The one with special birthday cupcakes!! Part 2

Today is the big day!!!

The party is at 2pm so pretty soon my masterpieces will be inside people's tummies, therefore it seemed necessary that their existence be documented before that happens. So without further ado....

Chocolate star cupcakes


Vanilla butterfly cupcakes


Rosewater cupcakes


The entire collection

The one with special birthday cupcakes!! Part 1

Tomorrow it is my niece's 3rd birthday party. Somewhere in the build up to it, I temporarily lost my mind and offered to make cupcakes for 30 people. Although I don't mind really as I am always looking for opportunities to practice - I want to make some really yummy treats for Oliver's first birthday party!

So anyway. I decided to make three batches of 10 (well 12 actually) in different flavours. I chose to make one batch of chocolate, one batch of vanilla and one batch of rosewater (yes I know, that one is a little bit different but it went with my decor theme!). My basic cupcake receipe (from my trusty My Cake Decorating magazine) was as follows.

Cupcakes
Makes 12

125g 200g sugar
125g 200g butter
125g 200g self raising flour
2 3 eggs

It's just your basic cupcake recipe - cream the butter and sugar, beat the eggs in one at a time and then fold in the flour. To make the chocolate ones, I substituted 25g of the flour for cocoa powder, I added a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extract to make the vanilla ones and then a tablespoon of rosewater to the final batch. Yeah I know, it's not rocket science :-) So I divided the mixes into cupcake trays and baked them at 180°C for about 20 minutes (until golden and a skewer comes out clean). I discovered after the first batch that the original quantities in the recipe made for a very stingy 12 cupcakes so I increased it slightly.

So... now we get to the fun part. I wanted each flavour to be decorated slightly differently so I devised the following plan - I piped them all with buttercream but topped the chocolate batch with sugar/flower paste stars, the vanilla batch with flower paste butterflies and the rosewater ones with.. yep, you've guessed it... roses! And mini marshmallows for a bit of a twist :-) The rose decorations were ready made as I'm not quite that advanced yet but the butterflies and the stars I made myself.

These butterflies were cut out of flower paste, pushed down in the middle with a knife and left to dry. The bodies are royal icing with a mini marshmallow 'head'.

The stars are a sugar paste/flower paste mix (50:50) so they will dry out but not set as hard as flower paste.

And finally... my cheat decorations ;-) now you get the rosewater thing yes?

So the moment you've all been waiting for... the grand unveiling!!

To be continued.....

New house before and after... Oliver's bedroom

Today's room is Oliver's bedroom, otherwise known as the nursery. I know this is the only room that most of your are probably interested in! We decorated this room exactly as his room was in our old place (and placed most of the furniture and pictures the same too) so it's pretty much like we just lifted his old room and brought it with us (except it's much bigger).

Here is Oliver's room (or the office as it was then known) before:

Here it is now:

I think Oliver's room is my favourite in the whole house (it was my favourite room in our old place too) as it's just so cute and perfect for a little boy :-) The shelves are the floating kind and were a bit of a let down - they look great but aren't particularly strong, luckily I only wanted them as a safe home for Oliver's christening gifts (most of which were porcelain things - go figure!) so they do the job just fine. I'm working on getting Oliver to spend more time in here during the day (he's not too keen on being left in here at the moment!) as it's far too nice a room just to sleep in!

Status - finished (yay!)

The one where sitting isn't happening

Just to warn you all, this post is going to be one of those typical mother "worrying over nothing" posts. However, it's my blog so I'll write what I want :-)

A few posts ago when I did Oliver's photo update, you might have noticed a photo of him sitting 'by himself'. This is a rare occurrence, difficult to engineer and never lasts very long. This has increasingly started to concern me, as we edge towards the 10 month mark and I have a baby who (despite how it appears in that photo) to all intents and purposes, cannot really sit unaided. (That photograph was the product of some careful positioning, getting his balance just right and then whipping out the camera before he fell!)

