Very exciting news!

I passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a very stressful day of testing, I passed my motorcycle license test and now all that's left to do is get out there and enjoy riding!! No more skills testing, no more riding for the sake of practising, it's all about riding for the sake of riding...and about time too!!

Huge big thank you to Mr B for all his time, effort and patience...(even when he had a tone in teaching me xx

Mrs B (B for Bad Biker B$%ch!!) xx

Candy Cane Whoopie Pies

The first week of December is always very exciting in our house, not only does it mean the onset of Christmas but it also means the Toy Run. The Toy Run is where thousands of bikes, laden with toys, ride together into the city where we fill up the waiting Salvation Army trucks, have a drink and just revel in the fact that the entire waterfront is just full of bikes as far as the eye can see....and anyone who rides a bike will know the sound of all those bikes thundering down the highway is incredible...but what I love the most? All the people that come out and line the streets, the excited kids, the families, the oldies, it just attracts everyone and being a part of it is the best feeling. Hopefully next year I will be confident and experienced enough to take my own bike :)


This year we were treated to an air show by 6 jets whilst we were down at the waterfront.


Dad's bike, my Uncle's new bike and OH's bike


OH and I ready for a drink in the sun and a sticky beak at all the bikes!

The onset of Christmas to me means Christmas trees and decorations and lots of time with family and friends....but it also means christmas baking! My head is filled with ideas involving marshmallows and gingerbread and reindeer and holly sprigs...but at the top of my list??

These Candy Cane Whoopie Pies!


For the whoopie pies I used the Classic Chocolate Whoopie recipe from Amy Treadwell's Whoopie Pie cookbook, although I halved it, and I also adapted the Mint Buttercream recipe from that book as well.

Classic Chocolate Whoopies

Just under 1 cup of plain flour (about .8 or .9 of a cup)
1/3 cup cocoa
.75 tspn baking soda
1/4 tspn salt
4 tbspns butter melted
.5 cup sugar
1 egg
.5 cup milk

Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until smooth.

If the mixture seems too thin, let it sit for a few mins and it will thicken up.

Heat the oven to 180C and spray 2 x baking trays or whoopie pie trays with cooking spray.

Drop tbspns of the batter onto trays about 3-4cms apart. Place the trays in the oven, one at a time for 10 mins or until they spring back when lightly touched.

Allow the cakes to cool before filling.

Candy Cane Buttercream

2 cups icing sugar
125g butter
1 tspn peppermint essence
1/2 tspn strawberry essence
1-2 drops pink food colouring (you might not need this if your strawberry essence is pink)
12 long candy canes

Combine everything except the candy canes in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat well. The buttercream should be nice and thick. The best way to check it is to get a tablespoon full and hold it upside down, if it holds its shape and stays on the spoon it's good! Set the frosting aside.

Carefully snap the top ends off your candy canes to creat 12 mini candy canes. Set these aside.

Put the remaining candy cane ends in a freezer bag (I suggest double bagging), take them outside and bash them with a mallet until they are nice and crushed.


Now for the assembly!

Take 1 of your whoopie pies and place a good tablespoon of filling in the centre. Top with another whoopie pie and squeeze the two gently together to push the filling out to the sides. Now roll the edges in the crushed candy cane. Place about 1/4 tspn of filling on top of the whoopie pie and push one of the mini candy canes into it. Repeat with remaining whoopie pies and filling.


These just look so cute!! And they taste amazing...believe me, we struggled not to eat all the filling while the whoopie pies were cooling down!!

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Em x

Fathers Day 2011

Today is Fathers Day so what better way to start the day then with this gorgeous fruit platter....


Then we went to have a beer with OH's Dad, Dad's Dad and Mum's Dad before going to a local seafood cafe for lunch...I have to say lunch was so good I forgot to take photos, but let's just say there were sweet potato cakes, tempura mushrooms and fish burgers and it was good!!

We finished the day off with some presents and a quiet drink at Mum and Dads...but the best Fathers Day present ever?! Dad and I going on our first bike run together :)


HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!

Em x

My New Toy :)

I think I mentioned a few posts ago that I had got my learner's license for a motorbike...well apparently to make some use of that, you need a motorbike! So this weekend OH and I travelled to Burnie which is 3.5 hours drive away and at the other end of the state to us.

We have a massive problem with eating too much rubbish on road trips, bags of lollies, boxes of shapes, it's horrid, so this time I decided to plan ahead....I got up early and made OH an egg and bacon roll for brekkie and I made myself a fruit salad, I also made OH a huge ham salad roll and myself a pumpkin and feta salad and we were set!


It was a massive drive, a very long day, we drove through snow, rain, we found some sunshine then we lost it again but we came home with my new bike, my new baby...I know I still need alot of practise before I hit the road, but at least now I have a bike to do it on! Yay!


And all the healthy food we packed stopped us snacking despite being bored stupid for 7 hours in the car! Double yay!!

Hope you all had a fantastic long weekend x

Em

It's All Happening!!

OH went to work at 6am this morning and it is freezing here so I cranked the electric blanket and jumped back into bed for a snooze. It's now 8am and I'm sitting in my warm snuggly bed with a bowl of toasted honey muesli and a hot cup of tea thinking I could quite easily stay here all day! And believe me I would but it's been awhile since OH has worked a full weekend and to be honest I'm quite looking forward to it. I have heaps of stuff planned for this weekend, this morning I'm going out for a coffee with Mum and Dad and my Uncle and Aunty who are visiting from interstate that we haven't seen for at least 5 years and I'm really looking forward to that. And then I'm going to have lunch with OH and we have a Liveat date (Liveat is fantabulous, like Subway but a million times better) and then *drum roll* I'm getting a new tattoo, I can't wait. This one is more of an addition on an old one, but it's going to incorporate my parent's initials and two of my favourite things - cupcakes and shoes!! I'll come back later and post photos and tell you how it all went!'

In other news, due to some boys are morons and you should spend your life living for you moments this week, my best friend Allie and I have decided to finally bite the bullet and go for our motorcycle learner's license. We are all booked in for an intro to riding course on Monday afternoon (and my Mum's even coming with us!) and once we do that we can go to a Pre Learner's Weekend where you do like a ride around and stuff and then you just have to do a written test and ta da! Allie and Emily on the road again!! We are both mega excited (and terrified!) and I think Mum is mega terrified (with a hint of excitement!) but it is something both Allie and I have always wanted to do so fingers crossed it all goes ok and we manage to stay upright!

Anyway, I have to drag my warm butt out of bed and shave my legs so the tattoo lady thinks I have soft, silky smooth legs all the time (why the hell do I care??) - I'll be back this arvo!

Ok so I'm back now! Catching up with my Aunty and Uncle was fantastic, sat in the sun with a nice cup of tea and had a great catch up, it was just like they never left :)

OH was too busy for lunch, but that's fine, he was cranky anyway.

So after a satisfying lunch of chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate I have officially found my new favourite tattoo artist and possibly the woman of my dreams (if I was that way inclined)....Candice spent a good 2.5hours on my tattoo, we used 14 different colours and I was totally enthralled the whole way through, I love watching the whole thing come together and she did an amazing job, I couldn't have asked for anything better! What do you think?




I think I'm in love!!

Em x