lace toast

Spead it with jam and that is one sweet breakfast!

SOURCE: weheartit

whiskey bar

Being a hospo girl of course I’m a fan of the old whiskey sour. It’s a drink one savours while reminiscing on the activities from the evening. So when my friend Milked started her blog the whiskey bar I was stoked as not only is it a chance to chew the fat on the yarns of life it sets the tones on the types of yarns one will have. Not only is drinking whiskey is one of my favourite past times but drinking whiskey while listening to Morris spine a yarn or two just hits the spot. I guarantee Milked’s dry, witty sense of humour will defiantly lighten ones heart and will constantly remind us all of the humorous side to life.

fairy bread

Isn’t this fairy bread t-shirt so sweet. Oh how I love fairy bread. (As you can see I’m in a mystical dreamland kinda mood) SOURCE: mr vintage

domesticated 101 : baking

So the first 3 days of my long weekend I spent drinking wine, eating divine cheeses and gossiping while we listened to music and the bitter thrusting wind outside.

So when Monday rolled around I pulled myself together and got domesticated as it’s not every Monday that you get a Monday off! Not that drinking wine and eating is domesticated. I expect that the average house wife experiences the odd wine on more than one occassion a week ;)

Domesticated 101 : Baking

I decided to get stuck into some of my new baking books I have recently received. The first bake by Alyson Gofton. The second cupcakes, cheesecakes and cookies put out by the Australian Women’s Weekly. Both books are fantastic but are quite extremes of each other.


A month ago I went along to the annual charity fund raiser for Plunket which took shape in the form of a bake off and a spell from Gofton; raising publicity for her new book bake. I made my fantastic lemon muffins which unfortunately didn’t place anywhere despite being a favourite in our office here at work. I personally think it was rigged as Gofton was more excited seeing men had done some baking. She ended up awarding a man with the overall prize, she was very excited to be able to plant her lips on his check and hands around his waist when the congratulatory photo was taken :). But hey, what can I say, it’s not like I haven’t used my womanly charm to my advantage.
I have to say while her speech was a bit lengthy and some of the things that came out of her mouth were not exactly appropriate for tea and biscuit conversations she did make some bang on points about the role of a woman in the kitchen and how things have changed in the last 30 years.
She mentioned how magazines used to feature articles on how a woman was to feed a hard working man; the number of potatoes he needed for dinner and how to make a decent cake to feed all the shearers at smoko. In later times it was how working mothers could make quick and easy food and then there was the turn to the delicate, fine dining food style that was served on the white on white on white table settings. Today food is expected to be all of these things; filling, quick and attractive as well as being cost effective and of course healthy. Gofton went through all of these stages through her career as a chef to cook to critic. Her career involved writing for cuisine magazine, hosting food in a minute, working on the nutrition advisory board and of course being a mother and wife.


Therefore bake was made with all these things in mind but most importantly with the love that she has for food. The book is ideal for every family kitchen; it contains ingredients you find in the everyday pantry, at a basic skill level for every member of the family, requires minimum time and minimum equipment, all you need is a bowl and a wooden spoon. This is all reflected in the presentation of the book with old tea towel patterns being recognised for there timeless efforts and becoming design, simple presentations and items being photographed on Gofton’s family china (bit’s and pieces from here and there that you end up gathering and collecting). I like the statement she made later on; a home is place that is filled with odd mugs and cups, these tell you so much about the people that live there and what kind of family they are.


The CCC however is the complete opposite it’s all about decoration and making a conscious effort with presentation. It’s a lovely book to look at but makes you rather exhausted before you get started with so many choices and so much attention to details. I was tempted by the cup cake called Lemon Meringue Pie Cupcakes (Above firstly mine secondly the books, obviously) (Basically lemon/coconut cupcakes filled with lemon curd and piper with meringue topping) and while they were tasty little morsels they weren’t really worth the effort that went into them. However the baked white chocolate cheese cake with cherries was extremely delicious and left my flatmates ready to pop!



Last night I also wacked together the toffee, sticky date pudding (above) in about 10 minutes, topping and all! It was a hit and perfect for a winters evening with friends and flatties.

yogurt and coconut loaf with passionfruit icing- one word, amazing- bake


detailed little cupcakes-ccc

both books are avaliable in all good book stores at present.

to good to eat!

The other day my lovely mother bought me this little gift. No it’s not a cupcake it’s a raspberry soap. Thought the smell of it defiantly makes you think it is eatable. I find these kind of presents put me into a spin because it so cute all packaged up and looking so pretty that I don’t want to use it. What to do what to do!

My little tea party products can also be found here! (I love how they have been placed under kid's presents)

high tea

I’m stoked to hear find a place that does high tea in Wellington. High teas are an extremely popular Sunday session event overseas; featuring cucumber sandwiches, peti fours and champagne but not so much here. We had a lovely little high tea celebration for a girl at work last week as well. It seems they’re catching on. I have always wanted to open my own little cafe with it being known for high teas (one of my many career paths) but now I can just visit Martha’s Pantry on the top of Cuba street. Check out a full review here.