In the end, I made an appointment with the healthy visitor just to see if she felt my concern was justified. She agreed that he is a little on the late side, even with prematurity taken into account (6 weeks) and that perhaps I might like to make a doctors appointment to check that there is no physical reason for it, although she thinks that is unlikely as he is reaching all other milestones fine and is quite happy to sit with support in places like pushchairs, highchairs and on laps. That said, he does often stiffen his legs in order to prevent me from putting him in a sitting position on the floor which HV thought was a bit strange but possibly just because he prefers to stand... that boy does love to stand ;-)

Does anyone have any thoughts on this or ideas on how I might help him? He already spends most of his time on the floor, left to his own devices as much as possible (HV said to avoid excessive use of walkers, jumperoos etc. or anything that hinders his own movement and exploration). Or do you think that I can't really 'help' him, that he will do it in his own time and I should just be patient (not really my strong point haha!)

New house before and after.... living room

Next up in the Before and after tour... the living room. We left this in the original colours as I quite liked them (after living in an all Almond white apartment for three years, some colour is quite refreshing!) and they matched our sofa fine.

Here is the lounge before:

Here are some photos now:

There's only so much we can do to make this room pretty, as it's Oliver's main playing area during the day it means the focus is primarily on safety and babyproofing. So that means no ornaments, no wires, nothing on tables or low shelves and those super attractive soft corners on my coffee table ;-) Plus there are generally toys and mats out as well! I do plan to put some more photos up in this room though. At some point in the future (if we're still here, which I hope we will be!) I imagine we'd probably decorate this room but for now it's fine.

Status - practically finished (for now!)

Meals on a Monday - Quiche 'from scratch!!'

A few weeks ago I finally did something I've been meaning to do for years (and I do mean years). I am aware that what I'm about to say might make me sound old. I sent away for the current edition of the Be-Ro recipe book. For those who don't know, this is one of those 'mother to daughter' generation things in Britain. At least I think it is, both my grandmothers have one and my mum was given one by her mum.... and now I have one. Perhaps it's just my family :-)

The recipes have evolved and become more modern over the years (my mum has her mum's 19th edition, then she bought her own 35th edition and now I have the 41st) but the basics have stayed the same - I have yet to find a better shortcrust pastry recipe anywhere. With that in mind, I decided to attempt...

Spinach and feta quiche
Serves 4-6

Shortcrust pastry
200g plain flour
50g butter
50g lard (I always substitute this for another 50g of butter)
Approx. 2 tbsp cold water to mix

Filling
225g baby leaf spinach
75g feta cheese
3 eggs
300ml single cream
100ml milk

Firstly make your pastry. Rub the flour a butter together to make crumbs, be sure to aerate the flour by lifting the crumbs out of the bowl and allowing to fall back through your fingers. Add just enough cold water and mix in with a knife to make a stiff dough. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly, then wrap it in cling film and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Grease and line your flan dish (mine was an 8 cm width one but I found it was a bit too shallow to hold all the filling) and then roll out your dough and line the dish. Neaten the edges of the pastry then bake blind for 15 minutes (I'm not explaining this, google if you need to! Or even better, buy the book :p).

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, cream and milk together, cut the feta into small cubes and cook the spinach. Once you have got the base out of the oven, line it evenly with spinach and feta. Finally, pour your egg mix over the top and bake at 160°C for 40 minutes until set and golden brown.

Here's one I made earlier ;-)

Verdict - 6/10
Firstly I want to point out that the low(ish) rating is not because this dish wasn't good. It really was! I will definitely be making this again but it is a bit time consuming. Of course, you could cheat and buy ready made pastry but then you may as well just buy a ready made quiche! Still, it's a simple recipe and tasted amazing - definitely worth the effort! Easily adapted too - I think my next attempt will be a salmon and broccoli one!

Silent Sunday

The one where as your baby grows bigger...

... So does the mess he creates!! And this is before he is even crawling! *sigh*

New house before and after.... entrance hall

SO I've finally gotten around to starting my House tour before/after posts.

