Ah, my little baby is growing up so fast.  Last month she turned 6 and opted for an ocean theme for her party. 

I always let them pick an idea for a cake and then try to plan the party around it.  The invites were a bit rushed this year as we had to quickly get them out before the school term finished for Easter, so we went shopping and found some preprinted computer paper with seashells along the top and bottom.  Whatever effort didn’t go into the invites however, definately went in to the food.  We had a great time thinking up different foods and how to present them to keep with the ocean theme.  The girls decorated the house for the party with blue, green, white and pink balloons and streamers, and they coloured in a couple of fish pictures which they then cut out and stuck around the place too.

So where do I begin with the food?  I suppose the cake has to take centre stage really!  We used it as a centrepiece on the table and the Birthday Girl decorated all by herself!  She had a great time and weren’t all her friends impressed!  I stacked the cakes and covered them with blue icing with a rough finish to try and look like the surface of the water, then she went to town with some icing shapes I had left over from a wedding cake, and some of the food we had made for the party.  Clever girl isn’t she! 

For the savouries, we had cheese sandwiches cut in the shape of fish (with a cookie cutter), Mermaid Bars of Gold (fish fingers), Octodogs (cheerios with one end cut – forgot to get a photo so will make them again and add them to the post down the track), Sea Cucumbers (gherkins sliced in half) and cute little Turtles made from Puff Pastry and Meatballs.

When it came to the sweets, we went all out.  I’m usually pretty strict on what I let the girls eat, but when it comes to Birthday Parties, I don’t worry about it. 

       

We had Homemade Marshmallow Dolphins, Clam Macarons, Fish Eggs (round lollies), Chocolate Orca Biscuits, glittery Seashell Shortbread, Anemone Meringues, Jellyfish (jellies set in plastic shot cups turned upside down on lolly snakes which had been sliced in from each end) and the cutest ever Fishy Cupcakes with gorgeous little fish lips!

       

All in all, I’m not sure whether the kids enjoyed eating it more, or I enjoyed making it more!  It was an awesome day despite the rain pouring down and having to hold it inside (which is why the lighting is so bad).  I’d love to hear some comments and see some photos of any ocean theme parties you have organised or been to!

Oh yeah, and just so you know, I did make a BIG mess with all that food colouring – check out my hands!

 

Left Over Cake

What to do with left over cake?  There are a million and one different things that you can do, but this one would have to be one of my family’s favourites.  I often have trimmings left over from my sculpted cakes, and after events like the Annual Nana Glen Market Day, I usually have a heap of left over cupcakes (over catering is in my blood!)  Sometimes I freeze them for the girls’ school snack or afternoon tea, other times I make cake balls, but now that the weather is cooling down, cake pudding is well and truly back on the menu!  It is super easy, super yummy, and microwaves up a treat for breakfast if I  really feel like spoiling the kids!

First of all, preheat your oven to 180oC, then grease a deep baking dish.  Next break up all your left over cake into chunks.  If it is plain cake, I like to throw in chocolate chips or jam dollops to really make it delicious!

Now all you need to do is make a quick baked custard mix.  I do this by whisking together 4-5 eggs, 3 tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla and a pinch of salt.  Once they are mixed in really well and the sugar is almost dissolved, add 900ml milk.  Mix it in thoroughly then pour it over the cake.

Finally, take a larger baking dish and put a tea towel or cloth in the bottom, place the dish with the cake inside, then pour boiling water into the larger dish until it comes halfway up the sides of the smaller dish to make a water bath.  Place them in the oven and bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until the custard has set.

 

All that’s left to do now is serve it up and tuck in!  It is especially yummy with whipped cream or ice cream!  The bits on top that are poking out of the custard go all crispy and crunchy while the rest of it is a beautiful pudding consistency.

 

Super quick, super easy, and super yum!

PS Sorry the photos aren’t very good, but it was late on a school night and I was rushing!

What is your favourite way to use up left over cake?

Harmony Day 2011

Having spent 9 years of my childhood living overseas in various countries, multiculturalism is a subject very close to my heart.  I was fortunate to grow up with friends from all over the world, many of whom I still keep in touch with today.  At the International Schools that I attended, United Nations Day was one of the biggest and most anticipated celebrations of the year.  We all wore national costume (there were almost 70 nationalities at the schools) and the parents set up stands with traditional foods from their own countries for all us kids to try.  (Funny how few people actually enjoyed our vegemite sandwiches though!)  Now that I have 2 young children of my own, I work hard to instil empathy and appreciation of other cultures in them.  I really think that understanding other cultures helps to prevent cultural disharmony, and I think that food is one of the best vehicles to cross the divide.

Two years ago when my youngest daughter was at the Nana Glen Preschool, I was introduced to Harmony Day when they put on a special lunch.  The Mum’s were asked to bring in a plate of food from their own heritage.  Not having grown up on traditional Aussie tucker, I decided to take in mini cupcakes each with a different coloured person on top, in keeping with the Harmony Day posters.  Being cake, and brightly coloured, they were a big hit with the kids.

This year, I was lucky enough to be able to provide the Coffs Harbour Library with mini cupcakes for their Harmony Day Family Morning Tea and Story Time.  Also, a very dear friend of mine who works at Southern Cross University invited me to be involved with their celebrations.  Another big fan of cupcakes (let’s face it…who isn’t!) she thought that cupcake decorating would be a great way to bring people together.  So, I baked 100 chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, made a mountain of icing and we went and bought a stack of lollies and sprinkles.  We set up a couple of big tables and let the students go for it.  It was fantastic!  They all had a ball.  It was such a hit in fact, that we made the local news with NBN reporter Clare Deligny even decorating a cupcake for the camera!  Check out the video here!

