Unbelievable!

Every time I hear grand claims about technological innovations outdoing the forces of nature I am concerned. I have to admit I have not seen anything like this footage from Brisbane of the floods. It is very humbling and I sincerely hope we can act with more respect for the world we live in. But right now my concerns are for very dear friends who live in Brisbane that I have not heard from. I will be really glad if all they lose in these floods is just a car or even their house.

The monster cake

I happen to be the sort of person to whom things just happen. Quite often it's just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Other times I just do things that makes people go, "why?"

So for me to undertake a challenging cake making project was a big deal. I was inspired by a fantastic mother and dear friend who keeps churning out the most creative cakes (and certainly must be delicious, but I have not had the good fortune of tasting any of them, being half a world away from her and all). When I let her know I was contemplating following in her footsteps she was very helpful and sent some excellent tips (thank God for that). As you will see all the advice in the world doesn't help me with some things.

Over a period of one month I bought the pan, the icing paraphernalia and read over and over again about how I ought to go about it. It took three attempts to get the cake right, just the cake - plain old butter cake. In my defense it was not so much the batter as it was getting the right amount of batter into the pan to get the shape right etc to ensure it doesn't fall apart when I flipped it. So that was done in time for the birthday.

Now for the icing - oh joy! I made the butter icing, that was no problem and tinting the icing was lots of fun. I put some music on and started to tint the icing. It reminded me how much fun painting and colouring can be. I did the black, orange and set aside some white. Then I got to the red. You see, while I did the other colors I took out a small amount and did up just enough to fill in areas. But, when I started on the red I tinted all of the remaining icing, which was nearly two cups of icing!! I don't know why I did! I don't know why I didn't think of the fact that it was too much. It was on my second trip to the shops to buy out all of the "no taste" red icing colour they had that it dawned on me that I ought to halve the amount of icing and colour only what I need!!! Now this is what I meant by, I just do stuff that is crazy and silly and not to mention just plain stupid. Eventually I got all the colors right and the icing began.

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And it turned out to be a hit with my two-year-old.

Now all I have to do is find someone who can use the ridiculous amount of coloured icing, some an ugly pink-red and another lot of beautiful red that is taking up space in my fridge. Any takers?

2011...blogging prospects

I intended to post at least once a month in 2010, but it never happened. Although I have 19 posts in total it really doesn't count. So I have to just see how I go this year. I am sort of bracing myself for a lot this year, but it should be bearable with friends visiting from afar and hopefully my crocus bulbs bringing the first burst of colour (if the darned squirrels haven't already go to them).

I should have more to come in the next week, there is at least one story that is worth sharing with kindred spirits, but I may just crash on the couch rather than write at a computer. Hmmm...

Here's wishing anyone who stops by a beautiful year blessed with good health and happiness. It's what we really need to have everything else fall into place.