A Wiggles cake, a wedding cake and Sareybears 40th b'day cake ....

Hello and welcome back to what has been an incredible month ....

Let's get straight into the world of cakes as its been a very busy time.

Amy and James are getting married in October and have asked me to do their wedding cake but first  was their daughter Ruby's 2nd b'day weekend. Here is the Wiggles cake which I finished yesterday.

 This cake was baked and decorated inbetween my first week back at work after 4 weeks holiday (sensational), mum being in hospital (she's OK) and Coco the 16yr old Burmese causing mayhem at the vet (just make sure her heat bag is warm, its not hard).

The one thing I am struggling with at the moment is time. Working 6 days a week plus having a very active life its hard to fit everything in. I love making the cakes so something is going to have to change next year ... stand by ...

The below wedding cake was completed 48hours after I got off QF 2 from London Heathrow on a Thursday at 05:00am. Yes agreed, I don't usually make things easy for myself.... however the bride and groom (Georgina and Tom) are very lovely people who were using all local suppliers for their wedding and I very much wanted to be a part of their big day. And besides, sleeping is overrated .. the jet lag would just have to wait until I was ready ....

For this cake the bottom tier was make with silver leaf which was awesome to work with once I worked out how to use it. Big high five to me for ordering 2 x packets of silver leaft as I went through the 1st packet in 10 mins royally stuffing it up!!!!

Kirstie, one of my fabulous colleagues from Cake Decorating Solutions made the flowers for me ... there was no way in the world I would have the time or patience and Kirstie flowering making talent is brilliant!!!!

The flavours for this cake were awesome. We had white choc hazelnut, choc mud with caramel mixed in (like a paddlepop), choc raspberry mud and then white choc with strawberries and cream.

One of the reasons I went back to the UK in July was for Sareybears (aka Sara) 40th b'day. The theme for her party was to be canapes, cocktails and cake so I wanted the cake to be extra special.

Sareybear, Els and I were flatmates in London from 1999 - 2001. Can honestly say that those years were just the best ever. We created 2 x homes where everyone was welcome and there were many many nights of everyone being at our house for all hours or just staying over. All my years in London were what the "London years' were supposed to be all about and the friends/people/work people that were introduced to me in that time have helped create the best memories ever!!!

But as we know time doesn't stand still. We all had to grow up and get half serious eventually. Sareybear married the love of her life Marcus, bought their first home, and now have 2 beautiful daughters who are just simply divine named Lucy and Marnie.

Sarey has been our kindred spirit (yes from Anne of Green Gables, cant beat it!!!) from the very first moment she rang the doorbell looking for a room to rent at Silver Crescent. Sarey is one of the closest people to me in my life and when I see her and am welcomed back each time into the Jones family home in London, you just know everything is going to be alright. Everything in their home that she and Marcus have created all just fits brilliantly and its what a home should be, especially when you have the biggest plate of Sarey's spaghetti bol in front of you ......

This was my practice cake ... to make sure the oven and I liked eachother. Was a BBC classic victoria sponge ... just take note of all raspberries and blueberries ... so lovely ....

Making the ganache for the 100's and 1000's cake ... I very rarely make ganache now cause I generally royally fark it up but I had to in this case as there wasn't anywhere to buy pre made ... crossing fingers.

And breathe ... actually turned out to be the best batch I have ever made!!!

Using proper English ingredients - Petrice you will be happy to know that the eggs were the most free rangeist organicist I could find!!!!

Kitchen envy again!!! Loved it ... and Sarey and Marcus modelled the design on Silver Crescent with the cooking area looking on to the table so everyone is in the room together ... the way it should be.

The lanterns ... they looked fab. This is getting the theme ready for the party ...

Back to the task at hand ...ganache YES ... first layer of icing ... going on ... Please be mindful that it was 34 degrees, half 6 in the evening and the party guests were arriving VERY SOON!!!

The tray of joy ... literally 100's and 1000's of sprinkles .... they went everywhere!!!

Didnt get a chance to do a practise so it was now or never ... don't look back is what I say ... just roll with it ... literally.

Good result ....

Sent myself outside to finish off as I couldnt tell what sprinkles were going on the cake and what was staying on the bench. I did warn Sarey and Marcus maybe it might not be best to look in the garden either ... that's where the left over sprinkles may have ended up....

Trying to set the scene ... honestly in the mad rush I did not acknowledge my half eaten pizza ... best pizza outside Italy too if I can say just quietly ....

Surprise colour look ... just to spice things up ....

Great crowed of Sarey's nearest and dearest. Was brilliant to catch up with some very good friends like Charlie Brown and hear of the new adventures with her, Steve and the twin boys ... love it!!! It was still light at 9:45pm ... how could you not beverage on ...

About 1:00am when we cut the cake .....

About 4:00am when it was just about bed time .... love the party look .... a sign of a FRIGGIN awesome party .....

When cakes, a very worthy cause and Bunnings all combine.

Okay now Lovelies

Its time to get a bit serious ... well as much as I can in my life anyway ...

Yes this blog is still about cakes ... just keep reading on for the story.

