For Chace - Makeup Fundraiser Night

If I could redefine the word courage it would be Chace Topperwien and his family.   His parents are my heroes.   You can find out more about Chace through his facebook page.  I have followed his story (right back from the terribly unfortunate incident of his mistaken immunisation) as he is almost the exact age as my daughter Mila and it touched my heart back then.  To learn of his cancer was heartwrenching.

When I heard about their plight to the UK, I knew I wanted to do something to help raise what I could.  I entertained a few ideas but when my sister said she would like to help I thought why not just combine whatever talents we have.  She is a fantastic makeup artist (follow her on facebook) and while I'm on continued hiatus from being a lawyer I like to throw a party.

So throw a party we did.  It was a makeup demonstration night.  I themed it "What hue suits you?" (for anyone who doesn't know what "hue" means it is shade or tint.  According to my family this is not a word but according to me and the dictionary it is!!).  I went with a theme of pinks, reds & fushias teamed up against browns, caramels & golds to represent the most common makeup "hues!!".

I loved every minute of putting together the sweet treats table knowing this would be going towards such a great cause.  All attendees paid $30.  We also had a couple of silent auctions.  My parents auctioned a weekend for 4 their beach house accommodation and my mother in law donated some gorgeous jewellery from her very super cool Garden Art Studio.

At the end of the night all the sweet treats not eaten were bagged up for sale (coin donations).  It cleared the table and brought in lots more cash.  We raised almost $1300 in total.

I'd like to thank Denise at Dots n Spots for donating for the cause some lovely bits of party ware.  Also Alison Worth of Locavore (fine foods) for donating some lovely quince paste to be added to the sweets sale (they sell through the Saturday morning Cambridge markets).

I learnt to make these tissue pom poms from a Martha Stewart Tutorial found through the insanely gorgeous blog of Bella Cupcakes.  

My CRAZY good rocky road invention.  Cadbury milk chocolate & cooking melts mixed and melted, caramel marshmellows, honey roasted peanuts, hokey pokey and crushed homemade ricie slice.  

I don't rate the recipe I used for this red velvet cake.  I will try and conquer that cake another time.

I trialled a new piping technique for my buttercream icing.  Its not really what I was after but I was in a rush and still think the mini rosette was very cute.  I did this with a 1M tip but was recommended a 2D tip but couldn't find one for sale.  Bella Cupcakes has a great tutorial :)

Very cool dots n spots drinks dispenser.

I use my favourite ever chocolate cake recipe for these cupcakes.  I promise to separately blog the recipe along with the icing recipe.

Some of the volunteer models :)

All the scrummy goods going home with guests for $$$!!

The invite / flyer

Me and my Mum.  She was a model for the makeup and only has one eye made up with false lashes.  Love this photo :)  Love ya Mum.

Thanks to everyone who helped and came and supported.  All my love and well wishes go to Chace and family xoxoxox

Yum Easter / Birthday Cake

I did throw together a very small Easter afternoon tea at my Mum and Dad's lovely beach home. We got together to celebrate my sister in law's birthday and let all the cousins have an easter egg hunt together (which they never wanted to end - I had to keep running around re-hiding the already found eggs due to the degree of desperation they were all exuding every time we said it was over).

I found the recipe for this yummy cake in the latest Next magazine while I was at the hairdressers. I tried to memorise it but kinda didn't do too well. Here is my guessed recipe attempt which turned out so yum and moist!!

Date & fresh ginger cake with cinnamon cream cheese icing:

125g butter

1 1/2 cup of chopped dates

1 cup made up coffee

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup golden syrup

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 finely grated ginger root (about a thumb size piece)

1 cup plain yoghurt

Once the coffee is made up let the dates soak in it until it cools a bit then blitz it in the blender with the baking soda and golden syrup.

In a bowl cream the butter, sugar and eggs then mix in the yoghurt. Sift in the flour and baking powder then add the ginger and the coffee/date mix. Mix it all until just combined. Bake at 160 degrees until it bounces to the touch.

For the icing mix a tub of cream cheese with 2 cups of icing sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon.

tips - I always do 1.5 times a standard cake recipe to get a nice high cake (the above recipe is standard but the photo is 1.5 times). Add more ginger if you want it extra spicy. Add butter to the icing if you want it creamy and reduce icing sugar to make it less sweet. I always layer a cake with icing but on this occasion it made it too sweet so I wouldnt do it again with this particular icing. This cake would be so good hot with caramel sauce and icecream. YUM

More birthday fun...

Under the sea cake with divine meringue icing!

gorgeous fish cupcakes courtesy of Hot Cakes

Elmo

Dora enjoying a jelly shot

My sister went all out for her daughters' 'under the sea' combined 1st and 3rd birthdays which both fall in April. Such a fun day, the kids loved it. The cake was AMAZING the detail was so incredible !!! I was devastated I never got a closeup of the octopus on the side of the cake!! The visit from Elmo was such a hit with the kids and it was such a crack-up the look on Mila's face when she saw her cousin and best friend dressed up as Dora!!!

Way to go Gabes, your parties are so much fun!!!!! the decorations were fantastic!!! & love love love that you and Derek dressed up as Shrek & Fiona :)

Happy Easter

Easter nests

A big nest for big kids and mini nest for babies.

In the basket ready for delivery.

Just a quick post to show the little Easter treats Mila and I put together for her cousins and friends. I was lucky to have any eggs left to fill up the nests as she was sneaking them as quick as I could fill them!! She was a great help adding all the paper straw though:)

The little easter illusrations on the bag tags were free cupcake printables found at We Love To Illustrate that I cut out and added. I just LOVE free printables, its so cool when people share their clever things.

I will post a blog if I decide to throw any type of Easter get together - it will have to be very impromptu this year with everyone I know having a lot going on. A shame as I cannot stand to leave the Easter decorations in the cupboard! I'll just have to get them out anyway, and hope to bake an Easter cake. At the very least there will be lots of chocolate in the house. I am soooooooooooooo excited for Sunday as I've been on chocolate lent fast for nearly 6 1/2 weeks. Excited is an understatement.

:)