I'm back! (So what did become of THAT cake?)

Now THIS is a cake!

Yes, I am back. I daresay anyone who would have read my last post would have assumed I had completely thrown in the towel and disappeared into the ether. To tell you the truth, the main reason I haven't been around is my photos. Not the quality (let's face it, I'm never going to be a blogger who people follow just for the photos) but because my computer hard drive was full and I couldn't load them from my camera onto my computer. And then I got busy. And then I kind of forgot. But I realised, I was actually kind of missing writing about my cooking, and I was still taking (slightly dodgy) photos, so now I am back!

Lemon Polenta Cake

In case you haven't noticed, I love to bake. If I could justify it I would bake a cake or a slice or biscuits everyday, but unfortunately those pesky fat and sugar do-gooders in my head keep reminding me that as a mum I really need to be serving mostly healthy-ish food to my family and so my poor KitchenAid stands quiet for most of the week. But I am always looking for an excuse to bake. A dinner invite, wonderful, can I bring dessert? Congratulations on the new job, have some biscuits! Thanks for knocking on my door - here's a cake! (Okay, I'm not quite that bad but I think you get the idea). So when we received an impromptu invite to dinner at my parents' house I instantly offered to make dessert.

Friday Baking and Passionfruit Curd Cupcakes

My mum and I bake on Fridays. It's something I look forward to every week, not only because it's a really good excuse to try a new recipe every week, but once my boys go down for their naps we have some really good chats and, dare I say it, adult time (I know, what am I thinking wanting time for myself? haha).

Happy Birthday to ME!! {Tim Tam Cake}

Before everything started to go pear shaped...

It was my birthday last week (Hip Hip Hooray for me!) so I decided to make a cake that I've had my eye on for ages. Now, don't worry, I didn't make my own birthday cake because I was neglected by Mr P. - I actually had to convince everyone that I was really looking forward making it so they wouldn't stop me. I don't get to bake special cakes all that often, so I will jump on any excuse or opportunity.

Chocolate Cake

After two baptisms and a birthday party, I thought I had finally started to get the hang of this catering-for-a-huge-group-of-people-thing (at least to the point where I might, possibly, be able to leave the kitchen for half an hour) when the birthday cake flopped. Suddenly, my carefully made plans, which involved an easy to prepare menu, were sabotaged by a new chocolate cake recipe which produced, well, not chocolate cake. More like a dark brown, stodgy... mess. Suddenly I was faced with having to make the cake from scratch (including the decorating) before the guests arrived at noon. All I can say is, thank you Julie Goodwin!

Happy Mother's Day!

I baked a big ol' chocolate cake on Friday (post to follow) but had to cut quite a bit of cake off to get the top flat. So, when I was trying to work out what to give my sons' Godmothers for Mother's Day, I instantly thought of cake pops! If you haven't seen these adorable creations which were first created by the wonderful Bakerella (have I mentioned how much I love her?), you have to check them out right now! They are cuter than cute. Basically, they are balls of cake and frosting, coated in chocolate, on sticks. Except way better. Instead of putting them on sticks, though, I decided to use a heart shapes silicon candy mould that I've had in the cupboard for years to make (wait for it...) cake truffles!