Baked a Cake

It’s hard to believe that this time two year’s ago, the boy and I had not long returned from our first overseas trip to Sri Lanka. We spent an amazing 3 ½ weeks gallivanting around the Sri Lankan countryside on a motorcycle and Jeep tour with my brother Lee and sister-in-law with the same tour company that Lee know works with over in Vietnam – the fabulous Hoi An Motorcycle Adventures.

To celebrate the anniversary of our trip I decided to make a delicious Sri Lankan Love Cake (recipe taken from Peter Kuruvita). 

Last week I had the pleasure of making a special naming day cake for our friends' little girl, Olivia. The boy was best man at Olivia's mummy and daddy's scorching hot wedding day almost two years ago - thankfully the naming day was much cooler. Olivia's mum Gemma asked if I would be free to make Olivia's cake, and I of course said yes. I love being asked to make cakes for friends, the fact that they trust me with such an important part of their special day means a lot, and having the opportunity to make a pretty, girly, pink cake was too good to pass up. 

A couple of weeks ago I made probably my favourite cake to date for one of my favourite little girls. Some of you may remember the Nanna Teddy cake I made last year for Ayla. Well this year her lovely mum Ali set me a great theme, a Snugglepot and Cuddlepie cake fit for a foraging party. Almost instantly I had an idea for a cake. I went home and sketched up a design - a cute two-tier cake with a tree stump look for the bottom tier (inspired by Sharon Wee) and a hand painted top tier with Snugglepot and Cuddlepie illustrations.

It's hard to believe that we are already 3/4 around the world (well in bakedacake world that is). This month I decided to take a trip down memory lane to my Year 7 German class and make a mini Donna Hay inspired black forest cake.

Last month the boy and I made the trek home to celebrate the 18th birthday of his little sister (she may not be the littlest sister anymore, but for a long time she was, so the fact that she is now 18 just blows my mind - and makes me feel really old). Armed with fancy dress costumes starting with the letter 'K' (the bogan school girl Kylie Mole for me and Kindergarten Cop for him) and a colour theme of pink and black I had just the cake in mind for this special birthday. 

Hello August! Where did you come from? If you’re anything like me, then you are struggling to understand where a good majority of the year has flown!

After a good 6 months between drinks, birthday season kicked off with a bang last week at work. What better way to kick it off than with a delicious lemon meringue inspired cake for our Deb! 

Start spreadin' the news, I'm leavin' today! I want to be a part of it - New York, New York! Well no, I'm actually not leaving today and the next stop on my list of travel destinations isn't New York (one day), but you get the idea. Happy Independence Day America!  

Our next stop on the 'Around the World in 12 Cakes' journey is merry old England. With so many cakes and desserts coming out of England, the decision of which one to recreate was a tough one, but being a lover of frangipane I decided on the Bakewell Tart.

After my Grandma passed away, I was given a box of full of recipes - handwritten, magazine clippings, CWA cookbooks and the Commonsense Cookery Book. I always loved the desserts and sweets or her era, especially the biscuits made with milk powder which gave them that perfect crumbly, rich texture - these will always be Grandma biscuits to me. 

A couple of weeks ago while I was flipping through the pages of my Grandma's Commonsense Cookery Book, I stumbled across a page that literally took my breath away.