Muffin Making

My lovely mother gave us some stewed Rhubarb a few months ago. It sat in the freezer for awhile as I couldn't think of anything inspired to do with it, and it turns out that J is actually not a fan of Rhubarb (who knew!?).

Anyway J was out for the day and I decided to make some Rhubarb muffins as I felt like a 'muffin still warm from the oven' was just the thing for a chilly Autumn morning.

I used this basic muffin recipe on that I found by googling and just added Rhubarb and lashings of Brown Sugar to the top (to counteract that sour factor!). 

The muffins came out beautifully and inspired me to grab the camera.....  

      

(The cake stand was a wedding present from my lovely cousin and her husband - I love it!)

My girls

Just before New Years 2012 our newest family members finally arrived.....

Introducing: Gloria and Gladys

These two lovely girls were rescued from a battery hen farm and were destined to end their lives as cat food before they were rescued.  They are about 10 months old and are now (after 2 months of fostering) looking like strong healthy chickens.

Originally it was intended that they would stay in their custom built run at the side of the house.  The run was made large enough to contentedly house about five or six chickens so we assumed our girls would be very comfortable in there.

We created the chicken run from an area at the side of our house (away from neighbours) that is about 1.8mt wide by 5.5mt long.  The space was hemmed in by: a boundary fence, the side of our house and a gate leading from the front yard to the back yard.  In order to make it secure, my my long suffering, and totally terrific dad, made a gate and fence out of recycled lattice.

There is a long-term plan to grow a climber up this fence/gate to make it more appealing....

Then we got a hen house.  Originally I went to our local pet shop and I was horrified at how much these things cost! As such I resolved to make one myself.  However, as the date of arrival of the girls got closer and closer it became more and more obvious that making one was not actually going to happen.  So I went where most DIY'ers go - eBay.

On e-Bay I found the most fantastic hen house for only $175 delivered! Within a few hours this fantastic hen house was making its way to us from somewhere south of Sydney.

As our girls joined us at a time when both J and I had time off work we let them out of their run and allowed them to roam free in our back yard.  After that however, there was no getting them to be content with just the run. Ever since then they have roamed free in our back yard during the day and have only slept in their run at night. 

Let me assure you - they are very vocal if you dare to have a sleep-in in the morning!

Since they first joined us there have been several additions to the hen house and run.

They have a feeding a watering station (that is grossly underused) for the occasional times they have to spend any time in the actual run that is not sleeping time.

They got an extension so the hen house is now elevated off the ground and provides both shade and more practically ventilation in summer. And in my mind most importantly: some beatification.....

The girls actually planted the Sunflowers themselves.  When they first arrived I used to soak their food overnight to make it easier to eat (the trauma of being a battery hen!).  As a result when the girls pecked and flicked their food out of the bowl the seeds germinated and for some reason this is where they germinated......

These girls caused havoc in our household until we figured out all the 'escape routes' out of our back yard, and although that is no longer an issue, they still continue to destroy our garden!

And we love the hole that they have so conveniently dug for us at the entry to their run - I have no doubt that one day we will fall in this and break a leg.... there are plans to beauty this entry way as well... this might just be a sooner rather than later project!

These lovely girls are very affectionate and we love having fresh eggs each day and listening to them cluck around the yard is very soothing......

Inspiration from JDC

I have long been a avid follower of Emily the inspirational talent behind Jones Design Company (JDC).  Emily is one of my many blog inspirations and I look forward to checking in with her and her absolutly beautiful family almost every day.

So naturally, when I was looking to make a present for my next door neighbour who had just had a beautiful little girl, I went to Emily and JDC for inspiration.

What I decided to make were 'burp cloths' (very unfortunate name - I know - but I am yet to come up with a better one!). 

I used her very comprehensive tutorial, and because I love a bit of embellishment I used another tutorial to create the material flowers which I then sewed on. 

I loved how they turned out and now as I now have many friends either having babies or becoming grandmothers I will be making many more!

Mothers Day Cake

For Mothers Day this year we had both Saturday breakfast (impossible to book anywhere at late notice on the Sunday morning) and Sunday afternoon tea. 

I have been dying to try this cake from Amanda at i am baker for ages.  This lady is so talented and everything she does looks amazing, so I decided to following her rose tutorial and give it a go on Sunday morning .

Although I have a great Chocolate Mud Cake recipe that I love I wanted to try something else.  So I jumped on google and started searching for something that inspired me.  I came across this recipe for Jaffa Fudge Cake, and after jumping up to make sure I had not imagined that orange that has been sitting in the bottom of my fridge for a week I decided to take the plunge. 

The recipe says to make the cake in a saucepan so it really is a one pot wonder this cake.  

For the chocolate I used leftover Lindt chocolate bunnies (you can see their ears in the pot). I reduced the amount of sugar to 1 cup (after reading the reviews) and I made 1.5 times the cake batter amount as I didn't want the cake to come out too flat.  

I loved using the fresh orange as even though it was a absolutely perfect day there was a significant chill in the air and the smell of oranges made it feel more like spring than autumn.

The cake came out beautifully (sorry forgot to take a photo of that - I was too excited to get onto the icing!).  It is an incredibly dense cake and didn't rise at all so if I was going to use this cake for decorating I would have to make several to get the height that I need.

So moving onto the icing.  I used Amanda's (i am baker) recipe for Back to Basics Buttercream.  I think I over beat it a little but the taste of this icing is beautiful and it goes slightly crisp when it dries which I really like as I think it adds to the texture.

The icing looks so fantastic that I guarantee you won't be able to resist having a 'quality control' taste!

All I can say about the roses is: practice makes perfect!

I think I did the whole cake about 3 times (pipping on the rose then scraping it off!) before I was kind of happy with the outcome.  As I said before, I think I over beat the icing, and as such I didn't get that creamy texture that Amanda seemed to have, but over all I was actually quite happy with my first attempt.

I will absolutely be trying it again as it is a very impressive looking cake for what will be very little effort (with a bit of practice that is!). 

And the taste - well that was super impressive! The dense flavour of the cake and the sweetness of the icing complemented each other perfectly and was a very well received for Mothers Day.  

Mothers Day Gifts

This Sunday is Mothers Day.

J and I decided that it was the perfect occasion to give both of our mothers a wedding album (that they had spent a year asking for!).

We spent a weekend doing a wedding album for each of our mothers and thank goodness they arrived in plenty of time for Mothers Day.

Anzac Day

A few weeks ago it was Anzac Day and in deference to this important day, I thought it was appropriate to make some Anzac biscuits. 

I very unwisely (in hindsight) used a recipe off the back of a real estate letterbox drop. As such the biscuits themselves were more like rock cakes (so I won’t be sharing the recipe!) but they still had a really nice flavour.    

They were perfect for my visitors that dropped in throughout the day for coffee.

                     

First Wedding Anniversary

One year and one month ago on the 8th of April 2012 we got married......