He got the Train Cake

As we get ready to head to Jersey again, I thought it would be fun to share a few photos from our last visit, celebrating my nephew Morgans' 3rd Birthday. 

If you aren't Australian then you may have absolutely no idea what this post is about, but I'm going to guess that every Aussie knows exactly what fabulous baking went down to make this title possible!!!

The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book has to be the most famous cookbook in the land! 

Published in 1980 it was THE go-to book for birthday parties. Flicking through the book I can tell you which of my friends had each and every one of the cakes in the book! My favourite ones for my parties were the teddy bear, the lady beetle and the bunny rabbit. 

If I were a balloon on the wall...

Gluten Free White Chocolate Mudcake

I have posted my recipe for a regular White Chocolate Mudcake many times. 

I made it as the wedding cake at Saraid's wedding;

As the Grooms' cake at Julie's wedding;

And at many more baby showers than I remembered to post about too!

I wanted to have one of the cakes be gluten free at Madeleine's bunny Birthday party and so adapted my standard white chocolate mudcake recipe to use as the little cakes to accompany the main bunny rabbit butter cake. 

Gluten Free Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treats

A week or so ago we had a little bunny party for Madeleine's 2nd Birthday. 

Amongst the bunny snacks, carrot fudge and cabbages, I did make a few non-bunny related treats too.  

This recipe appeared in my Pinterest feed a few days before her party that instantly went to the top of the list!

How have I never made these before!?

Carrot Cake Shots (Gluten Free)

There is something entirely charming about dessert in a shot glass isn't there.

I started doing it a few years ago, and can't seem to stop!

For Madeleine's Birthday Party a few weekends ago, there was a theme of Bunnies, and so I had lots of different "bunny-inspired" treats for the afternoon.

And well, what's more "bunny" than carrot cake?!

And what is the very best part of a carrot cake?

The cream cheese icing of course.

So, why not up the ratio of icing to cake with these adorable and delicious Carrot Cake Shots!

A Bunny Party for Madeleine

Last week my baby girl turned TWO! 

It is so hard to believe that it has been two years since she was born, and every day I am more and more amazed by her and by how much my heart keeps growing with love for this special little girl. 

Special events are the times that are the hardest for us to be living in London. 

We can't help but feel just a little bit sad that Maddie doesn't have Grandparents and cousins at her parties, or a big backyard to run around in, but we try to make the most of our situation and make sure we celebrate as best as we can.  

Saraid's Baby Shower - How to co-host from afar

Sometimes living in London is great. 

Sometimes, it is not so great. 

Like when your closest friends are going through the most exciting time of their lives, and suddenly London feels worlds away from everywhere and everyone who are important in our lives. 

But having lived away from loved ones for a while now, I feel like I'm starting to find better ways of still being involved and part of their special moments. 

Sometimes it takes one or two planes to literally be there,  often it is just lots and lots of weekend Skype sessions, and sometimes, I need to send a meg-package to have as much of me there as possible. 

A Baptism for Baby M

If you don't follow my Instagram feed, you may have missed that we've just been home to Australia for a few weeks. We went to be part of Saraids wedding, to celebrate my Father in laws 70th, and to celebrate the baptism of Baby M. A fair amount to do in two weeks!!

Living in the UK has its ups and downs but by far the hardest part is living so far from our families and so many old friends. I wanted to gather as many loved ones in one place to do Madeleine's Baptism, so Brisbane was the place to do it.

We landed very late on the Friday night after some horrific 30 hours in transit, had some sleep, and then got to work baking all day Saturday. Saraid and I work together like a well oiled machine, it was actually a heap of fun being so busy with her, I don't think there's another soul in the world who thinks so similarly to me!! 

We had a lovely little ceremony for Baby M at Marist College, which was where her mama and daddy met nearly 15 years ago. It was really lovely to be back in my husbands old school, and felt very special to be back there with our little daughter, all those years later.

With Sophie at Marist College Ashgrove

After the ceremony we had a small morning tea back at the Godmother, Saraids' house. 

I can hear your very first question..... What's the theme Meg, there has to be a theme?? Of course there's a theme, it was all tied in to Baby M's party dress, this gorgeous Ralph Lauren dress we picked up in Conneticut last month (Which, came in its very own tiny little garment bag, I nearly died from the cuteness!!).

To start the theming off, I ordered some fun striped straws, in theme of course, and added a touch of sparkle to them and popped them in some mini-milk bottles for some fresh lemonade...

I made lots and lots of lace bunting, which we cut to hang in all the doorways around the house too!

I also had my meg-made Confetti Filled Balloons, using navy blue and pink confetti. I of course forgot to photograph them up, but they were lots of fun to play with after as well!!

