Stilettos

Last night I contributed a spot prize for a girls evening at our church.  Initially I was going to make cupcake bouquets but several months ago a friend of mine sent me a link to cupcakes that looked like shoes.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to make them!

If I was crazy rich I would probably own a lot of shoes.  I love my feet and how they look in shoes!  I think as women we have to have one favorite part of ourselves because we are certainly hard on ourselves on so many other levels.  Because I love shoes, I loved making these cupcakes!

I ended up doing two separate spot prizes because of how I presented the cupcakes.  Each cupcake is completely edible.  I did a cupcake for the toe, a biscuit for the sole and a licorice log for the heel.  For the little bags I made them out of two cupcakes.  Cupcakes are a chocolate mud.

Mainly Music Birthday

Each week I take my son to a music session that is put on by a group called Mainly Music.  It is a fantastic effort put on by several volunteers who each week put together songs for mums and their children as well as a great morning tea and play time. Mainly Music runs all over the country so visit this website if you wish to find one locally near you:  http://www.mainlymusic.org.nz/

The particular Mainly Music I go to was hosting its 15th year running this week so to celebrate they held a birthday party for the two sessions.  I was asked to make the cakes and was more than honored to do so.  I made a cake for each session but was able to re-use most of the decorations.  It was a great time singing all our favorite songs and catching up with familiar faces. 

Baby blue sneakers

This week has been a little bit crazy.  Somehow, I managed to wind up doing 4 cakes this week all due before Thursday which is strange because most cakes are required for a Saturday.  Call it lack of planning maybe.  Surprisingly I haven't had any late nights which is not really normal either.  My brother is here visiting so I plan to take a little break after this week.  One of the cakes for yesterday was a baby shower cake for one of my daughters kindy teachers.  It was a surprise baby shower at her school so I did not tell my daughter because I know she would have told the teacher who the surprise was for.

When I arrived at school with the cake my daughters face was one of pure delight.  When her teacher walked out and all of the kids yelled surprise she stood up very proudly and pointed to me, saying "My mummy made your cake."  When the cake had been cut up and the kids were all starting to dig in, she stood up and launched herself at me giving me a huge hug saying "Thank you for making the cake Mummy."  I nearly cried.  I had been feeling guilty being so busy but this moment of seeing my daughter proud of me, although so little, is something worth far more than money or approval from others.  I will never forget that moment.

Wild West Saloon

What a night.  Last night was my husbands 30th birthday party with a wild west theme.  Talk about a boys dream to dress up as a cowboy!  Five hours before the party started my husband and brother were running around the house practicing shoot outs and were dreaming up their outfits weeks before the party.  I was really impressed with the turnout of cowboys, saloon girls and Native Americans.   Everyone got really into it.  The food was yummy, the music was great, the people were fun and the cake was a hit. I have included recipe links of the food I made for the party (sorry there are no photos of the food, I tend to not take photos at a party and I just enjoy myself).  On the menu was chili, beer bread and wings - a cowboys feed.  All went down really well.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-ultimate-chili/detail.aspx
This is the link for the chili recipe.  It was a huge hit! I used one less tablespoon of chili and I also added  two tablespoons of garlic powder, one tablespoon of salt, three tablespoons of brown sugar and two tablespoons of honey.  I forgot the red wine in the end which I think it probably didn't need and I also thickened it up with some cornflour.  Normally I would have used the full amount of chili powder but was a bit concerned about my guests not liking spicy so I stuck with using less.  I served it with corn chips and grated cheese.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-buffalo-wings/detail.aspx
This is the recipe I used for the buffalo wings.  They turned out super yummy and went incredibly fast.  I highly recommend this.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/sticky-honey-soy-chicken-wings-recipe/index.html
This is the recipe for the honey and soy wings I used.  I didn't have cilantro so I left it out.  Also, I didn't fry them I just baked them with the above buffalo wings (200 degree C for 40 min - or until juices run clear, turning once) and then melted butter and honey together and brushed them with it at the end.  These were also a hit!

http://www.food.com/recipe/beer-bread-73440
This is the super easy recipe for the beer bread.  Anyone can make this, it is so easy.  I use self rising flour as you only have four ingredients to use then.  Make sure you do sift the flour as it does make a difference.

As for the cake, I was pretty excited to make this cake once I decided I knew what I was doing.  My favourite part is definitely the saloon girl in the window and the passed out cowboy on the side of the saloon.   It is a Mississippi mud cake and went much faster then it took to make.  Someone asked if I was sad to cut into my cakes but I am just as proud of the taste of my cakes as I am in how they look so I love people to eat them!