First up in our tour is the entrance hall. As with all the rooms (as you'll see!) it's far from how I want/imagine it. Some rooms may not appear to have changed all that much, some more drastically. However, not only do we have financial constraints but we are also renting so there are limits to what we can do with this place... for now ;-)

Here is the hallway before:

Here it is now:

It's looking very bare I'm afraid (my awful photography doesn't help!). I'm loving my new blanket box though! Plans for the future (near and distant) - definitely more art and/or photos on the walls, big matching plants in the corners instead of those tables - hopefully a wooden floor (we're currently in the process of getting permission to take the carpets up in a couple of rooms so we can attempt laying wooden flooring underneath) and definitely a nice big rug!

Status - work in progress!

The one with a 9 month update

Right. Now I have been appalling at posting Oliver's milestones on here but I have been capturing them on camera so I thought I'd do a quick update in photos before it all becomes old news.

Having become a master of rolling in all directions some time ago (finally!), in the last month or so Oliver has expanded his repertoire somewhat.

Sitting for short spells unsupported

Making some very good attempts at crawling (watch this space methinks)

Standing up in the walker

Escaping from the donut

And our best trick at the moment.... (not to confuse people, he is not yet pulling himself up like this - I position him haha!)

Standing with support! Yay!

He is just growing up too fast.

The one with the Avon review - part 3

And the final installment....

An unforgivably long time ago, I was given the opportunity to review some Avon products. We've now reached the final product.

The Circles Tote Bag

Now this little piece of 'equipment' is awesome. It has proved particularly useful when going to one place - the swimming pool. Now, like most mums I have a mammoth changing bag but even it can't fit all of a baby's swimming paraphernalia in as well as all the regular stuff very easily. Plus you then have the whole "Where do we put the wet stuff without getting everything else wet?" issue. This bag has a (pink! Yay!) waterproof lining which makes it a perfect baby swim session bag. Observe :-)

So I think that's me done on the reviewing front. Short but sweet, I like to think :-) I do genuinely love using all these products on a regular basis (in fact the towel and eyeshadow are used daily, except when the towel is in the wash!) and would recommend them all to anyone. Thanks Avon!
** I was sent the products for the purpose of this review! **

The one where I am excited, jealous and broody!!

I am going to be an auntie!!! I've known this for a while now but today, my brother in law and his wife had their scan and everything looks great! Eeeeeek!!! So she is 13 weeks today. The due date is - get this - the 25th December 2012!! Personally I think birthdays falling around Christmas really suck but I'll just have to make sure that we always buy him or her two separate presents and not 'one big present' because that is just rubbish and cheating.

Personally I'm leaning towards a girl for them although I have no rational reason for thinking so... except that a girl just seems to suit them! A lovely, spoiled little princess hehe! I'd be so excited to have a little girl to spoil :-) We do already have one niece (my sister in law's little girl, Lucy) but as they live in another part of the country, we don't get to see them quite so much.

I love that Oliver will have lots of little cousins that are so close in age to him! He and Lucy are already so cute, I can't wait to see them both with another little tiny added into the mix! Plus all this makes me incredibly broody for another one of my own ;-) but that will have to wait for a little bit longer!

Oliver (9 months) and his cousin Lucy (2 years 11 months)

The one with the Avon review - part 2

Continuing on.... (finally!)

An unforgivably long time ago, I was given the opportunity to review some Avon products. The next review I promised you all was of the froggy towel and mitt.

Now I'm not sure there's really much that you can review about a towel, except to say that it's absorbency wasn't great at first (like most new towels I guess!) but now after many many uses and washes, it does just fine. Plus it's super cute and far more exciting than the rest of Oliver's boring pastel baby hooded towels. We do like to use the froggy mitt as a hand puppet during bath time - I'm pretty sure this is not its intended purpose but hey... whatever keeps the kid happy ;-)

The final installment... "The pretty circles tote bag"... to follow shortly. Hopefully a lot sooner than this post was after the last one!

** I was sent the products for the purpose of this review! **

The one with no words (well a few!)

