The Day's Events

It's been raining here since Friday afternoon. We were going to go to the local show but the rain just hasn't stopped. Drag three boys around in the rain? I don't think so. All of the little towns are having their shows around this time so I do think there will be one we go to next weekend.

So the day begins with breakfast. I've tried to create moments for my boys for when they're older. So if someone said, "What do you remember about your mum?" They might say how I made them pancakes and milkshakes (nearly) every Sunday. My pancake recipe is something I've created after finding a dairy-free, egg-free version online a little while ago. Termite 3 has allergies although he is now growing out of most of them, but I really like how these turn out. Now look at those bubbles! I think it's a combination of the soy milk and baking powder. I've made these with just milk and they don't rise like this. How yummy do they look with maple syrup?

It's my turn for morning tea tomorrow at work. I thought I'd make a few things. I started the day by making Red Velvet Cupcakes. This version required buttermilk (which I already had in the fridge) and cake flour (which I had to look up). The recipe comes from Joy the Baker. She also provided a very yummy Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting.

So what is cake flour? To make your own you use 1-3/4 cups of plain flour (all purpose flour) to 1/4 cup of cornflour (cornstarch). That simple.

Now of course when I had mixed up the batter I had to have a taste. It is custumary in our house (as it was when I was a little girl in my mum's house) that once mixed, the beaters, spatula and bowl are shared amongst the children for a 'taste'. The texture of this batter was so very, very light. And the colour is soooo intense. I loved it!

I bought some disposable piping bags from the supermarket and I used these scrumptious cakes as an excuse for giving piping a go. I have to say that they worked out pretty damn well. Oh, and this is my first piping anything!

The next yummy thing I made was Choc Caramel Brownies from Spoonful of Sugar. These are pretty good too. Very chewy though so you either like that or you don't. See some of those holes in the brownies? That's where some of the caramels were as I was cutting the brownies up. They got pulled out from the knife!

So two things to take for morning tea isn't enough is it? I decided to make the Cheesecake Brownies I made a few weeks ago. This is so yummy. I'm afraid that I undercooked it though. We had a quick taste test and it just feels creamy to the palette. I think it will pass.

Let's make one more thing! By this stage the kitchen was a mess (photo to come) so I thought that one more thing would be OK. I've been looking at lots of cooking blogs (see yesterday's post for the links). I came across Crumb Cakes and then found a version for a Chocolate Crumb Cake. I made it up and made the mistake of putting it into a small round pan so there was a bit of a mess on the bottom of the oven. Oh well. It also looked like it had caved in the middle. Oh well.

My cooking adventures stop there so it brings me to the state of my kitchen. One must make a mess to be creative (or so they say).

Here's BEFORE:

and AFTER:
And not long after the clean up and the quick taste test of everything (I do believe my Termites didn't get a proper lunch todat) I then had to start cooking dinner. We enjoyed a roast beef tonight made into a beef stroganoff. I love the internet. I didn't know what I should do with it so looked it up. Love it.

A great day of cooking. No quilting though. Oh well...