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Posts tagged: Baking

The Best Birthday

25 May 2010

This year was probably the best birthday I’ve had for a very long time, probably since I was really little and birthdays were always so exciting. But this year I was completely spoilt by everyone I love and I feel so grateful to have so many people who know me so well and buy me amazing gifts like these:
lampanddeer

Lynds and I found these vintage chalkware deers in a cute little vintage shop in Summer Hill the week before my birthday. I love them and when I have a proper garden I’m going to start a real collection of garden ornaments. The owl lamp was given to me by Christina and is by this great etsy seller called fruit fly pie. She also does these cool giant cupcake containers, which I bought for Lynds last christmas.

KWnecklace

My friend Sugako bought me this amazing Karen Walker Necklace, which I had (not surprisingly) been eyeing off at Incu. I completely love it and the best thing about Karen Walker is that she has the same initials as me, so everything looks like its meant to be.

snowwhite

I got this great snowwhite print from my friend Ange. She bought it from this cute artist on etsy called The Poppy Tree.

rabbitteaset

I love this rabbit miniature tea set Lynds got for me so much, it’s soooo cute.

unakiThis is the belt I got from my parents, care of Unaki at The Finders Keepers market. It is so beautifully made! All the brass elements are hand cast and its all made in Australia. As well as this, the people behind Unaki were SO lovely and I’m so glad I own something special by them. They have a cute online store too.

jacketThis is the AMAZING leather jacket my boy Trev surprised me with. It’s possibly the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen and definately the prettiest thing I own. The leather is embroidered with a repeating heart pattern all over it (It’s called the “I adore you” Jacket, how cute s that!) and it’s the perfect red. Alannah Hill does some of the cutest fashion ever and I’m completely in love with her website (and stores!), it’s just a shame (but probably a good thing) she doesn’t have an online store.

snowball

On my birthday Trev and I went to Quay restaurant for lunch and we had this awesome dessert called a”Snow Egg”. It’s basically a ball of ice cream, meringe and toffee, coated in icing sugar on a bed of strawberry and guava granita. It was to die for! You can even watch a video of it being made here.

bourkest

And speaking of great food, this book (from Lynds) is the worst thing to read when you’re hungry. It’s full of pastries, breads and awesome looking pies. We’re planning to slowly work our way through it on weekends. Kx

Quince Season

28 April 2010

On the weekend we were pretty excited to discover quinces are in season! I was excited mostly because since I met my boy I’d heard a lot about how amazing quinces are and considering I’ve never seen or tasted them other than in paste form this sounded pretty good to me! Also Trev is pretty clever in the kitchen so whenever he speaks about something he likes to cook I know it’ll be good regardless!

This is what the looked like before we baked them. They are kind of like really hard giant yellow apples. We combined cinnamon sticks, vanilla bean paste, lemon juice, water and brown sugar in a baking pan and basically just slow cooked them under foil for 2 and half hours.

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And this is the amazing colour they went in the process!

redquince

And this was the finished product! I’ve gotta say they totally beat apple and rhubarb and would make an amazing crumble. And they turned out perfectly, unlike our Masterchef Gnocchi which was a giant mashed potatoey mess, worse than when most of the dud contestants cooked it. Despite this, it still tasted pretty good! Kx

quinces3

Slime and snails and puppy dog tails

30 March 2010

So a few nice things happened last weekend. Being a completely free agent, I headed straight out to explore some new op-shops and try my luck on the other side of the bridge.

I did get this great little floral arrangement behind a glass bubble complete with beautiful forest green velvet ribbon (no idea what they call these, but I love them!) which I’m most pleased with and added straight to my wall.

wallflowernew

It fit in nicely alongside this other one I got a few weeks back from my favourite antique shop in Newtown.

Now, although I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the op-shops on the North side on Sydney (I really didn’t have high hopes), I did get my favourite Karen Walker sunglasses stolen from the change room, WHILE I WAS IN IT. So I remain pessimistic about the whole thing. And there was also a certain Salvos that advertised itself as “Sydney’s finest op-shop” which was full of absolute CRAP. I mean, worse than crap. Beyond crap. Not even bad 80′s crap. So, yeah. I won’t being going back to that one :)

wallflower

I also caught up with some friends and therefore had an opportunity to bake (or more importantly, someone to eat the baking)! These are vanilla with strawberry jam centres. And, seeing as I’m still trying to plough through the pile of limes I got from Lynds and Ben’s lime tree a week or so ago, I made lime icing which was nice and zingy!

strawberrylime

And I got to meet “Inches”! I must say he’s possibly the cutest puppy I’ve ever met. He’s an italian greyhound incase you’re wondering and his big brother “Miles” is a standard Greyhound.

inches&miles1

milesandinches2

The best things in life are free, or close to it.