I took lots of photos of all the marvelous cupcake creations and their artists, so if you were there on the day, have a look here for your photo and feel free to send a link to all of your friends!  Also send me your name and I’ll tag you in the photo.

Happy Harmony Day everyone!

SCU Harmony Day Cupcakes VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Seashells by the Sea Shore.

This was for a beachside wedding.

   

 

 

Baby Blocks

And for a little girl’s Christening…

Yes, I love cake!

Okay, I admit it, I love cake.  I’m not a big cake eater, but I am still a cake lover.  They are such beautiful things to look at and I love to dream about all the different flavour combinations out there.  They are lots of fun to make and can be decorated in a gazillion ways.  I’m guessing I’m not alone in my passion, whether you love cake to eat, to look at, or to bake, use cake lovers come in all types!

Look what I found by Easy Cake Ideas!  The perfect way to declare your love to the world!  You can choose from t-shirts, bags and aprons and they have heaps of cool sayings too, like “A Life Without Cake is No Life At All”, “Save The Earth, It’s The Only Planet With Cake”, “Love, A Temporary Insanity Cured With Love”, “Is Life Worth Living?  It All Depends on The Cake” and “Nothing Great Was Ever Achieved Without Cake”.  Or, you can keep it plain and simple with

 

Which one is your favourite?

The Importance of Sharing a Meal

I come from a family who sits down and shares a meal together every night.  No TV, no balancing plates on your lap, and no shovelling grub in to your face.  We all sit around the table together and no one starts until everyone is seated.  We don’t say Grace, but we do always thank the cook for their hard work.  As we eat, we chat together and discuss our day.  We talk about school and work and what we want to do on the weekend.  If there is something the family needs to talk about, it is a comfortable environment to bring it up in.  Fears can be resolved and accomplishments celebrated.  At the end of the meal, no one leaves the table until everyone has finished eating.

This is a tradition that I was brought up with, thinking that was how everyone ate.  I’ve since found out it isn’t so.  I have however tried to instil its importance in my own children.  As my husband is a shift worker, we see it as a treat when he can sit down and join us for a meal.  It turns out that this special family time shared over a meal is actually of significant cultural importance!

Last year, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) recognised the cultural significance of the French Gastronomic Meal.  It has been designated as a cultural icon alongside flamenco and acupuncture as significant components of a culture to be protected.  Incorporating 5 or so courses of food, carefully matched to wine, it is about so much more than just the meal on the table.  It recognises the importance of loved ones and family preparing and sharing a meal together, and the role of food in celebrating major milestones in life such as weddings, baptisms, birthdays and the like.

The French do not lay sole claim to this prestigious cultural honour, the Mexican Michoacan cuisine and the Mediterranean diet have also been recognised and protected for future generations.

Where does the importance of food fit in your family’s traditions?  Do you only eat certain foods at particular celebrations?  Do you have rituals around the food you eat?  Or, do you think it’s a whole lot of nonsense over something you do just to sustain yourself?

Recipe–Grape Pate de Fruit

Last year we planted a vine to run along our front verandah.  The idea was that it would shade the kitchen windows in summer with its foliage, and let the winter sun through to warm us up when the leaves dropped.  As we like to have multi tasking plants where possible, we decided to put in an edible grape.  We opted for a green one so that we wouldn’t have to worry about the wooden decking getting stained from falling fruit.

This summer we have enjoyed our first crop.  The vine has grown like crazy and does a fantastic  job of keeping the direct sun out of the front of the house, not to mention that the greenery right outside the large windows looks lovely from inside the house, and softens the look of the building from the street too.   The vine was so heavy with fruit that we had to cut off many of the immature bunches which the chooks were more than happy to gobble up!  Unfortunately, although they tasted beautiful, the texture was a bit spongey.  Having never grown grapes before, we weren’t sure if it was something we had done wrong or not, but put it down to the crazy weather we have had this summer.  Our days have been fluctuating back and forth between 42^oC with 80% humidity, to 20^oC only 2 days later!  It’s put some of the chickens off the lay and is definately taking its toll on the kids’ tempers too!

 

As a result, we had a couple of kilos of fruit that tasted great but weren’t any good to eat, so what to do?  Once again, Google to the rescue!  I found a few references to Canelle et Vanille, one of my favourite food blogs.  I figured they would definately know what they were doing, so I converted their recipe for Strawberry Pate de Fruit to Grape Pate de Fruit.

It was a weekend, so I had my two trusty helpers home to lend a hand, so we pureed the fruit, boiled it up with the sugar and pectin then let it sit.  Luckily it didn’t take any where near as long to set as I thought it would (but much longer than Madeleine wanted!).  It turned out of the silicon pan beautifully and we coated it with just normal white sugar.  Next time though I think I’ll use caster sugar as it is just that little bit finer.  They tasted beautiful, you could really taste the grape in them and the texture was lovely, not at all rubbery.  You can find a printer friendly version of the recipe here.  The girls and I can’t wait to make them again and were thinking raspberries will definately be worth trying.  Have you made these before?  What flavours do you think would work well?