Christmas Cake 2007, Part 3

I finally finished icing the cake at 04:00 this morning, so I'm a bit shell-shocked this morning.

Lugging the bloody thing in to the office was a bit of a challenge as well, but I cobbled together a carry case out of a couple of archive boxes and it seemed to do the trick.

Here's a brief blow-by-blow account:

The ingredients. I used most, but not all of this.

Cooking. The design needed 4 cakes in total, 2 chocolate, 2 lemon.

Cut up and ready to ice. The bucket and top section came from 1 cake.

The finished product. Well, nearly.

I just like the halo from the fridge light.

The finished product. The lights are musical as well.

So there we are. I'm not quite sure where I can go from here as I think everything else will sort of pale by comparison. I need to come up with something though as I'm getting a food mixer for Christmas and I'll be itching to use it.

Any ideas for a theme for a cake?

Christmas Cake 2007, Part 2

When it comes to practical DIY stuff I have to say my skills are 'elsewhere'. That's why I'm quite pleased with my latest attempt at building something.

Here's the plans I made:

And here's the finished product in 3 easy steps:

I'm starting to get the impression that this crazy Christmas tree cake might actually work...

Christmas Cake 2007, Part 1

I've been plotting and planning for the last week or so, and I think I've now got the blueprints for an ambitious Christmas cake for work.

It's top, top secret classified information, and I haven't even discussed it with colleagues, but if you can keep it a secret I'll let you have a peek at the plans so far...

Remember, loose lips sinks cakes. Or something...

iCake

I baked another cake.

I'm having a lot of fun making these. I keep catching myself giggling like a bit of a loon while I decorate them. Keeps me out of trouble I suppose...

Bobble Hat, Part 2

Bit of trivia before I start - knit one, purl one is called seed stitch or moss stich. That's something I didn't know a few weeks ago, but is now horribly burnt into my brain.

Anyways, I finished my knitting project with about half an hour to spare - I was frantically sewing the seam and putting on the pompom the morning of the baby shower, conscious the taxi was due to turn up any minute.

It turned out pretty well in the end so I'm quite pleased with myself, although I don't think I'll be making long-term use of my new-found talent. (Except that my cousin has recently sprogged, I have some wool left over, and I've just found a pattern for some booties. Now, where did I put those needles...)

Bobble Hat, Part 1

A friend at work is off on maternity leave at the end of this month. I was talking with her last week and somehow the conversation got on to the fact that my nan taught me to knit when I was about seven - a hobby that stayed with me for roughly a week.

Somehow during that same conversation - and I don't quite remember how - I've ended being coerced into knitting a baby hat for her offspring-to-be.

A bit of googling later and I found a pattern, but getting the wool was a bit harder and needed a trip to Bluewater.

(Incidentally, the lady in John Lewis was very helpful - I ended up sitting in a nice comfy chair in the haberdashery department practising casting on, knitting, purling and casting off. I got a few funny looks from fellow shoppers who were probably wondering why a hung-over, bed-headed, unshaven 30-something bloke was sitting there knitting on a Sunday morning, but fortunately I have no shame).

My schedule's going to be quite tight - I've got about 3 weeks to get this thing made, and, well, it's going to be a bit of an uphill struggle seeing as this is how far about 4 hours has got me:



If all else fails I guess I'll just go buy a proper one from Mothercare and cut the label out...

Halloween Cake 2007

I met my parents and my brother last weekend for Sunday lunch and he came up with an idea for a Halloween cake. So I nicked it and made one myself.

I'm going to try to cart it into work tomorrow on the train. That's going to be 'interesting' I think.

Anyway, Happy Halloween, and here's a graveyard cake I just finished making...

Mexican Stand-Off, Part 2

Oh, I forgot to mention. I won the Mexican Stand-Off last weekend and I'm now the proud owner of the Silver Sombrero. Yay me!

To be fair, it's just a silver-painted tequila bottle top, but I won it fair and square.

Actually, that might not be strictly true. There was some confusion over the vote counting so I may have inadvertently Florida-ed my way to victory but, well, a win's a win.

We're already planning the next one. The theme's going to be Italian. I'm thinking home-made pasta and a super-tasty carbonara...

Ouch

New personal rules when cooking at home:

1) When chopping food in a hurry, don't stab the end of your finger with the knife. It hurts.

2) Especially not if you're chopping chillies. It hurts and then it stings.

3) Oh, and don't then put your finger in your mouth to try and make it feel better. You were handling chillies, remember.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about what I did earlier.

Mexican Stand-Off, Part 1

So I'm hosting a dinner party next Saturday. Strictly speaking it's more of a cook-off - a friend will also be cooking at the same party and we'll be in direct competition for our guests' votes for favourite dishes.

The last time we did this it was a Chinese wok-off about a year ago and I lost. The competition itself is all very friendly, and it's only for bragging rights but that's the reason why I *must* win this year, otherwise he'll be the holder of the Golden Chopsticks *and* the Golden Piñta and I'll never hear the end of it.

I'll have the advantage of home turf as it's at my house this year, but I can't afford to rest on my laurels. I've got one killer dish up my sleeve - Mexican pork with rice, but we've got to do two dishes each and I'm kind of stuck on the other one.

I mean, fajitas are all well and good, but I'm not going to get any points for culinary innovation. Unless I can somehow find the most amazing fajita recipe known to man (or woman)...

In fact, here's a challenge: Does anyone have any good Mexican recipes that will assure my victory next Saturday? I'll try and cook any suggestions between now and the 20th and let you know if any look like good candidates. And if I win you'll have the knowledge that it was you who propelled me to success :-)