Sassy Apron Swap. Fall Edition.

A few weekends ago I turned three ironing board covers into this:


and this:Yay, my apron is finished! And is now at home in it's new home where I hope it is loved as much as I love it, in fact as much as I wish it could of stayed with me :)

I thought I would never get any inspiration for this swap, all the brightly coloured summer fabrics are coming out here now and was giving up hope of finding a great 'autumn fabric'. The fabric I used is actually a few ironing board covers that I found in a sale bin on my way out of Spotlight the Thursday before the Monday it was due... Those apples, they just won me over!

Hmmm I've also realized that I seem to like making it a tad harder for myself and don't like to use normal material (in the last swap I used tea towels). This time, however I actually used a pattern (Kwik Sew 3386) so at least the sewing was quicker and I didn't have to think about measurements (something I'm not so good at!). The ironing boards also had the perfect coloured bias binding which I was able to reuse - even though it did takes ages to unpick!

I also added in Grandma's recipe for apple crumble, which in hindsight tied in quite well with the apron design!

Such a cute apron design I think I'm just going to have to whip one up for myself (after I finish the sewing and craft projects I've got going at the moment..)

Mgn's birthday cake..

over 900 gram's of melted chocolate...

+

8 eggs!
=

one superb and overly large birthday cake for my little drummer!


This is The Cake that I made for morgan's 18th which involved an awful lot of 'googling' for cake and icing recipes etc. The bottom layer was a chocolate mud cake and the top layer was a caramel mud cake - they were both as equally as scrummy and very rich! The icing was white chocolate ganache on the top and dark chocolate ganache on the side. I then used marzipan to mould the drum brackets (with morgan's much needed help at 10 o'clock at night because I was stressing!) these were then painted with edible silver paint. The strawberries were added at the last minute because i felt that it needed abit of colour and we dipped them in white chocolate and laid them on a bed of cream :)



The bottom layer actually took two goes to make, because I decided to use a 12" pan (which we hired out from a local cake shop) because basically I'm insane and like to make things hard for myself. The first recipe, which was a chocolate mud cake I made from scratch was too dense and because of the size of the pan the outside was crunchy and the middle would just not cook and so it ended up collapsing in on itself. But mummy came to the rescue (who knew mother's actually know so much :P) and she saved the day by suggesting using this chocolate packet cake recipe which you could add melted chocolate and cream to make it into a mudcake. Because it was not as dense and heavy the 3 packet quantity cooked quite well at 150 degrees for a little more than an hour. And we also saved the original cake which turned into more of a pudding which we served with cream as a dessert when we took some friends out on the boat - still just as yummy and liked even more than the drum cake by some people!

and here's a picture of us with the cake, so you can see just how big it is in comparison to our heads! Morgan seems pretty engrossed in it!


and now we have cake coming out of our ears (and our freezer) and when guests come over we try and feed them large amounts of cake. In fact we're having our good friend's Sam and Leesa over for dinner on Saturday night and when she asked if they could bring dessert I was all "ah remember that massive cake?..."

I'm pretty pleased with the end result although I would of liked to have some drum sticks placed on the top of the bigger cake (but Morgan didn't have any new ones that weren't chewed up and do you know how much those little pieces of wood cost??). I also would of liked to have made some brand labels but ran out of time. I've also realised that marzipan is an art form and I probably should have cut and dented it neatly before putting it around the cake. Oh well, I enjoyed making it and the taste was subperb (I'm so in love with ganache icing!) BUT I don't want to bake or look at another cake for at least 3 months!

to have with tea..

Raspberry-spiked choc brownies

i made these brownies for a recent family get together and it was just so yummy that I even got requests for the recipe - don't you just love when that happens? I originally got the recipe from a lady at work who made it on the weekend for a do and brought the rest into 'us' at the office on Monday, so she wouldn't eat all of it herself. It is a given that this would of been the outcome because it is just so chocolaty and buttery and yummy! And I say 'us' both in italics and as a loose term because it was mostly me who ate pretty much the whole thing (although I assure you it was over a period of 2-3 days ;) so that is my plea to my fellow office staff - guilty for eating most of the brownie and guilty for throughly enjoying every mouthful of it!

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it yourself...

200g (7oz) dark chocolate, chopped
250g (8 oz) butter
1 3/4 cups of brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa, sifted
1 1/2 cups of raspberries, fresh or frozen (i used frozen)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and smooth. Place in a bowl with the sugar and eggs. Sift over the flour, baking powder and cocoa and mix to combine. Pour into a 23cm (9in) greased square cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Top the mixture with the raspberries (i pushed them in a little too) and bake for 30-35 mins or until set. serve warm or cold.

the photographs on this post are some great old shots i found whilst looking through my old photos tonight. They were taken as part of my year 12 photography major. The top image is myself and my good friend (and hairdresser) Corinne. I'm still impressed we managed to fit that table, the chairs, all the china, props chandelier (hanging in the tree) and about 5 dress changes into my tiny little excel!

after christmas...

so the Christmas season is finally over and i just want to say Merry Christmas to everyone out there in the blogging world (and whom ever reads this post!) Thankyou for all your crafty ideas and inspirations on your beautiful blogs! i was inspired this year to make gifts, try my hand at making shortbread and gingerbread men and this made my Christmas so much more enjoyable!

I also thought i'd post up this yummy recipe for left over Christmas Turkey..because i think it's a great idea AND so i didn't want to loose the recipe!! :)


Turkey Lettuce Wraps:

• 160g bean vermicelli noodles (also called Rice Vermicelli..the long skinny noodles)
  
• 40g snow-pea sprouts, trimmed
• 3 green onions, finely sliced (aka shallots)
• 1 carrot, grated
• 200g shredded leftover turkey
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
• ½ teaspoon fish sauce
• butter-lettuce leaves, washed
  
  1.Place noodles in a large heatproof owl and cover with boiling water. Stand for 5 minutes then drain. Rinse under cold water. Drain well. Return to bowl and roughly chop with scissors.
  2. Add snow-pea sprouts, onion, carrot, turkey and coriander. In separate bowl, combine juice and sauces, then toss through turkey mixture.
  3. Place piles of mixture onto lettuce leaves for guests to roll up and eat

This has quickly become a favourite recipe and quick healthy lunch. I also tried the same mixture with lettuce, extra sweet chilli sauce and mayonnaise in a tortilla wrap - it was also scrummy!

now it seems i've taken to eating many meals in little lettuce bundles, including Mum's chicken stir fry with cashews and vermicelli noodles. it's nice to think i'm being healthy and theres something so simplistic and fun about eating with your fingers, placing together your meal as you eat! :)

This morning I also sat myself down with our pile of Christmas cards and some scissors. This is another of my 'After Christmas Ideas' as the cut-up pretty pictures on the front of the cards make great little gift tags for Christmas presents the next year..and can save on another Christmas expense. This is also a great idea for recycling those amazing hand made cards that just too amazing to throw away.


In other news I would just like to say Happy Birthday to my Grandma who's birthday was yesterday, New Years Day. I spent alot of time with my grandma growing up 'helping her' with meals on wheels, sitting impatiently at her side as she sewed yet another dolls and barbie clothes, pjamas or dresses for me, all the while wearing my 'Grandma spoils me hat', boy i loved that hat! and who could forget the christmas decoration craft, made out of old christmas cards cut into triangler shapes, bended and glued together in a sphere shape! she was also crafty with her own children, making cardboard stencils of cars and sewing cute clothes for all 6 of them!

Happy Birthday BUMA - i love you!!