The below link will direct you to a 60km walk that a few of my friends and I are doing for an INCREDIBLE cause in November.

http://sy13.endcancer.org.au/site/TR/Events/Sydney2013?px=1008656&pg=personal&fr_id=1060

Yes you read right!!! 60kms ... over 2 days ... how hard can that be you ask????

Freaken hard!!! We did a 10km walk last week and I was ready for a sit down very soon afterwards. Mind you there was alot of hills and stairs to climb up!!!

Anyway back to the seriousness. The toxic disease of cancer no matter what type is just an evil evil evil word.

Both my parents have been touched by different forms of cancer. Very important people in my life have lost parents, siblings and friends to the evilness.

I have even had 3 foul skin cancers scooped out of my back in the last 3 months (wear suncream kids, don't argue with your parents).

And yes, there are survival stories which are sensational but we still have a long long way to go to beat the bastard.

So ... my friends and I are not going to pretend we will find the cure for cancer (that's for the scientists) but we are going to help out by doing this 60km walk and raising money for the Chris O'Brien Life House.

This is going to be for a building at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney where people can go and get treated and looked after all at the one location. This was Chris O'Briens wish. He was the very famous and hugely respected Neurosurgeon that passed away from a brain tumour.

There's not much more to say apart from each little contribution is going to help in some sort of way. Even if its just enough for a tap in a bathroom ... that's one more tap before the start of the day isnt it ...

So lovelies, here is the link again if you would like to donate. We all very much appreciate any little contribution.

http://sy13.endcancer.org.au/site/TR/Events/Sydney2013?px=1008656&pg=personal&fr_id=1060

Also  have a quick look at the cake stall fundraising event we did at Artarmon Bunnings yesterday. We raised $1700 in total!!! Its a brilliant start for us!!!

You'll see everything we all prepared for the day. Lots of people helped make this day possible so thank you to all!!!! Couple of facts that we learnt yesterday too.

People are very very generous for a very worthy cause, the men are the ones that bought the melting moments and yes ALL BUNNINGS STAFF are just as nice and they appear to be on all the TV ads.

Team Lovelies (you can tell by that who picked the name and who the Captain of the team is ....) Just missing one member Kate who is in Germany at the moment but she is there in the photo in spirit.

When Thomas The Tank Engine and The Pyramids Meet ....

We are all very lucky to have incredible friends in our lives. I have quite a few and am very appreciative of all of them.

All of them keep me laughing and most importantly answer all my questions - even the ones we don't know the answers too ... they all have learnt to just tell me something and that gives me time to ponder away.

One of my all time greatest friends is Richie ... aka as Jo or mostly ...  Mrs Richie Stewart as we now call her as she is now a gorgeous wife to Cam and mum of the world to 2yr old Sam and there is a new addition baking in her stomach right now.

Richie has been watching over me since we were at Brownies together (she was Sixer of the Moora Morras. She hates me bringing this up regularly but I love it!!!!), We also played on the Mosman Netball team together, were both at Mosman High and then we were over in London at the same time for some of the years we all spent over there.

There was one time when Richie gave me her Year 11 Biology exam to study from. The day came for me to take my exam a year later and sure enough it was the exact same paper. Result. Hence to say I did very well in Biology for that year.

Richie and Cam's son Sam has turned 2 yrs old this week and Richie wanted to make a Thomas The Tank Engine cake ... it was combined team effort but please take note of the actual Thomas that Richie made - he was awesome. The polka dots were my idea ... you cant exactly put pretty ribbon on a little boys cake ....

Check out Richie and Cam's kitchen, its great!!! My dream is to have a big kitchen like theirs and more importantly a big kitchen bench and table. Each time one of my besties goes to a new house the first detail I am told about is the kitchen and how bad my kitchen envy is going to be.

One day ... I don't ask for much in life.

You are all professionals now so won't ramble on how we get to this step but this cake is a 12 inch round choccie mud .... with pale blue fondant on top and chocolate ganache underneath too ....

This was one of my contributions ... polka dots ... my favourites. All bedazzles a cake.

That's me making sure each one is perfect. See, don't I just look good in a nice big kitchen ... again ... one day .....

Getting there ... look at Thomas ... he looked fab ....

Here is Richie on cupcake duty ....

Take notice of the tiny green dinosaurs as decorations ....

Stars going ... don't be alarmed that Thomas's face is not on .... we had to work out a way to stick him a bit more so he didn't do a faceplant ....

And done .... looked really good.

24 hours later ....

Now here is a just a little memory for you all. In August the year 2000 ... can't believe 13yrs ago, Richie and I went to Egypt for 16 days of superbness. It was an amazing trip full of very funny stories, great people and learning alot about an incredible part of the world.   

Most of the stories involves many many trips to the bathroom as there were dodgy tummy's a plenty. We caught a train from Cairo to Aswan and couldn't go to the toilet for 14 hours .....was a very quiet journey towards the end.

