Cupcakes

It was a dear little girl's 2nd birthday party today and I gleefully made cupcakes to help celebrate the occasion!

raspberry creme butterfly cakes

 the birthday girl checks for quality

Bec's cupcakes with the cutest animals - I have a lion bookmark now!

life is sweet

Food for a city

The last few weeks have completely been about my latest and last big production for RYT - BigSmoke, a play made with and for 5-9 year olds in the Riverland.  Everything else has been put on hold, pretty much, as we rehearsed, teched, toured and performed 8 performances across four venues for 14 schools.  BigSmoke was a wonderful production, it was amazing fun to work on and i got to play with a fabulous creative team and 5 very talented and inspiring young RYT members.

our audience sat in the middle as the story unfolded 

around them on three sides and through the centre.

The lovely emma and hew who played Bethany and Jimmy

we discovered so much by having them in the team.

With long days of rehearsals and shows we needed much food to keep up energy, concentration and the creative juices flowing.  Lots of lunches were sandwiches but I made the most of having a crowd to bake for to add to the mix.  I went back to many recipes I hadn't made in years, made up a few new ones and tackled a few allergy issues in the mix. The evening cooking extravagance included: corn bread, pumpkin scones, banana and blueberry muffins, gluten & dairy free anzac biscuits, tomato, chorizo, capsicum and pumpkin pasta bake, tuna and mushroom pasta bake, gluten, dairy and egg free chocolate birthday cake, chocolate slice, & scone scrolls - cheese, pizza & blue cheese, apple & walnut.  I also had some of the crew for dinner and we had a pastry extravaganza including my favourite lentil and spinach en croute, beef, halomi and sweet potato pies and apple & honey tarte tatin. Finally last night was apple crumble for a celebratory dessert with my friend and stage manager Jess on her last night.

In the midst of the season we had a public gala performance with lots of guests and friends from the Riverland and Adelaide.  My lovely friend Alice, 'the biggest maker of special occasion cakes in the Riverland' helped me out by taking care of most of the party catering.  we had her famous sausage rolls, fabulous cupcakes authentically decorated by 8 year old Lucy and 10 year old Sally, plus a very special BigSmoke cake.  in the play it is described as being a mixture of smoked salmon and smoked almonds and when you bite into it smoke comes out of your nose.....

The cupcakes went fast, so bright and sugary they were very popular!

The BigSmoke

this version was strawberry cream with flaked almonds and so so sinfully good to eat

The BigSmoke Season is over and I am exhausted but happy.  I have no flour left in the house and have used up many other ingredients out of the pantry which is good.  I have two & a half weeks left in the house, 10 days until the removalist comes and three & a half weeks until I leave this job and there is so much to do.  I better start.

Barossa Treasures

The gorgeous Alice F and I had a girls road trip to the Barossa on Saturday and I couldn't have thought up a more perfect way to spend a day.

We left pretty early (7am ish) and headed down to the Barossa Farmers Market and headed straight to the breakfast - coffee, fresh oj and egg and bacon rolls - so very good.  I had mine with beetroot relish - yum

barossa fm breakfast

sated we then had a good look around.  my first stop was Careme for gorgeous cake and pastry.  I picked up sourdough fruit bread - my absolute favourite bread and a lush chocolate brownie with fig.  I convinced Alice to try the lemon tart - they are too good.

Careme goodies on offer

I wanted to buy a Careme shopping bag as a keepsake but they gave it to me for free!

after the market we hit the towns Angaston and Tanunda for op shopping adventures.  The awesome secondhand clothes shop in Angaston was shut but I managed to pick up a couple of funky aprons...

$2, $5, $1.50

some lovely glassware

 10c - $2.99

and some retro craft books for inspiration

$1 each

I also grabbed a couple of shirts and an old sheet for craft fabric projects - not sure what yet.....

I seemed to be inspired by autumn colours on this outing

After so much shopping - for so little money we headed back to Angaston for a late late lunch at Blonde Coffee a gorgeous cafe and deli/food store that I love for it's atmosphere and simple yet tasty food, great coffee and chai and lush cakes.  it is the kind of place I would love to run one day and the kind of place I so wish we had in the Riverland.

It was the best of days, with fun window shopping and antique browsing, bargain buys, such good food and the best company.  sweet memories - thanks alice :-)

night of cake

Tomorrow it is the RYT Program Launch for 2010.  My last and I have decided that since it is RYT's 25th birthday this year that it should be a year of cake! even if i'm not around all year to partake.

So to kick it off I've spent a good part of the night making cakes.  36 cup cakes, 36 little carrot patty cakes and two chocolate cakes. 

I decided to try out a few recipes from  my new cook book afternoon tea by frankie!  Vanilla cup cakes, simplicity chocolate cake and carrot cake which i made in little patty cases too. All very easy and turned out pretty well.  I have cup cake stands and plates ready to go.  Now I just need people to turn up and eat them!

 

cup of tea?