Happy Birthday to me! Tomorrow is my birthday, and while I don’t get overly excited about my birthday anymore I did want to share this picture with you in recognition. Yum birthday cupcake! Very sweet.

SOURCE: little doodles

a pocket of my heart

So on Sunday I spent a good ¾ of the day in front of the television recovering from homegrown. (Which I would just like to say was great as I never seem to have time to just sit and watch rubbish anymore). It seems that it was a bit of 17th century theme going on with docos, films and even reality television series all featuring this time period. Marie Antoinette was featured amongst these. While I found the story slow moving and long (largely due to the lack of sleep) I was taken aback by the beautiful costumes, set designs and props. How exquisite, the French really do know how to live in style. And of course this is how it should be, they were royalty. While many may have found the lavish decoration over the top I was in love.

Layers upon layers of gathered materials and French lace, patterned and textured floraled papers lined the walls with freezers of creams and golds, marble slabs decked the hallways, big hairstyles with curls, feathers and freshly picked flowers and pastries, meats and pyramids of champagne featured at every occasion.

If I could open my heart there is a section in it that would aesthetically* look like scenes from this movie. I just want to climb into the television screen and roll around the set absorbing everything I touch into my heart and soul. Oh how I wish I could get my hands on a time machine and go back to this period. Well only if I was rich and the future Queen of France that is! I’m not so found on being a peasant during this period. Ha!

* Actually it reminds me of these that I made this Christmas.

see what i mean

When I think about one thing it surrounds me. The attack of the Macaroons! Maybe I need to venture out more and expand my social virtual groups... But it does make me think that I should start day dreaming more often! Starting with dreamy men who can pick me up and carry me away into the sunset, ahhh, a girl can dream

IMAGE SOURCE: the tea drinking English rose.

simply elegant

I must have weddings on the mind this morning. But I couldn’t resist these cakes. The top decorations, hand crafted with glass beads and Swarovski crystals. Simply elegant and ever so sweet.

SOURCE: {this is glamorous}

pg 254

This is my chosen image from page 254. I have noticed that macaroons have been popping up all over the place at the moment. However I have gone to track down my Macaroon image collection and it seems to have disappeared... I feel that these delectable treats have lead people into temptation and the batch has slowly disappeared...
Yesterday I was at my family home so couldn’t resist doing some baking. 2 Sultana cakes ( my brother’s favourite), a chocolate cake and 2 batches of tan square; my favourite. I can’t wait to get home and get into some yummy baking. However I do have a 3 course dinner with my flat mates tonight so it will only be a sneaky piece or two... Happy Tuesday people.

SOURCE: weheatit

periodic table of cupcakes

Woman’s Day have made a Periodic Table of Cupcakes . It’s a very sweet way of keeping all your cupcake recipes on hand.

SOURCE: CupcakeCampNZ

pg 254

Hello Tuesday Crunch. This is my pick from weheartit, page 254. There has been a lot of talk around cupcakes the last few weeks with my Aunty wanting to go into business, Cupcake Camp NZ starting up on twitter and even Johnny Cupcake is having a bake sale (great t shirts!). I couldn’t help but include some of the similar entries that surrounded this lovely cupcake. Yumm, but almost too pretty to eat!






SOURCE: weheartit

pints, blankets and sunshine

Next Saturday (28th of February) is Wellington’s First Beer Festival. It is going to be held at Waitangi Park from 10am till 4pm. It will be a stunning beer garden experience with over 20 breweries presenting 70 Beers with a wide range of predominantly New Zealand beers with a few notable overseas visitors. I will be there presenting some of those overseas visitors, pouring Hoegaarden and Leffe Blonde, so bring your blankets and sun umbrellas and pop down for a few pints.

Tickets are available from iticket at $25 each.

See you there.

the subway of sushi

I will admit that when I saw this I was disgusted! I couldn’t imagine anything worse* sitting in my stomach and digesting into something that would probably look the same when it came out as it did when it went in.
But today I was in the area of the new QQrice store on Dixon street so thought I’d give it a nudge. I would like to point out that it is extremely delicious and probably the best fast food I have ever had!
Basically it’s a rice ball filled with your choice of fillings. You get to choose from 6 different rice varieties and whatever you get you have to make sure you get crispy caraway inside it. It is the most tasty thing ever! It ticks all the boxes, carbs, healthy, value for money and meaty, yum, yum, yum!!!

Sorry to my co worker Megan, I laughed at her funny lunch yesterday and probably made you feel like the kid with egg sandwiches.

* Actually I can, most of the stuff on this site! I have never felt so sick in my life! Warning it is extremely graphic!