Caramelised Pear and Whipped Cream Sponge Cake

It was a big weekend of baking last weekend and it was topped off with an extra special cake for my dad for his birthday dinner on Sunday night ... a Caramelised Pear and Whipped Cream Sponge Cake.

We had a family dinner and polished off about a quarter of this cake and 24 hours later it was all gone.  Apparently I can make this one again!

Breath of fresh air

We did manage to squeeze in that walk by the beach.......

Who wouldn't want to live here? 

Bath Beams and Beyond

After Monday's gigantic transformation anything less this week was bound to be a let down!

But not around here! They have been just charging along!

The bathroom has now gone - the wonderful J and I referred to this room as the Swamp - I don't feel that you really get how bad it was from the photo??

But yippy! it is no longer!

The plumber came and fitted it all out with new plumbing:

Apparently after they fill in that missing piece of floor with a new slab, we are ready to tile!

They had to fix up the walls to support the massive LVL's (the yellow beams) that support the roof once the supporting walls came out.  Weight doesn't translate well in photos I know, but let me tell you these things are heavy! 

After putting up the LVL's they were able to pull out all the supporting walls - and we finally got to see our space!

Pulling out all the supporting walls have left us with these great big scars in our floor.

I am told that this is one of the first things on next weeks 'To Do' list. Along with installing the new windows and fitting out all the electrical points and lights.  

But just look at that space! isn't that just amazing!!?? 

Renovation D Day

Bright and early on Monday morning the wonderful J and I went back to our house to let the builders in.  After a number of discussions we left the builders to it and went to our respective jobs for the day.  A mere nine hours later we returned and this is what we found: 

This:

Had turned into this:

This: 

Had turned into this:

This: 

Into this:

This:

Into this:

And so on:

And so forth: 

I know that this is demo and it all slows down from here - but wow!  And as you can see by the size of the Skip Bin in our backyard - there is quite a bit of demo to go! 

Elvis has left the building

As we are actually at the end of day two of our renovation I need to go back in time a do a bit of a recap for you........

A week ago today we were living in mess and disruption, but we still had hot water and wall sheeting.

That all changed in a matter of hours!

First the hot water was turned off and despite the fact that we were very welcome at my wonderful parents house we continued to live at our house.  This was so our beautiful boy Archie didn't have to board at the vet a minute longer than he had to!

This is him with our foster kittens looking very mature. 

Early Friday morning the Asbestos men came to remove the Asbestos in our laundry.  By mid morning parts of our house looked like this:

After a week of cold showers we finally moved out into the luxury of hot water, clean sheets and meals that didn't come out of a can! It was bliss - thank you mum and dad!

On Sunday night after two days of clearing, staking, packing and taping up of doors and cupboards we finally said goodbye to our house as we knew it:

The kitchen

The dining room 

The only bathroom

The unused sunroom

The back door

The laundry and kitchen window and chicken pen

The back of the house

I promise I will show you want it looks like after a day of renovation tomorrow, it is amazing what our fantastic builders have been able to achieve in just two short days! 

However, now I have to go and meet the Engineer to review the structural integrity of the joists - isn't it amazing that I actually now know what that means!
  

Jane's Cake

My wonderful friend Jane is leaving me.

She is not going far, but I won't get to spend hours of my work day chatting, gossiping and of course eating chocolate...

It is a sad day.

However to celebrate that she has a wonderful new job AND that she is not going far! we had cake.

This cake was a Jane special and as such looked great on the outside but it was the inside where the party was.

I made a layer cake inspired by the talented I am baker.

The cake had four layers:
Layer 1: Milky Way cake
Layer 2: Oreo crust
Layer 3: White chocolate cheese cake
Layer 4: Dark chocolate mud cake
All covered in a layer of Chocolate Ganache and then a layer of Butter Cream then covered with more Chocolate Ganache for decoration.

It did taste good and as the wonderful J didn't get to taste this one - I will be making another...

A sad day - but a great day for cake!