Oliver watching the football with my dad - like grandfather like grandson!!
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The one with (Maternity leave: Returning to work vs. Staying at home)

Well the topic of this post was easy to decide - my maternity pay ends TODAY. After 9 months of being paid (peanuts!) to look after my baby.... that's it. No more. For the foreseeable future in fact, as we've pretty much decided that I won't be going back to work any time soon. Not because I've ever particularly dreamed of being a cooking, cleaning housewife but more because we both resent the idea of paying what would amount to almost my entire salary for a nursery place for Oliver every month. We've weighed up all the options and are both happiest with the idea of me staying home for now.

It's a no brainer for those that are happy staying at home but I think it's made so difficult for mothers who really want (or need) to return to work. Staying at home isn't for everyone after all and it's a shame that childcare needs to be so expensive. No matter which option you go for (unless you're lucky enough to have family to help) the average salary would barely cover a full time place at either a reputable childminders or nursery so what are you supposed to do? Work for nothing (or next to it?) in order to pay for it or just stay at home and 'miss out' on or postpone your career? It's a hard choice to make!

Of course that's not to say that I won't be looking into a playgroup of some sort for Oliver to spend some time at when he's a bit older, I think it's important that he gets used to spending a bit of time away from me or pre-school is going to be a bit of a shock! It's so difficult to know what to do for the best - your natural mummy instinct wants to keep them with you (and only you!) all the time forever and ever but I suppose that approach would probably do more harm that good in some ways ;-)

What are all you other mummies (and daddies!) doing?

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Meals on a Monday - Kedgeree

Right. Let's beat the smart arses the punch first shall we? :-) I know it's not a Monday. However, I figure that since it's been the bank holiday, anything that should have happened on a Monday can quite legitimately happen today.

Today I consulted my Easy Cook magazine and found this little gem. It fit all of my criteria (simple, minimal ingrediants, only one pan etc.) and looked yummy so I decided to give it ago and I have to say it was a success.

Kedgereee
Serves 2

If you want the 'proper' recipe, I suggest you go and buy the magazine but here my basic instructions. Boil two eggs and set them aside. The recipe suggests you buy a pouch of ready cooked long grain rice but I find those pouches to be a bit of a waste of money so I just cooked rice for two people at the beginning and set it aside. Cover some smoked haddock in milk and poach it for about 5-8 minutes with a couple of bay leaves, then skin and flake it and (you've guessed it) set it aside! The recipe never actually used this milk for anything afterwards but I did my favourite thing and set it to one side to use it in the finished product instead of water (yummy fish milk versus boring water - it's a no brainer really and less wasteful). Chop an onion and fry it in a little oil with some ground coriander, turmeric and curry powder and then add your cooked rice and a bit of the milk and mix it up. Add your haddock last and don't stir too much afterwards as the fish will break up. Finally, quarter your eggs and lay them on top. Nom nom!

Verdict - 7/10

Certainly a very simple recipe and minimal washing up (unless you start out using the wrong sized pan like I did!). It is also easy to halve/multiply for different numbers of guests. Once you own all of the spices it's pretty cheap, especially if you can get your fish on sale. I think this one will find its way into my regular menu rotation but perhaps not as a favourite... I tend to like my rice (and pasta) dishes with lashings of some decadent, unhealthy sauce and this was a little bit dry, even with the extra milk I added.

The one with a royal rant

** WARNING - If you're a fan of the royal family, the queen or the Jubilee... Probably don't read!**

Thank God this horrific weekend of boring royal festivities is over!!! Now I'm all for having a party for just about any reason but I tend to be less keen when it involves the royals - a) I don't care, b) I don't care and c) oh yeah, I DON'T CARE! I'd rather do just about anything than sit through another six hour boat pageant again in my entire life. I'm not just being nasty for the sake of it and I have nothing against the queen herself... I just happen to feel that a country that is in our apparent state of financial crisis could probably better spend their hard earned (Oh wait... better make that OUR hard earned!) cash on something a little more useful than an indulgent three day long party for people who are self important enough to think we care that much about what they're doing (and the eejits that prove them right by camping out on the street for days on end!) Perhaps that's just me though.

So in conclusion, I'd like to say... Please stop hogging all my TV channels and my weekend and my life!!! Thank you.