I purchased some super cheap Ikea cups and saucers, and made most of the cake stands with plates and different sized bowls.

There was plain vanilla cupcakes, decorated with pink glitter heart picks.

I relived my childhood by making some Tea Cups! Using Arnotts Tic Toc biscuits for the saucer, marshmallow for the cup, half of a musk Lifesaver for the handle and a Allens Freckle for the top. I'm sure you can recreate these with similar supplies in the UK and USA, but I just think they were the sweetest!

I used the same recipe for my GF Royal Sugar Cookies but couldn't find oat/nut flour at all, so used half ground almonds and half regular GF flour. Without the heavy nut flavour the honey became the star and they were delicious. Bless Saraid for indulging my crazy ways. When I made these to look like tea bags and ask if she could tie each with the lace ribbon....rather than look at me like I was completely bonkers, she just simply got on with poking the ribbon through the hole! 

My mum went to the markets and got some beautiful fresh fruit so we filled some plastic wine glasses with a fruit salad...

I made and completely forgot to serve a huge batch of lamb meatballs with a spicy tomato sauce. Oops! I was wondering why it was such a sweet party!

And the final treat were going to be Zuccini Pizzas, but ended up being Zucchini Bites, and they were gorgeous. Saraid added the perfect amount of pepperoni to give these a bit of a zing, they were so tasty!

I wanted Baby M to have a special little headband that was Baptism-appropriate and so made her this little lace and gold sparkle headband. I think she had an inkling of how angelic she looked!

It was such a lovely morning gathering our Australian loved ones to celebrate Baby M's Baptism! Thank you to all our friends and families who were able to partake in this special day. 

A huge thank you to Saraid for helping so much, taking so many photos, being two steps ahead when jetlag set in, and for allowing me to clutter up your house for two weeks! 

Stay tuned for a post about the magnificent wedding of the Godmother!!! 

I've been Decorated!

It has been such a fun 6 months of blogging thus far. I have gotten to know some lovely ladies all around the world. Been daring and opened my Etsy store. Have travelled aplenty and reviewed accordingly. Was nominated for a Liebster award (the blog equivalent of a Participation Medal). And then was nominated for a  "Best Decorations" badge through a party planning/supplies website called PartyPail.com. And this one is legit!!!

The party I prepared for Baby M's 1st Birthday was the culmination of weeks of planning (read: months of dreaming of how all the pink sparklyness would look) and lots of making things if and when I had a chance during a naptime.

Baby M's Birthday was a really special day for us. We got to celebrate with so many loved ones. There was one Grandmother, one Uncle, one Boyfriend (how cute is Ilia seriously!), one other almost-1-year-old, and lots and lots of honorary Aunts and Uncles who have all been a special part of our daughters first year. And being able to sit at night hand-making all of these wonderful peoples' bow ties and hair accessories allowed me to enjoy and reflect on her party for even longer. 

There were the decorations and there was the food.

And the edible decorations and the decorative food!!

And who doesn't like eating gold right?!

PartyPail.com have contacted me to let me know I am going to be featured on a new website of their's which   recognises parties with that little extra personal touch. I'm not entirely sure how this all came about, but it's awfully nice!

Since then I helped cater two baby showers (Mandi and Grace); hosted a Baptism morning tea for my little one (post to come), made a wedding cake with the bride (post to come), and pretty much done a full lap around the globe.

I love creating things and baking and doing anything that focuses around a theme! So really, I think I should just go ahead and celebrate Baby M on the 10th of each month. What's this once a year business! Anyway, if you happened to miss these posts, I thought it might be a good time to do a little bit of a "party rehash" to coincide with this recognition from the lovely folk over at PartyPail.com!!!

A whale of a good time at Baby W's Shower

I was thrilled when I found out we'd be coming to New York for August because among many other exciting reasons,  it meant I would be able to attend the baby shower for Baby Williams. I'm not sure if you've picked up on this or not, but I bloomin' well  LOVE baby showers! (haha you said what I did there..). 

I love everything about them. I love the decorations, the cake, the gifts, the food, the exchange of mummy wisdom, the excitement of the blooming mum-to-be, the themes, and the chance to pamper and spoil the mama before she starts the exciting chapter of parenthood.

I was excited when my friend Julie, as a hostess, asked if I'd like to help make a cake for the shower, given that Mama Mandi can't eat gluten either. I was thrilled and knew the perfect cake would be the Flourless Almond and Orange cake, and so gladly accepted. I offered to make a few little decorations to contribute to the nautical themed shower as well, which placated my crafty needs that haven't been able to indulge in much craftiness in our home away from home here in Manhattan. 

