How to Make an Elephant Cake

A few weeks ago I was looking online for inspiration for making an elephant cake and found there really aren’t that many available.  Sure, there is a plethora of nursery-styled ‘Jumbo the Elephant’ type cakes, but I wanted something more authentic.  The occasion was my father’s 80th birthday and the celebration was to be a […]

Cheat’s Bombe Alaska

Ever since we enjoyed Bombe Alaska on New Year’s Eve, it’s been on my mind how much I’d like to make one.  This is a theatrical dessert that was big in the 70’s when a dinner party wasn’t a dinner party unless you were setting your guests’ food on fire. But the dessert originated a […]

Mini Christmas Truffle Puddings

I’ve written about the little supermarket up the road a few times; most memorably was the time I was asked to present my Seniors Card almost two decades ahead of being eligible to receive one.  It’s where I do most of my shopping and for some reason, strangers don’t mind striking up a conversation. December […]

Frozen Chocolate Christmas Pudding

A few weeks ago an email went out amongst a group of my friends regarding our annual Christmas party.  It’s an event we’ve enjoyed for the past few years that’s always a Sunday lunch with around 12 adults, a handful of kids and everyone provides a dish. I put my hand up to bring a […]

Homemade Christmas Gifts

Don’t you just find that heartfelt gifts make the best presents. These are the gifts where the cost isn’t taken into consideration but rather the love and the time and the thoughtfulness is what excels in these gifts. As we are now just four weeks away from celebrating Christmas Day, I thought I’d re-post heartfelt […]

Quick and Easy Rocky Road

This post is sponsored by Nestle Healthy Active Kids. Recently I found out that almost half of Australian children are not learning any cooking skills.  I thought about my own childhood and realised I had learnt to cook from a young age.  I was given a children’s cookbook at the age of seven and I […]

Coco Chocolate Christmas Chocolates

I was in the kitchen last night marinating some chicken for the barbecue.  Listening to the radio as I pounded lemongrass with a mallet, I heard a song come on the radio.  It was, I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus.  As we were still officially in the first week of November, it stunned me that […]

How to Make a Bus Cake with a Stiletto Shoe

When Arabella chose, ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert‘ as the theme for her 21st birthday party I knew I’d need to make an appropriate cake and thought about what best symbolised the movie/musical. The realisation came upon me that central to the movie is the bus named ‘Priscilla’ with its giant sparkling stiletto perched precariously […]

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Last week when I made the After School Cookies, I had an annoying couple of rows of dark chocolate leftover.  Annoying because it seemed there wasn’t quite enough leftover chocolate to do anything with so I feared the few squares of chocolate would just sit around in the pantry, taking up space until I forgot […]

After School Cookies

Rosie is obese.  She waddles when she walks.  I’m blaming Barnaby the Lodger.  While he was here Rosie wanted to prove she was top-dog so she ate the lion’s share.  If Barnaby left anything on his plate, she bolted over and snatched it.  Now people are looking at her wobbling abdomen and then at me […]