I am by no means a gourmet cook or even a fantabulous cook, but I do love cooking and experimenting and making different dishes. I grew up in a family where we didn't eat red meat and dinner usually consisted of chicken and vegies or vegies and baked beans or quiche and vegies or baked beans....you get the idea! I think thats why I rarely resort to those sort of dishes unless I'm desperate or need something super easy. I try and make different stuff every night and since my husband to be is a meat eating machine I have really had no choice (also due to disgustingly low iron levels and several episodes of blacking out on the neighbours lawns - all very akward....) but to start eating a bit of red meat here and there and I find the best way to do this is to hide it in things such as curries, casseroles and stir frys....but in saying that I also practise a similar theory in getting my partner to eat vegetarian products.....the night we were sitting down eating shepards pie and I mentioned half way through that it was vegetarian mince I seriously thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head and right onto his fork.....
Anyway, we eat pretty much anything and everything now. Plus I do alot of baking for my partner's lunches so once a week I have a big baking day and he gets all sorts of things that his work mates love to pick on him for....I think they are really jealous because they have a bag of fatty oily take away and Tynan (my partner) has home made goodies...although they are often shaped like lil hearts or tonka trucks, what can I say, I have to embarrass him a little!
So my latest craze is cupcakes! Now I know what you are thinking, everyone, everywhere has done cupcakes to death and surely it can't last much longer, but I beg to differ. Sweet little cakes with delicious frosting and/or filling....always a winner in my book! Plus down here where I live the RSPCA have a yearly Cupcake Day where participants bake cupcakes in exchange for donations to the fund, and this year they have extended the fundraising period from about 3 weeks ago until Oct. In an effort to raise more money I decided that every person who donated between now and Oct will get a personalised batch of any sort of cupcakes they want and I am loving it to death. Just last week I did some Dora the Explorer cupcakes and some Geelong AFL cupcakes for the children of a colleague and I was stressed and nervous and mentally beating myself up for agreeing to do them, but in the end they came out so well and the looks on the kids faces was brilliant. It just needed a bit of imagination. I initially thought I had seen Dora biscuits somewhere and was going to simply stick one in some pink icing on top of the cake...but turns out that was my imagination playing tricks on me and there was no such thing as Dora biscuits, anyway, eventually I found some Dora school book labels and I used these and some toothpicks to make some tiny flags to put in the pink icing and then covered them in pink sprinkles, just gorgeous! And for those of you who don't know Geelong is an AFL team in Australia with a white and navy blue jumper. After using a whole vial of blue food dye I got the icing a reasonable shade of blue (although not quite navy) and piped blue lines across the white icing on the cakes. Also my first attempt at using a piping bag apart from Hot Cross Buns so was most pleased with that too! Then I used some cola straps cut into thin strips to put the numbers on the jerseys. I was really pleased with the outcome, even if I did look like a smurf from all the dye! Nothing like going into a challenge with no idea how you are going to do it and coming out the other end knowing you accomplished something!
Tomorrow....A honey rice bubble slice and I finally bite the bullet and make my first risotto....
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