My photos are only quick iPhone snaps, so apologies for some grainyness here and there!!! 

Julie and I made and "dressed" two cakes for the shower. 

There was the main Orange and Almond Cake, frosted with a cream cheese frosting. 

And then the diaper/nappy cake. Julie had done all the hard work of rolling and assembling all the diapers, and I got to just swan in and dress it up a little with some nautical ribbons/rope that I found at Mood this past week. 

I loved that we drank our mimosa's out of named mason jars, topped off with nautical paper straws of course!

Susan, Cristen and Julie spent the weekend preparing all of the savoury delights, 98% of which were gluten free! Mandi and I loved being able to have plateful (after plateful) of delicious food that wasn't going to make us sick! They made gorgeous turkey meatballs, chicken salad boats, brussel sprout salad, veggies with hummus and fruit salad. 

And what did I contribute to this smorgasbord of heavenly food..... something fun to eat them with!!! Little whale and flag food picks!

We all had a chance to guess the birth date of Baby W, with the winner getting first babysitting honours, and anyone who guessed OVER her due date, promptly scratched off the Christmas Card list! I loved Susan's handiwork and kind of want to make one of these boards for household notices!!

I made some of my Confetti-filled balloons to dot around the room, and these ones were filled with navy stripe and baby blue to fit the theme. I thought about putting teeny tiny whale confetti to put inside each balloon, but then it would have felt odd stuffing tadpoles inside latex!

I had fun making a little bunting for Baby W, which we had positioned along the front wall to set the scene.

If you follow my Instagram feed, you'll have seen these amazing soaps that Julie ordered on Etsy. They were so cute, smelled utterly divine and I just loved the special touch,  "from Amanda's shower to yours". The soaps themselves were from Possum Hollow Farm Soap and the little whale canvas pouches were from A Southern Flair. I wish I could post a "scratch & sniff" panel so you could smell them!!

I had Baby M spend the day with her Daddy at the boy's BBQ, as she has a way of captivating everyone's attention, and I wanted Baby W to be the focus of his own shower! But when the boys returned at the end of the shower, she was a pig in mud playing with all of the helium balloons! I so wish I had my proper camera to take some decent photos of her! Perhaps I will have to do this again one day, shame! 

It was such an incredible baby shower, these girls sure know how to host a party. I hope Mandi has a relaxed final month of pregnancy and I can't wait to hear all about Baby W when he arrives, on September 24th, which was my guess date!! 

Mini Lemon Shortbread Pavlova

Or, Lemon Meringue Shooters I guess you could call them!

Recently I was the cakerer for a sweet baby shower and made these as the 4th dessert to accompany the Almond & Orange cake, Ombre White Chocolate mudcakes, and Anzac Blondies. 

There are three components to assemble these Lemon Shortbread Pavlova's and yep you guessed it, they are 1) lemon curd 2) crushed shortbread biscuits and 3) itty bitty pavlova's. 

The first component - Lemon Curd

Have you heard the thing about curd.... it is delicious! I have always been put of a curd because curd to me doesn't sound all that appetising. But, I am so happy that I overcame my prejudice against curd  because it is actually darn tasty! Not that I can eat citrus, so it isn't much of a breakthrough for me, but still, a little teaspoon of it here and there isn't going to kill me!!

I used the Donna Hay Modern Classics 2 recipe for Lemon Curd and it worked perfectly and was really simple to make.  

Ingredients

1/2 cup of lemon juice

100g butter

1/2 cup of sugar

1 whole egg

3 egg yolks

Method:

1. Place the lemon juice and butter in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the butter has melted. 

2. Whisk the sugar and eggs (whole + yolks) into the butter. 

3. Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken (about 5 minutes)

The second component - Shortbread base

This is even more simple to make, possibly the most simple thing to make in the kitchen!! Crush whichever biscuits you like (and by biscuits I mean cookies) with melted butter. Done. 

The third component - Pavlova/meringue/cream

Pavlova is an Australian (New Zealand - - depends who you are but there's a bitter feud between our two nations over who first created the pav) dessert that is basically a huge meringue, baked and topped with seasonal fruit and cream. I've been making a lot of Pav's lately, I always forget how easy they are to make! But yet, when we had one of Mr M's friends' over for dinner one night and he was beyond excited about dessert, he reminded me the importance of a gentle fold, something he was never able to achieve, and thus could never make this lighter-than-air dessert!

(Full Pavlova recipe)

Ingredients

3 egg whites

1 cup of sugar

3/4 t cornflour

1 t vanilla

1 t white vinegar

Method:

1. If you have a stand mixer you will find this an easy peasy dessert! You need to beat the egg whites for a few minutes until they start getting white and fluffy. 

