Miss Aine

Been a bit of a sick week in our house this week.Tummy bug all round. Today, however, needed some baking.  The parish is having an expo tomorrow to highlight the different groups in the church - I sing with the folk choir.  So I volunteered to make some buns for our table to tempt people over. Of course, I left it a little late to source materials so I didn't have any black food colouring for my music notes, made from marzipan.   Simple 'fairy' cakes with just glace icing, and the music notes popped on top. Not exactly shop quality but hopefully they'll do - I pictured them better in my head!

It's DH's birthday today so myself and Emily made a cake. Emily was chief decorator! (Isn't she getting big. So grown up)

One of our regular knitters at the Celbridge group is relocating to the UK so we planned a little party for her send-off. I offered to make a cake, but ended up making cupcakes as they'd be less messy and wouldn't need plates and forks. So much time was spent 'googling' knitting-themed cakes. And good old google came up trumps with the VeganYumYum blog and her beautiful ' knit night cupcakes' . I made fudgey-brownie type cupcakes topped with white chocolate icing. Then I used Lolo's tutorial to make the marzipan balls of yarn and added little cocktail stick knitting needles. Very happy with how they turned out!

Lucy, from Si and Lu , is doing a little bric-a-brac stall at one of the parks in Dublin this Sunday so her sister in law, Tammy, who runs the Sallins knitting group asked if anyone could add some baked goods. Everyone came up trumps and Tammy met her today with a car-bootful of treats. My contribution: chocolate fudge cakes Of course I tasted one, just to be sure they were okay. Yum yum!

Yesterday and today have been spent mostly baking for Smem's 3rd birthday (3 years!). I, helped by Smem, made Rice Krispie marshmallow squares, iced fairy cakes, chocolate brownies and carrot cake. Tomorrow is the actual party so I'm going to make a little simple sponge cake for the actual birthday cake. And now I should be typing up a pattern for a submission, and knitting the mystery KAL that I'm way behind on, but I'm too tired and not bothered enough. So I will sit and drink coffee(decaf of course!) and watch the tv!

Made using a special baking tray my mother got me for my birthday. You put the mixture in, then put in the divider, and pop it in the oven to cook. Once its cooked and cooled down a bit, take out the dividers and you have perfectly shaped and edged brownies. Pretty cool invention!

In DH's work they have team meeting every month or two. And some of the team members generally bring in goodies to eat for their elevenses. This time DH asked if I would make some - he put me down for around 50 buns!!!! So I did some baking Saturday, Monday and Wednesday (freezing saturday and monday's stuff to keep it) and some icing this afternoon. All in all, I made Banana Cupcakes with white chocolate icing and walnuts, Blueberry Cupcakes with icing sugar dusted on top, a Apple Streusel Cake and Cappucino Squares. Hopefully it all turned out well as they've not been test eaten as I wanted to save everything for the actual meeting!

Okay so Smem won't be 2 until next Sunday, but we will be down in Wexford at a wedding so we had her birthday party yesterday. So no crafting to write about as I was cleaning and baking like a crazy lady for the second half of the week. Forgot to take any pictures. Just took one of the biscuit cake I made. I also make chocolate cupcakes, carrot & pineapple muffins, and raspberry & coconut muffins. I also made chicken and veg for the kids. I also made loads of sandwiches to go with the vegetable soup that DH made. It was a great day. Everyone was in good form and all the kids played peacefully together. Smem got another two baby dolls so we have enough babies now to start a creche!

Very sleepless night last night so I wasn't up for doing much today. I did some baking this evening as its the only time when Smem won't keep insisting that I go out into the garden with her. I'd seen a recipe for raspberry coconut muffins but didn't have the right ingredients. So I found a recipe for blueberry and white chocolate muffins and just substituted. I haven't tried them yet, so hopefully they're nice! I also solved the dilema of what to wear to the wedding tomorrow (that stripey pink dress just isn't doing it for me). I got a Zara dress at one of the local second hand stores for €7 Its really pretty and I just have the shorten the straps a bit and it will be fine on me. Which I must do tonight as the wedding is tomorrow!

Today didn't start to great as somebody didn't really feel the need to sleep last night. However, there was much baking to be done in preparation for the party tomorrow so I got straight down to it once we were dressed. First up was the birthday cake - a chocolate victoria sandwich (pictured left). I still need to ice it, which I had intended doing tonight but I'm feeling rather tired so I'll have to see. Then I made blueberry cookies, which I forgot to take a picture of, and little fairy cakes (pictured right). Last up was a no-bake biscuit cake which is in the fridge setting at the moment. Hopefully it will turn out okay. I'm just surprised my oven didn't break - it's never seen this much action!