Which hat will I wear today.... cake decorator!

For those of you who don't know me, I love baking! I find it relaxing, it's my little escape from what's going on at the time as I focus on my creation, crossing my fingers that it turns out, hoping that it resembles something of a master chef creation (a winning creation of course) and above all else that it tastes delicious. Well becoming a mum has opened my eyes to 'ready to roll icing' and all the amazing things you can create with it. Let's face it birthday cakes can be expensive if you pay for someone to do it for you. So for Miss EJ's first birthday at the end of last year I decided to give it a go, let's put it this way it took me three evenings till after midnight to create it. When I had finished I was devastated that hubby had gone to bed as I was so excited to show it off... what to do, I couldn't drag him downstairs to take a peek and the thought of a sleep deprived mother carrying my new creation up the stairs... I had visions of face planting it down the stairs and having to buy a shop bought cake for her party the next day. So I took photos on my phone raced upstairs and climbed into bed very noisily trying to wake up hubby without actually poking him, "oh your awake, sorry didn't mean to wake you, but since you are, look at my cake!"

Anyway since then I haven't really had an opportunity to make another one, this week though it happened to be my sister's birthday. So I decided to tackle decorating cupcakes instead, thinking it would be easier to stop and start on them as I swapped between my mummy and cake decorator hats! Of course Miss EJ was in the kitchen to help with the cake making and chief taste tester as always. For my first time I was more than happy with the results, and the cupcakes were yummy. Watch out family and friends.... guess what your getting for your birthdays?

Recipe for a healthy snack

I am always on the look out for different snack ideas that are healthy, quick and easy to just pop in your bag on the way out the door. I recently came across this recipe in my Women's Weekly - The Happy Baby Cookbook. As well as loving the end result, Miss Ej was a great help in the kitchen as chief taste tester. So we thought we would share this recipe with you.

Muesli Squares

Ingredients
125g butter
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup finely chopped dried apples
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup self-raising flour

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180'c/160'c fan-forced. Grease and line 20cm x 30xm lamington pan.
2. Stir butter, sugar and honey in large saucepan over medium heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients. Press mixture into pan.
3. Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan; cut into squares to serve.

You can easily change the dried fruit to suit your toddlers taste as we added dried cranberries to the mix. Muesli squares are delicious as is for a quick snack or can be broken into pieces and stirred through some yummy vanilla yoghurt!



The Women's Weekly - Happy Baby Cookbook was given to me as a gift from my mum and it has become a firm favourite in my kitchen! "When you're a first time parent your naturally nervous and unsure about what to feed your precious little bundle of joy. Should you choose breast or bottle? When should you start introducing solid food? When can baby start eating with the family? Is there such a thing as a healthy snack? This delightful book helps answer these questions and is jammed full of recipes for first foods, puddings and lunchboxes, as well as allergy-friendly and party food. There's also a big chapter on family food with useful information on how to cook delicious meals for the whole family"