22 February 2010

I really believe it’s the little things in life I like the best. And often the thrill of finding something fantastic for hardly any moola is one of the best things in the world.

fave2Like these cute plastic birdy whistles for $1 each at Vinnies.

dress1

And this dress which also cost $1 at Roselle Markets on the weekend. Replacing the hideous buttons that were on it cost $4, but that’s ok.

dress2

And this dress, which cost $10 from one of those cheapy shops (you know the ones). I always laugh because whenever I see floral, I hear my mothers voice in my head, telling me how much I used to hate it as a teenager. Just like she likes to remind Lynds how she liked to complain about being dressed in red when she was little and now black and red are pretty much her standard attire. Mums remember the funniest stuff sometimes.

cupcakewrapper

Mum also got me these great cupcake liners from spotlight the other day. I avoid that place like the plague nowadays, having worked there for way too long, but I think these were bought in for easter, which was always a fun time of year to work there, having so many bunny related things around.hotcrossAnd speaking of easter, I was not the only one who was totally thrilled to find bakers delight has FINALLY started making their choc chip hot cross buns!! Which is another awesome thing about easter. These aren’t the exact ones I bought, but they tasted pretty good! And I know it’s way too early to be thinking about easter, but there’s never a bad time for hot cross buns or any kind of baked treat in my books. Kx

The best thing about birthdays!

19 February 2010

Having a birthday this week was both good and bad – bad cause I’m getting older which I’m really against and good cause I got some GREAT presents!! Check these out! Lx
The most awesome skull cupcakes that Kell made for me!
skull cakes

Finally one thing I’ve always wanted – a union jack patchwork quilt!! Handmade by mum and Kell (the smartest ladies I know!).

union jack patchwork quilt

These awesome bobbing head animals, mini apple containers and penguin correction tape – straight from Japan!!

things from Japan

These beautiful French childrens books featuring illustrations buy some of my favourite artists! The best thing about these books is they are mostly in French so I don’t have to feel guilty about only looking at the pictures!!

books

And this Marc Jacobs apple ring – because Kell knows I love everything apple! yay!

apple-ring

10 things I love this week

3 February 2010

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These vintage miniature floral puppies I got at vinnies last week. But really, any miniature ceramic animal is a winner with me.

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This ceramic wall bow I bought for $2! Who would throw this out?

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Bunnies!

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Bunnies!

junobg2

And specifically this bunny. Because she tolerates my cuddles if I scratch her head. Oh and because she is SO pretty.

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Floral Everything.

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These vintage floral plates which I plan to draw on with the porcelaine pens Lynds bought me.

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Cupcake liners!

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and finding great, colourful things to decorate cupcakes with!

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My christmas deers that stay out all year because they are too pretty to pack away.

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My new Polaroid Pogo printer! This is by far one of the most exciting finds of late. It spits out tiny polaroid sticky-back photos in under 60 seconds and does it via bluetooth from your phone or computer! Excellent!

10 things I hate about you, Money.

28 January 2010

Here are ten things I’m dreaming of owning if my funds permitted me to do so.

deery

Obviously, a baby deer is out of the question, but this print, is not.

isabella

And neither is this one. Bunnies and swans, for goodness sake, what more could a girl ask for.

paws

lamby

I’ve blogged about the amazing Mon Petit Fantome before, and these two prints in his etsy store make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

deery2

This vintage deer. Like a velveteen rabbit only cuter.

bewitched

This original Caitlin Shearer painting. Love it.

greenrabbit

This funny little felted rabbit.

cakeland

This print is by Justin Richel and makes me want to bake.

bunnytin

As does this bunny tin!

pinwheels

And these little paper pinwheels you can buy from this super cool baking supply etsy store.

birdbelt

And finally this Marc Jacobs Birdy belt. Oh how I love you.

Ok, technically I think that’s eleven, but I couldn’t decide :) Kx

Cookie Monster

14 January 2010

plenty2 plenty

I did some more baking while I was on holidays after visiting a store called Plenty in Bondi Junction. This store has the most amazing baking section with coloured sprinkles and icing galore! I was quite scared by how much money I could have spent, but settled on some black icing colouring and sprinkles to match. The store is on level 5 near Wheel and Barrow incase you are searching for it! Here is some photos of the cookies I baked using my ikea cookie cutters and new icing colours.

raw cookie

baked cookies

iced cookies

The main reason I baked these was because someone lovely bought me this fantastic cookie and cupcake decorating set by Swiss brand Kuhn Rikon and I was dying to try it out. It worked really well (so much better than a piping bag!) and was super fun to use. I think my favourite cookies are the orange fox and the black Juno bunnies which I sprinkled with these, making them glittery and almost furry looking.

Baking Days

26 December 2009

cupcakes

cupcakesdetail

choccakes3

choccakes1

catcookies

rabbitcookies

Lately there has been a lot of lovely people in my life having birthdays and being the festive season too, there is no need for an excuse to bake anyway. But here are some of my latest attempts for you to see. The cookies are on these great ceramic cat & bunny plates, Lynds gave me the bunny one from when she op-shopped in Melbourne and I stole the cat from mum. They are great! Also see the great pink plastic heart cut out doily I got at Ikea last time I was there. Kx

Babycakes

23 August 2009

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bcakes2

If your ever in need of something super tiny and cute to give for a birthday or take along to a special occasion, look no further than Babycakes. These little gems are super tasty and look so pretty! And above all else, the packaging is almost as good as the cakes themselves. Kx