Malteaser Birthday Cake

Here is a birthday cake I made some time in the not tooooo distant past... its a basic chocolate sponge, with chocolate icing and Malteasers! Quite tasty it was too.

Happy Birthday Mum - Zebra Cake!

For my Mum's birthday (which was way back in May) , I decided to make a zebra cake - recipe from here. The only change I made was the addition of icing, because, well, it was for a birthday, and a birthday cake needs icing!! Despite appearances, this was a very easy cake to make, with the only fiddly part being the alternate spooning of mixture into the cake tin.  The resulting pattern inside the cake was certainly worth it. THe cake tasted good too!!

Happy Birthday Janet!

Janet turned 40 on the weekend, and we had a "Young at Heart" party for her.  This has kept me rather busy cooking over the past few weeks!!

We were expecting about 40 people, so I made lots of food - I cooked most of the finger food in advance and froze it.

We started with lots of different nibblies.....

Cheese, dip and crackers

Chippies!!

Cheezles!!

and of course some lollies!

The "healthy plate" - I made a big bowl of hommus. In fact, I am still eating it now :-)

Then we moved onto some hot finger food....

a pile of sausage rolls

I made 3 different kinds of meatballs - mexican beef, sweet chilli turkey & honey, rosemary lamb

I also made a batch of corn fritters, 2 kinds of puff pastry pizza scrolls (bbq meat lovers & roasted vegie), and Nigellas Ritzy Chicken Nuggets

We had a wonderful gang of waiters to help hand the food around - thanks kids!!

and because it was a "young at heart" party, we also had to play a few party games - we "pinned the nose on the koala" and also played "pass the parcel!!!

And then we had dinner!

I made 2 rather large lasagne's - one meaty and one vegie (I forgot to take a photo until after they were outside in the dark)

My Mum made this delicious salad, and there was also a potato salad from Chevonne, that I neglected to photograph! Garlic bread too!!

YUM!!

Then, there has to be some desert......

We did have a fruit platter, but we kind of left it in the fridge. oops

every kids party needs fairy bread!!

the jelly cups were a big hit!

Pam made these fairy cakes

and Janet specially requested chocolate crackles, so Chevonne & her kids made these snazzy looking ones!!

And of course, no birthday is complete without a cake..... Janet selected this one from the Women's Weekly Birthday Cake book, and I made it for her.....

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY!!!!

more birthday- work cake!

The day before my birthday we had a delicious cake at work - it was a sponge cake with strawberry. YUM!!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

yes, after eating those mega burgers, we still found room for cake! A death by chocolate cake to be precise. It was gooooooood.

Grill'd - Rosalie

For my birthday I chose to go to Grill'd at Rosalie for lunch with my family. It was great. We had the biggest burgers you ever saw. And they tasted as good as they look!


Summer Sunset - Grill'd 100% lean beef, avocado, crispy bacon, golden pineapple, salad, relish, herbed mayo $11.50 (Mum's Burger)

Crispy Bacon & Cheese -Grill'd 100% lean beef, crispy bacon, tasty cheese, salad, (no relish), herbed mayo $9.90 (Janet's Burger)

Big Queenslander - Grill'd 100% lean beef, tasty cheese, crispy bacon, free range egg, beetroot, salad, relish, herbed mayo $11.90 (Dad's Burger)

Summer Sunset - Grill'd 100% lean beef, avocado, crispy bacon, golden pineapple, salad, relish, herbed mayo $11.50 (ordered with no tomato or relish) (Gina's Burger)

Hot Mama - Grill'd 100% lean beef, roasted peppers, dill pickle, tasty cheese, tatziki, salad, harissa paste $11.50 (Scott's Burger)

Garden Goodness- Vegie Pattie with beetroot, tasty cheese, avocado, salad, relish & herbed mayo $9.90 (My Burger)

Thick Chips with Grill'd Herb Mix (with herbed mayo) - they also gave us Tomato Relish & Sweet Chilli Mayo to try (sweet chilli mayo was the best!)!

Scott's Birthday Dinner

On Saturday night we went out to dinner for Scotts birthday. Unfortunately Gina was sick, so couldn't make it. We went to the Stir Fry Cafe at Jindalee. Which we have been to quite a few times before.

To start with we had some prawn toast.

And some vegie Spring Rolls. The spring rolls might look a little over done, but they tasted delicious.

Then there was some Salt & Pepper White Bait, which is what my parents always order here. It looks a little like crispy white worms. But is reportedly delicious.

Mixed Vegetables - a little too heavy on the onion and very light on the carrot and red capsicum. Nice and crunchy though!

Mongolian Lamb. Scott's Choice. The waitress suggested this as being a very popular dish. Was quite heavy on the vegetables.

My choice - Crispy fried tofu with Salt & Pepper. Really crispy chunks of tofu with a spicy sauce on the side. Inside the crunchy shell was soft silken tofu. Yum!!



Janet's Choice - Honey King Prawns. Shock!!!! Its not Sweet & Sour Pork!!

Then it was off to Mum & Dad's place for present opening. AND CAKE!!

I was playing around with the settings on the camera - trying out the candle light setting.


MMMMMMMM Cake - yummmmmmmm!