I shall start today with a big huzzah.
Happy Birthday Bertie!
My day started out with a set of back arches and a shower before preparing breakfast for Mr Smart and myself. Scrambled eggs on toast! Yum yum pig's bum, as my friend Pixaday is fond of saying. Actually I had no pig's bum with mine but I did cook a few strips of bacon for Mr Smart. After breakfast I set a load of dishes going and Mr Smart started a third draft of a story while listening to Christina Perri. Is it just me or does she totally sound like Regina Spektor!?
I had a little time to kill once I put the dishes on. Equipment required for today's cake making session was in the load so I had to find something else to do in the meantime. Surfing the net, updating my myki, online banking etc. fit the gap well enough. I also repacked up a large quantity of shortcut bacon for the freezer into individual two slice baggies for easy defrosting. Once the dishwasher finished, I laid everything away and commenced cake making!
Mr Smart left at lunch time, having finished his new draft, to return home for further study. My cake was in the oven shortly after that. It was pretty much a success. It did stick to the bottom of the cake pan a little bit so I've added to my recipe that the bottom should be lined with baking paper. Long live Multix Bake!
It took a fair few hours for the cake to become cold enough to frost. I cheated and used the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Frosting. A thin layer of that was enough for the the Halloween themed spooky sprinkles to adhere to! Ghosts, bats and pumpkins! Because Bertie's Birthday is so close to Halloween she often has her birthday themed that way so it seemed very fitting. I bought the Spooky Sprinkles from Cake Bling in Adelaide. It's a brilliant online store for all things baking run by my wonderful sister-in-law MinxB.
I'm calling the cake a success and I've been enjoying getting back into baking, even if I can't really eat the end results. Or at least, I shouldn't. There is something very satisfying about knowing that you are capable of cooking from scratch. It also I think, allows you greater control over what is going in your mouth. You can sit there and it a homemade muesli bar for example, safe in the knowledge that it's glued together with olive oil and honey rather than 'hydrolysed vegetable fats and corn syrup'.
At any rate, cooking is something I enjoy doing. My kitchen is gradually becoming less cluttered and more functional so I hope to be doing more and more cooking as that progresses. It may of course work the other way around as well, more cooking leading to less clutter as I throw things out that are in my way!
Captain Cupcake texted me just before I start cake making to see if we could car pool to get down to Bertie's Birthday Bash. I said of course we could and would she like to stay over and go for a walk in the morning. She thought that was a good idea so that's what we ended up doing. We may even end up going to the local farmer's market tomorrow.
Hopefully a trip to the farmer's market will negate the horrible candy glut that occurred when I got to Bertie's. She had two comically oversized goblets and a bag all full of different varieties of candy. I chose five items and mostly enjoyed the treat. Soon we were carpooled and headed off to Hog's Breath in groups. I had my nephew, Tricky and Captain Cupcake in my car.
My poor little nephew was so tired, not having had a nap today, and it was tough keeping him up long enough to eat. Service was again poor, though not as bad as it was on Tuesday despite it being the same dour waitress.
I had the Hog's Breath Grilled Steak Sandwich which they describe as "Tender grilled steak, cheese, beetroot, tomato, grilled onions and hickory BBQ sauce on a toasted Vienna loaf. It’s the number one choice for steak sanga fans! Add fried egg for $1.95 extra.". I have had much better, in fact I've made much better. For $17 I thought it was a bit over its money, especially given the crappy service. We got our meals before they managed to bring drinks, and I only asked for water! They are now off my list of potential eateries on the basis of both poor service and a lack of value for money.
After the meal we headed back to Bertie's for cake, drinks and laughs. My tuckered out little nephew only lasted mere minutes in the car. He was a solid slumbering lump when Tricky extricated him from the car seat and carried him to bed. Captain Cupcake and I hung around for a couple of hours of conversation and laughs but then headed home.
Captain Cupcake texted me just before I start cake making to see if we could car pool to get down to Bertie's Birthday Bash. I said of course we could and would she like to stay over and go for a walk in the morning. She thought that was a good idea so that's what we ended up doing. We may even end up going to the local farmer's market tomorrow.
Hopefully a trip to the farmer's market will negate the horrible candy glut that occurred when I got to Bertie's. She had two comically oversized goblets and a bag all full of different varieties of candy. I chose five items and mostly enjoyed the treat. Soon we were carpooled and headed off to Hog's Breath in groups. I had my nephew, Tricky and Captain Cupcake in my car.
My poor little nephew was so tired, not having had a nap today, and it was tough keeping him up long enough to eat. Service was again poor, though not as bad as it was on Tuesday despite it being the same dour waitress.
I had the Hog's Breath Grilled Steak Sandwich which they describe as "Tender grilled steak, cheese, beetroot, tomato, grilled onions and hickory BBQ sauce on a toasted Vienna loaf. It’s the number one choice for steak sanga fans! Add fried egg for $1.95 extra.". I have had much better, in fact I've made much better. For $17 I thought it was a bit over its money, especially given the crappy service. We got our meals before they managed to bring drinks, and I only asked for water! They are now off my list of potential eateries on the basis of both poor service and a lack of value for money.
After the meal we headed back to Bertie's for cake, drinks and laughs. My tuckered out little nephew only lasted mere minutes in the car. He was a solid slumbering lump when Tricky extricated him from the car seat and carried him to bed. Captain Cupcake and I hung around for a couple of hours of conversation and laughs but then headed home.
Today's food and exercise were:
- Breakfast was four eggs, scrambled with milk and a little black pepper and salt, atop two slices of toasted and buttered multigrain bread.
- Morning snack was a 170g tub of Dairy Farmers Thick & Creamy Raspberries & Cream Yoghurt and one half of dried peach.
- Lunch was a toasted sandwich comprising two slices of multigrain bread, one slice of Bega Extra Light Tasty cheese and a 95g tin of Sole Mare Tuna in olive oil accompanied by one carrot cut into sticks and 60g of tzatziki.
- Candy was, a small bag of Milkybar buttons, a Flintstones Chocolate, a small KitKat, a Strawberry Fizzer and a mini Snap Crackle. Ahh, memories.
- Dinner was the Hog's Breath Grilled Steak Sandwich with egg which came with curly fries and I got a side of ranch dressing to dip my fries in.
- Dessert was a piece of the cake I made and about 10ml of Lychee flavoured alcohol.
I was quite pleased to get lots of compliments on the carrot cake tonight. Everyone who had some enjoyed it and I got a couple of requests for the recipe so I've put it up with the picture of the cake above. The most important part of the night; did Bertie enjoy herself on her birthday? Yes, I rather think she did. I'm not sure how much she'll enjoy it tomorrow when she tackles the thousand steps, but that's tomorrow's problem.
I'm not sure how I feel about my eating tonight. It was nice to have a splurge, but if the choice had been mine I certainly would've splurged on somewhere different. I also wish I hadn't eaten quite as much candy. I think in hindsight I should've just had the Milkybar buttons and the Fizzer. The trick now will be trying to curtail my eating back to normal for the week ahead.
Jess
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