2. Start adding in the sugar, bit by bit and beat well in between. You need to beat until stiff peaks form - this means that when you dip a spoon finger in to the fluffiness, you should be able to lift and a peak will be created! It's fun to do!

3. Slowly and very gently fold in the vanilla, cornflour and vinegar. Gently, you don't want to take all of the air out of the eggwhites. 

4. For these shooters, I traced the top of the shot glasses on the piece of baking paper and piped little mounds to fill each circle. 

5. These mini ones were baked for 15 minutes on a low oven. For the full pav instructions, follow this link. 

Assemble by placing the shortbread base in first, then some lemon, repeat and place each pavlova/meringue or alternatively whipped cream, on top! 

I really loved how these turned out. I tried each component separately and they were all delicious, so I can only imagine how tasty it was all in one mouthful!! I think it is a striking dessert for an event or dinner party and something you can mostly prepare a bit ahead of time. 

Baby Shower Cakerer

(Okay, just in case you are worried due to my very Royal-inspired week thus far, no, I did not throw The Duchess of Cambridge a baby shower, I'm not that coo coo!!). 

My friend Lauren asked me a few weeks back if I would be interested in making a cake for a baby shower she was hosting for a friend of hers, and without hesitation I said yes! I had met the mama-to-be a few times and so was really excited to be doing some baking to celebrate the imminent arrival of her little girl! Plus, when Lauren hosts, she pulls together some pretty awesome people, and I for one was thrilled to bits to be the cakerer alongside the likes of tableware supplied by Laura Ashley. 

I started planning right away and luckily for me, there was already a theme (you know I love my themes!!). So, everything was to go with a general theme of yellow and grey. Knowing the mama-to-be works in children's book publishing, I thought of a few little ways of personalising the sweets in her honour.

Order One: A cake

I decided to make an Orange & Almond cake, because it would handle being made the day before, wouldn't dry out in the hot weather, and because it was in line with the theme colours! 

Recipe HERE

Order two: Small side cakes

Lauren and I had pinned the same exact idea on Pinterest! We both loved the idea of mini-ombre cakes, but with yellow of course. I used my trusty White Chocolate Mudcake recipe for this, which again, would be best made a day or two in advance and would be sweet enough on its own without all the icing that is usually on cakes. I baked four separate mudcakes, each a varying shade of yellow, and was happy with how they came out. Yellow is a tricky one for ombre, but I think it looked sweet. 

Order 3: Salted Caramel Anzac-Blondies

Being a group of Americans, it was no surprise that this was requested!! It's sweet, gooey, chewy and perfect for one who is soon to be due-y!! Haha oh dear. 

Order 4: Anything else I liked

Well, this one was a tricky one! The ideas just kept flowing and flowing, but I had to think of what would make sense with the other flavours, be easily transportable, and something that would withstand the heatwave that we were in. 

I decided to create Mini Lemon Shortbread Pavlova's.  

I loved how these turned out, and love that I can make them gluten free easily too. I used shortbread for the base, made lemon curd for the first time, and baked mini pavlova's for the tops! I think they looked gorgeous and out of everything, was a bit envious that I wouldn't get to have one!!

And then there were the little extras! 

Confetti-filled balloons

meg-made Confetti-Balloons on Etsy. I've also done them here and here.

Neither of us got a good photo of the yellow and grey confetti-filled balloons, but my darling husband spent two hours inflating every balloon and then hanging off the ceiling trying to tape them up. The heat combined with the high ceilings made his job difficult, but they looked beautiful scattered all over the ceiling (you'll have to take my word for it) and I was so grateful for him for staying and helping me out! He subs as sous chef often enough at home, and now can throw in balloon-tape-attachmenterer too).

Book Heart Picks

Browsing through Pinterest I saw these adorable heart food picks and knew immediately that I wanted to make some too!!

I went to our little antique store down the road and bought an appropriate old classic penguin book. It felt a little wrong cutting it up, but it was worth it when I saw the finished product. I think the vintage look of the texts compliments the modernness of the ombre cakes, and together is sweet, and yet personal. 

The bunting!

I was a bit chuffed actually with the little bunting I made. I resized some pictures of children's book covers and placed them on the front of some page inserts from the antique book I purchased. I then attached them all by needle and thread to some skewers, and finished with grey polkadot bows. 

Thanks for sharing some of your photos Lauren (meg-made-AK), I was in a mad rush to clean up and get my tired little girl out the door before the guest of honour arrived, and so my photos were pretty shoddy! 

From all reports, Grace had a wonderful shower and was well and truly pampered by all the girls! I can't wait to hear all about her little girl in a few weeks, good luck Grace!!!