Was a regular occurance to be having a conversation and then to turnaround and realise someone had to  do the bolt to find the nearest bathroom. There was one time when we had just arrived in a hotel and we were both running up the stairs to be first in the toilet and we played paper, rock, scissors game. Not even me making new ones up like 'water' (which overrides paper and scissors) worked for this occassion. I lost, however Richie promised to leave the door open to save even 1 second of time for me to go in next.

I managed to fall off a donkey in Luxor on the way to The Valley of the Kings. Quite easy to do if I can say so. My donkey and I didn't see eye to eye so he was making every attempt to get rid of me which even included trying to nudge me off the cliff... no joke. Anyway at one moment we were trotting along nicely then in an instant he just stopped but I kept going. I still remember the feeling of going over his head!! I did land upright though so it was round 2 to Fiona.

This photo is one of my favourite ever. It was one of my dreams to get the Cairo Pyramids. Always. And we did it. Just reminds me that all things in life are achieveable. You just have to do it yourself!!!! The camel was smiling. Much nicer that the dodgy donkey. 

Sunday's apple, cinnamon and berry pie ... with 'proper grown up' custard.....

Ohhh I am full. Right now I am Sizzler full.

Not 'The Cheesecake Factory Full' like when we were in Hawaii and I ate my body weight in mash potato and literally had to leave my love of shopping and go back to the hotel room for a lie down, but full enough to know better.

Today in Australia is Mothers Day, and as my family were gathering at Auntie's house, I thought I would attempt my first ever apple, cinnamon and berry pie completely made from scratch.

There was a few different recipes I was looking through and everyone was giving me their own advice too, I got to the point where I just took a bit from everyone and combined it all together.

90yr old Auntie Dawn who is a friend of our family, she gave me some perla advice. Even to the point on how to cut a cake in half with piece of cotton. So here I have spent money over the years on buying sharp knifes and special cake slicers ... and I could have just a piece of cotton and it all does the same trick.

Have a look at the pics and see what you think - personally I wasn't happy with the pastry as I had a bit of a 'My Kitchen Rule's moment as I didn't make enough pastry to actually cover the apple and berry pie. Thank Christ there are no cameras in my kitchen as there were a few choice words that came out of my mouth ... I took a moment thought ... then made some more ... crisis averted.

 Thickly chopped up 3 x granny smith apples added water and cinnamon.

Added the yummy berries

The pastry begins ... again my little hint of everyone is ALWAYS MAKE DOUBLE!!! 

Just like rolling fondant out for my cakes. Please ignore my jewellery imprints, didn't have enough time to take all my goodies off.

The realisation that I didn't have enough pastry. Bugger.

About a half hour later, we are there!!! Do you like the added touch of the stars? Bit of a Fiona special touch.

And straight out of the oven ...

Time to make 'proper custard'.

6 x egg yolks. Again, dont worry about buy expensive kitchen tools to split the egg yolk v egg white. Just ask your auntie who does it for free !!!

New concept for me. Actually whisking the custard by hand and not by the electric whizzer

Me getting a hand by Auntie when we had to combine the above and milk/cream concoction together.

Again ... mixing more in at just the right temperature so it doesn't curdle.

Cousin Kylie's job was sorting out the vanilla pod and getting all the seeds out for flavour.

Finally the pie makes it to the table ....

And not much left over at the end ....

And sometimes, we all need a bit of caramel slice ...

In Sydney the weather has turned. I suppose that's OK considering we are in May but I am one of those Sydney siders that will wear my flip flops right till the end. Must admit though that the tracky daks and uggs boots (knee high ones thank you) are on as soon a I get home ...

Anyway, when the weather turns a bit cold, I like to get in the kitchen and cook. So continuing on with my besottedness (yes this is a word in the Fiona dictionary of life) of caramel, yesterday afternoon I made a cracker caramel slice.

Just like my measurements when making a beloved vodka, lime and soda when there's a little bit of this, alot of that etc ... when making my version of caramel slice I like to do a great chunk of this, little spoonful of that and alot more of everything else. Generally this theory works!!!!

Will keep my recipe in my pink book of joy for a bit longer, just incase I enter it into the Royal Easter Show next year .. mind you am sure the hyphen hyphen judges will pick something wrong about it ... maybe cause it just tastes like PURE GOODNESS (if I can say so myself).

 Go Bertie my Kitchenaid ... never lets me down!!! Mixing the base up.

This is when you are supposed to start being precise but by this point I just want to get it all together.

Yummy!!! You ca'nt go past the smell of melting butter and golden syrup. Always reminds me of being in my Grandmothers kitchen when I was little.

Ahhh the condensed milk ...always a winner in taste, smell and touch ....

Literally have to stir for 7.5 mins (whoops, that's one of my little hints)

Just take a moment again with this chocolate. This is the pure GOLD of chocolate. The one that I can't ever pronounce but its spelt like coverture ....Another little hint is my mixture of chocolate flavours

Layer 1 - biscuit base

Layer 2 - yummy caramel

 And the pouring commences ...

Just had to add another one for effect ....

No words need to be said for this one ...

And the final result ... this was for work today ... end of the day ... only crumbs left over. Result.