you can see from the second cake I did at home. I think they are not to bad what do you think?

10 years old

Today Master M turned 10.  Haven't those years gone quickly. Each year he comes into our bed and he opens his presents, something he started 10 years ago, and now we all do it on our birthdays. As he is having his party next weekend my mum and brother came over for the day, Master M wanted high tea. It was fun as we have had BBQ, dinners, and lunches over the past years. I sure hope the next 10 years don't go so fast, Happy Birthday Mum and Dad love you.  

Birthday

Yesterday was Mr P's birthday. We had a lovely day out at  Putney Park down on the  Parramatta river. I think it's always nice to celebrate a birthday if you can. We had family and friends with us to enjoy the day, playing ball, eating and having cake. Hope Mr P had a nice birthday. 



Orange Cake

This cake is so easy to make I hope you give it try.

1 whole Orange

11/2 cups caster sugar

3 eggs

11/4 cups of oil

* 2 cups SR flour

Mix it up in a blender until the orange has disintegrated. Into a bowl add 2 cups SR flour and poor in the wet ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon, pop into a tin and bake in a moderate oven for 45mins or until cooked.

Enjoy

Anniversary

Yesterday was our 14th wedding anniversary, we don't do much on our anniversary. I wanted to try this cake out when I saw it, so I thought it would be a good time to do it. It was a 2 x basic vanilla cake, I added 1/2 a tsp of red colouring, then 1/4 tsp red colouring then a 1/8 of a tsp leaving the last layer plain. I iced the cake in butter icing, then thought I would add melted white chocolate to the icing mixture. Not one of my better ideas as the mixture set as soon as I applied to a cool cake oh well it tasted good.

Crunchy Cake

This is my mum's recipe for Armenian spice cake or in our house we like to call it crunchy cake. It's great to make a head of time,  it keeps well in an air tight container for several days. 

Recipe:
2 cup plain flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
4 oz butter
Crumble all together with finger tips till it represents bread crumbs. Add half of the mixture to a lined cake tin.
To the rest of the mixture add.
2 tsp mixed spice
1 egg
1 cup of milk
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Mix all together then pour into the tin. Bake for 1 hour at 180o

Enjoy

Date Loaf Cake

One of my fondest childhood memory's was coming home on a Friday afternoon and there was always a home made cake, biscuit or slice for us, made by mum. I try to bake something for boys  lunch boxes  each week.

Date loaf cake

1 cup chopped dates

11/2 tsps bicarbonate of soda

1 cup boiling water
2 Tbls melted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

Method

1. Grease a loaf tin.

2. Place dates,soda and hot water in a bowl and stir- allow to cool slightly.

3. In another bowl, mix butter, sugar add egg and mix till creamy.

4. Add date mix, then add flours and mix well.

5. Bake at 180c for about 40mins or until skewer comes out clean.

This is a really easy cake, hand mixing is all that is required, kids love it. I have found that if you do the date mix first and then grease the tin and continue with the butter mix, the date mix is then cool enough to add . Do not drain the liquid from the dates.

Enjoy

Cake Pops

Today I made my first batch of cake pops, it's not as easy as I thought it took a lot of fiddling around and waiting. I will have to try another batch. Master M thinks they taste great.