Birthday Cake

Hi

There are no lamington cakes in the UK!!!!!

And so for my friend, half aussie and half kiwi, married to an english man living in England I made her a giant Lamington Cake surrounded by her three national flags!

I even piped on the cream so it looked authentic :)

love

the Baker

Sunday Afternoon Chocolate Chippies!

I thought I'd try out the new cookie cutters I bought on holiday in Sydney! One plate shows the finished biscuits with designs cut in the middle and icing in between. The other shows the baby star cookies...yum :-)

I flicked through books till I found a recipe that I had all the ingredients for...once the dough was mixed I wrapped them in gladwrap for an hour...

I was pleased with how well the cookie cutter cut out the centre designs...

Though when they baked they lost some of their "flare"!

Finally, I iced the finished biscuits...ahh...done :-)

And put the rest away for later :-)

Love

The Quilter xxx

An Eggtraordinary Tale!

Once upon a time my Little Red Hen was sick of the other chickens bragging about their marvellous eggs so she decided she would make the biggest and best egg in all of Chickenville. The next day there in the nest of straw was the most extraordinarily wonderful egg. Twice as large as any other egg and a double yoke as well. From that day forth the Little Red Hen was called the Queen of the Hens.

The three sister's Mum saw the wonderful egg and was inspired to make a delicious egg, bacon and silverbeet pie. Silverbeet courtesy of the Gardener.

And they all lived happily ever after.

XX The Gardener XX

More Balloon fun!

This one is for the baker (I'll teach you to do it when you come home - promise!)

Above is a purple monkey with Balloon Banana (the hardest part believe it or not is making a balloon shape into a banana - I'm not kidding!).

The little orange bear is just for fun (with his cocktail umbrella) - I really like the lighting and photography - curtesy of the Gardener.

The little clear bear shows how small he is (they are generally about 4x the height).

Love

The Quilter xxx

Teddy Bear Balloon Fun!

I decided to turn my hand at some teddy bear animal balloons. The ears are made using a twist called the teddybear twist because it makes perfect little ears! Add a skirt and hey presto...a ballerina bear!

And here is a bear in its natural environment :-) (without the ballet lessons)

love

The Quilter xxx

The Gardener is very happy!!

This morning it was the gardeners birthday and she awoke to a beautiful garden of balloon flowers, and a array of wonderful birthday presents.

She put on her balloon corsage and admired her family of little balloon dogs especially the worlds tiniest purple balloon poodle! Thanks to the Quilters expertise in balloons!!

The Gardener is also extremely happy with her Nordicware baking tray she can now make butterfly, bee and dragonfly cakes to enjoy at her next garden tea party.
Thanks so much for my wonderful presents!

XX The Gardener XX

Test Birthday Cake

Hello, hello....

I have been commissioned with preparing a friend's birthday cake and I wanted to do something special.

I decided on a prince regent cake. It is Bavarian and celebrates the prince and the eight layers of government.

....thats right! EIGHT layers! Each is indivdually cooked and cooled before assembly.

I swapped the traditional butter filling for a dark chcolate and liquor mouse. The icing is lindt milk chocolate. All up, 400 grams of chocolate, 12 eggs, cream, sugar and flour - no butter! so it must be healthy!?!?!

This is the test version and with a few tweeks I think it will be perfect!

Yum, Yum!

The baker....