Please Mum, Can I Have a Lego Cake?

A Whaaaaaat???

So I came up with this.  I did leave it to the last minute to bake and throw together, so here's what I did in 2 hours (including baking time):-

 1 chocolate and 1 vanilla cake with strawberry swirls.

 I went with Orchard Icing.  I bought two packs, but should have gone with three.  I was so rusty on my cake decorating skills!!

 I didn't have any colouring paste, so I had to make do with some extra icing sugar and liquid colour.  It worked just as well.

 I cut the cakes like this...

To get this.  Lego pieces!  You do need to brush the cakes with runny jam (for vanilla ones) and a chocolatey drinking powder mix for chocolate cakes otherwise the icing doesn't stick.  I was really lazy with the yellow and red blocks and didn't do that.  Silly me - I should have known better!  But I did with the blue cake (a chocolate one) and it was so much easier.

I used the screw on end of a piping nozzle (not the actual nozzles themselves though) to cut out the circles.  I guess it looked like a mini scone cutter.

If I was more patient, I would have let the cakes sit for a bit more, smoothed the icing out more, and possibly allowed some more time (not to mention the jam!!) but I had to get the kids from school and then it was on.

Needless to say, my son loved it anyway :D

Show Scones With Jam and Cream

These scones are my husband's absolute favourite.  He devours them whenever I make them.  They do have to be eaten on the day, and preferably once they hit the 'just cool' stage.

I made this batch for my children to enjoy as an afternoon snack.

Mmm!

I used:-
- 4 cups Self Raising flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 250 mls cream (you should use pouring cream, but I used the remainder of whatever I had purchased from Aldi)
- Up to 400 mls milk (add carefully)

Mix all these ingredients lightly.  I usually use a big bowl and a butter knife for really light results, but this time I used the Thermomix on a gentle mix until all ingredients were combined.

Knead lightly on a floured surface, roll until 2-3 cms thick.  Cut with scone cutters and place on tray.

Brush with a little milk and into a hot oven they go for approx 12 mins or until golden and risen.

Serve with butter hot, or with jam and cream when cooled.

I adore these with the Morello Cherry jam from Aldi.  It has just the right tartness for my liking with the sweetened cream I make.

Friends Becoming Bolder

My friendly Blue Tongue Lizard came back for a visit.  To tell you the truth, I can't figure out if this one is a male or female.  I know that the males have pointier 'noses', and the females have wider heads.  This one's nose looks pretty pointed to me...

I do know that the males are the wanderers, and the females tend to stay put.  I also have a massive Blue Tongue that likes to sun bake between my retaining wall and my front steps but she's very skittish. If I can catch her sun baking, I'll take a photo.

 Out the back of my yard, lazing away in the sun and waiting for grapes.

 "Grapes, I said.  Not cassava melon!!"

Bluey's back leg appears to have healed nicely, and its tale has healed too, although I think it might take a loooooong time to grow back.

 "Excuse me human, have you got any grapes for me today?

I certainly did.  Bluey ate 8 grapes.  I had to chop them up in thirds, of course.

Dear Bluey, how can you even fit that many grapes inside your body?

Bluey was a very content lizard after all those grapes.  He/she was so keen on grapes, it was licking my fingers before I even put the grapes down.  For a lizard who was hissing at me 3 weeks ago to being this tame is a slight worry :D  If it stays in our yard, no harm will come to it.

Yard that is.  Not the house ;D

Piano Tuning

I felt so guilty about not looking after our piano properly for so long - it costs a bit of money to keep a piano maintained especially if you are teaching on it every day, have two children practising it every day, not to mention your own practise.

I had been meaning to get my piano tuned for years but didn't quite have the cash flow to justify it (silly, I know).

I had the number of a brilliant piano tuner, had the cash in hand to do it in December/January but couldn't get hold of him.

Finally in February after some Google searching and other enquiries, I found out that he passed away.  Such a shame - I didn't have the privilege of meeting him.  I did look up the Australasian Piano Tuners and Technicians Association (http://www.aptta.org.au/) and found the name of a local guy who was accredited with them.

I am happy to say that he did a brilliant job, and my piano is back in working order (still a practice pedal to be tightened up but that wasn't part of tuning).

I didn't realise just how much having an out of tune piano was messing with my sense of pitch.  The piano wasn't sounding honky tonky, but it certainly wasn't in tune.  I found it was harder to play in tune on my violin - not a good thing when you're a violin teacher.  It is so much easier now.  What a difference!  When you're playing the violin, the finger being 1 millimetre out can make a big difference.

It was $190 for about an hour of tuning.  Standard price for members of the APTTA.  I was happy to pay that.

Just in case you were wondering what the inside of a piano looks like, here you go:

Something else I found out: Piano Tuners mark carefully the inside of the piano when they tune it so the next tuner knows how long it has been since the last tune-up.  This one was tuned in Tamworth last!  How about that!! Apparently they mark it in chalk, so it can be wiped off easily and not do any damage.

Mini Pizzas - Lunchbox Lunches

I got up nice and early this morning (well, perhaps a little too early - I was wide awake at 4am!!) and decided I was going to make the kids mini pizzas for their lunch.


Complete with dough from scratch.  Well, in the breadmaker, because kneading dough really makes my hands, wrists and arms ache (thanks arthritis and RSI).


This is what they got:-

 Dough rolled out into circles.  Oops, well circular-ish shaped objects!  We did a bit better on the next batches.

 All the things you need to make mini pizzas.  We used tomato paste with some dried herbs and water all mixed together, chopped ham or thinly sliced Danish Salami and mozzarella cheese.

 Ready to go into the oven.

One batch of dough made 16 mini pizzas.

The children got to eat some warm on the way to school (goodness knows why they couldn't eat them at home, but anyways...).


They seem much cuter than giving the children a great big slice of pizza.  My daughter informed me that all her friends will now want one tomorrow.


Dear friends of my Daughter.  Sorry, but I don't think I can wake up at 4am every morning.  I will turn into a grumpy psychopath!

Valentines Flowers...My Garden Loves Me!

I don't get flowers from my husband from Valentine's Day.  In fact, we don't celebrate it...another commercial day that Phil and I don't need.  He says we don't need a particular day of the year that tells him he must buy me flowers.  He can do that any time he likes.  Or I just go and get my own anyway ;D

My garden has mostly loved the rain we've had, apart from the flooding which has killed off plants.

 All the snapdragons in flower at the moment are purple.  On four separate plants.  Odd, but I'm not complaining!

 More sunflower buds

 A red impatiens peeking through. It nearly drowned!

 I don't remember what this is called any more, but it's very pretty!

 Another mystery plant that I used to know the name of but can't remember any more.  It is thriving where the capsicums used to be.

 Not a flower, but I'm so glad this ginger root is growing.  Mr Storm sat on it after he chewed the top off.  I thought it was gone forever!

My least favourite thing on any day of the year...those green grubs chewed my bean plants and apple cucumbers to bits.  My Daughter found this one on the basil.  I asked her to check every leaf carefully, so she did and found 3 more even smaller than this one.  So small in fact, that my camera wouldn't even focus on them.

Anyone Else Have a Kitchen Like This??

Those days when you hope the doorbell doesn't ring, and no-one sees your house the state it is in, let alone your kitchen?

Well, I'm feeling brave today, and I'm going to let you walk in on my mess.

Here it is:-

 Wow, what a mess!  I had stuff everywhere, the remains of a pancake breakfast, a full sink, dishwasher to empty, a deep fryer to put away and a floor to clean.

After 30 mins, what a difference!  Just a floor to clean and some odds and ends to put away :D