Footy Finals Fever

The Grand Final of the 2009 NRL competition was last Sunday.

Every year for a while now, my Dad has hosted an end-of-season and footy tipping competition party at my parent's place for his work mates. They all put in money throughout the year to buy food and drinks and also usually bring along a plate of food to share with everybody. Since my boyfriend and I were going along this year, I decided I would make a cake to take over for dessert. Easy!

Then I got to thinking, wouldn't it be a good idea to take over some cupcakes (as I love making them and everyone loves a cupcake). The cupcake idea then rolled into football themed cupcakes and then football shaped cupcakes. I thought I would use a friand pan to get little cakes that were oval-shaped, which I would then ice to look like little footballs.

I used a vanilla cake recipe from an old Australian Women's Weekly cookbook and then chocolate buttercream icing and fudge icing for the piping (which I'm not very good at by the way).

For some final touches, I printed out the logos of all the teams in the NRL competition, plus the NRL corporate logo and the premiership logo, stuck them on mini-skewers and topped the cakes with them. I also took a photo of some green grass, printed it out, cut it to size, laminated it and used in on the serving plate so that the little footballs looked like they were sitting on the football field (you can't really see the grass in the photos).

I think they looked great and they went down a treat with all the guests at the party. I've supplied the recipe for the cakes and icing after the photos.







For the Vanilla Cupcakes
You will need:
125g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 & 1/2 cups Self-Raising Flour, sifted
1/2 cup milk

Preheat your oven to around 190-200 degrees Celsius. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy. Beat eggs in one at a time, until combined. Stir in half the flour and half the milk until combined and then add the remaining flour and milk. Pour the mixture into your tray (I used a friand pan to make the football shapes) and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

For Chocolate buttercream icing
You will need:
3 tbsp butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
milk

Mix the icing sugar and butter together (I use an electric beater to make it cream better) and once mixed, add some milk to make it creamy. You may need to add more butter or more icing sugar depending on the consistency of the icing you were after.

The fudge icing was ready-made in a tube, that I found in the baking aisle of the supermarket.

Attack of the killer handbag...

My handbags attacked me today
Tumbling out of the wardrobe in a mess of sequins, snakeskin and patent leather
Maybe they didn't like how they were stacked
Maybe they wanted to be used instead of the comfy cardigan I was really after
Maybe I have too many
(Don't tell my boyfriend I said that)

Things that have made me smile today...

Here are some things that have made me smile today:

* Having a cuddly sleep in, even though it's Monday
* Seeing more photos from my cousin's wedding last Friday on Facebook
* Buying this months RealLiving magazine (love it) and reading it on my lunch break
* Being let to the front of the supermarket express lane by a lady who told me that I should be spending my lunch break enjoying my time off, not standing in line at the supermarket

The first and last ones made me smile the most. A sleep in on any day is good, but knowing that today is Monday made it so much better. And, the last one is like getting a compliment from a stranger - you're not quite sure if you should take it or not, but it makes you smile nonetheless.

What has you smiling today?

Maybe it is chocolate...

So, I know I said in my first post that this blog was not going to be about my adventures with chocolate cupcakes, but... I made a batch last night for a colleagues birthday and they looked so cute that I had to post about them. The recipe I use is so quick and easy, I thought I would share it with you.

Ahem, to make gorgeously easy chocolate cupcakes, you will need:

1 cup self-raising flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
90 grams butter, melted &
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

And, it all goes together like this:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Line your muffin tin with paper cupcake cases.
Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a bowl.
Add all the other ingredients and beat well for 3 minute.
Divide the mixture amongst the cases and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes.
Let the cakes cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Ice them with chocolate buttercream icing like I have, or dust them with icing sugar to serve.

Don't they look cute?





I'm thinking of adding some raspberries to the mix next time to make choc-raspberry cupcakes, or making little fairy cakes, with chocolate cream. Yum!

Oh, and PS, the cakes were a big hit in the office this morning. Very, very happy engineers all round.

Bargain Hunter

Today I went shopping to pick up the Father's Day gift for my dad. I also picked something up for my boyfriend's father, as he had to go into work today and wouldn't have a chance to get anything before tomorrow. I got the presents and realised that I needed wrapping paper so I ducked into the $2 shop just up the road from our place as it's always cheap and has a great range of papers.

I found some great wrapping paper - a plain blue and a stripy blue. I also had a look around the rest of the store while I was in there. I found these really cute citronella candles in holders for just $3 each which will look great on our patio when we finally get an outdoor setting.

Citronella candles in holders

I also came across these rattan balls in packs of 15 for just $7 (I've seen similar packs for upwards of $30), which I have been wanting for some time to put in an empty fish bowl (we have enough fish and I hate seeing the empty bowl just sitting there).

The decorator balls

There is a Trade Secret store in the same complex as the $2 shop and when I had finished there I decided to take a quick look around in Trade Secret as well as I usually find some good stuff in there. I wasn't disapointed.

I have been looking for red clutch for a while and while browsing today I came across the perfect one. Originally $60, it had been marked down to $24.95 and then marked down further to a grand total of $4.86. There was no way I could walk past that so I snapped it up immediately. It will go perfectly with this red necklace and I'm planning to use it when I go to my cousin's wedding later this month.

The red clutch and necklace

The Little Things

"enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realise they're big things" (Robert Brault)

New Boots

I was out shopping on Sunday morning, looking for some new work shoes, when I stumbled across the sexiest boots I had seen in a long time - black suede ankle boots, with a little frill on the front.

I tried them on - perfect fit. I stood there for quite a long time admiring the boots, umming and aahing over whether I should buy them or not. The price was right, $20 off the full price. But I had come to buy new shoes for work and these were definitely not practical for work. Hmm, what to do??

I didn't buy them.... on Sunday...

I went back yesterday to admire them, when I noticed that they had a further $5 off the price and I had already dreamed up any number of outfits I could wear them with. So... I bought them. YAY, for new boots...

The sexy new boots

Another recent purchase that I'm rather excited about is a vintage glomesh clutch purse. I found it while browsing an op shop for a tie for my boyfriend to wear to a 70's themed birthday party.

The vintage glomesh clutch

PS - I did end up buying new work shoes, but work shoes aren't that exciting...