Barry's birthday and 1st place

I have been baking since Thursday! What a crazy weekend. I started Barry's birthday cake on Friday, and I encountered MANY technical challenges. I decided to decorated the cube in dark chocolate ganache, and dyed it black (took 4 bottles of black to colour it). what I should've done was use white chocolate and colour it. Also, someone suggested freezing the cake before putting on the ganache, so when the cake thawed, all the squares started to fall off. AND the cake you see wasn't the original cake, but the off cuts. had many heart-stopping moments with this one, but I learnt alot in the process. Its not perfect, but it was delicious :)

Then of course there was more cake drama in the car when we swerved to avoid a dog (Bless Karl's heart!) and because the squares kept slipping! But we got it there in one piece, even if it wasn't perfect! Barry thought he was meeting Harps for a nice, quiet, romantic dinner, but instead he got all 7 of us! We went to Christina's and Mark's after for cocktails and a boardgame called smartass - loads of fun!

birthday boy

On Friday night I decided to test a red velvet cupcake recipe for a cupcake competition my MIL entered me for. The first batch flopped because Sinead's scale was wonky and we didn't put in enough flour (thats my story and i'm sticking to it!). So after an afternoon of horse-riding lessons, failed cupcakes and a dinner of ribs and burgers with Karl, Sinead and Hugh. I rushed home to find a new recipe and tried again. They came out perfectly!

I went for a pink, silver, white and creamish(?!) theme for the competition.

And.... i won!!!! :D

doesn't that look like a military medal? lol! just saying...

Then yesterday, even though I was as sick as a dog, my boss's partner asked me (and paid me) to bake him a cake for today (his birthday). 

lemon drizzle cake and coffee and walnut cupcakes for my boss

So now I am all-baked out until Friday, when i have another birthday cake (on order!) to bake and decorate.

This really wasn't intended as a baking blog, but it seems to be turning into one. i will try add some more diversity over the next few weeks... promise.

PS. Our architect (yes, we have an architect - lol!) has drawn up a very rough outline of what we want for the house. We have to put up a temporary fence around the property for when the planners come around to ok everything, so this weekend I'll be learning a different skill: putting up sheep fences! I am really turning into a country wife!

Birthday weekend part 1

Wow, what a weekend! I’m exhausted and at work and wish I was in bed. Friday night turned into Saturday morning. We went to pick up Sinead and Hugh, and then went over to the boy’s boss’s boss’s house for a pizza before our night out. After pizza we headed out to Belfast, to The Duke of York. Its a really big pub, and is very unusual.

The party was called a 70^th, because Hugh turned 30 and his colleague turned 40, so they just decided to have one big party.

After meeting everyone, Sinead and I headed up stairs for a bit of dancing and then joined the rest of them a bit late. We even had springboks .

 So anyway, after an awesome night out, we finally arrived home at 4am! Yes, 4am. I slept for 4 hours and got up at 8am to start a crazy day of baking. By Saturday evening, I was fed up! Harpinder was a great help and tidied up behind me and just generally kept me sane. The cake did turn out really good, despite some technical difficulties and the fact that the top 2 layers were too heavy for the light chocolate sponge at the bottom, did my best to cover it up with decor though!

Had to make a small cake for Christina, who is gluten-intolerant.

We had quite a spread: scones, quiche, cake, cupcakes, cheese and crackers etc.

I thought I had made too much food, but after the 20 or so people spend yesterday afternoon grazing, there really wasn’t much left. I invited everyone over fo tea and cake at about 3pm yesterday, an the last of them left at around 8pm.

opening gifts

 Got some really cool gifts, including these beautiful tulips!

I had a quick bath and got things ready for today, and then we headed down the road with Harps and Barry to have dinner and watch our Sunday night South African show, Wild at Heart. Been awake since 4am, probably a sugar high!

Really had a good weekend!

xx