First was an entry into the Threadcakes competition. I’ve been wanting to make this baby Godzilla cake, based on a Threadless shirt design, for a while and finally found the motivation (and time) to do it.

Cute and delicious

I baked a couple of test cakes and found a delicious madeira recipe (which I tweaked to make it an orange madeira cake) that was perfect – delicious, moist and something I could carve into. It was a lot of work, but I think I did well for my first sculpted cake. More details and photos can be found on my Threadcakes entry.

The other cake was for a friend’s grandaughter’s third birthday party. The wee girl wanted a yellow castle cake and I decided to add Rapunzel into the mix.

Yellow castle cake

Waiting for her prince

The main cake was a dense banana cake (I think I’ll use another recipe next time), and the skinny tower was a chocolate roll. Both are filled with a delicious butter cream. The skinny tower gave me troubles as it started leaning and sagging a bit – oh dear. The top tower was also a challenge to cover.

Just a bit of practice to better my cake decorating skills. I have lots to learn still!

I finally found one that required baking and had some useful weight measurements albeit imperial, and made a few guesses because it still asked for ‘large or extra large’ eggs. I only had size 6 eggs which is common in New Zealand recipes.

So because I really like how it turned out and don’t want to go through the hassle of working out what’s what next time, I’ve rewritten the recipe in normal metric measures and using size 6 eggs. I don’t think we get key limes here so I used whatever type they sell at the supermarket, plus a lemon because the hubby didn’t buy enough limes… and I wanted to use my tart tin, hence the Lemon Lime Tart :)

Lemon lime tart

• Not having a functioning oven is an inconvenience. You can’t bake anything, including cupcakes!
• ArtPop popcorn is the most disgusting microwave popcorn I’ve ever had. It smells like cheese and literally made me feel a little sick just from the smell. Ick.
• I’ve really missed sushi. Even homemade involves a little more effort in heating up the prawns and surimi etc before I can be sure they’re safe.
• It’s still not a good idea to use umbrellas in Wellington. You think you’d be alright when there’s just a light breeze about, but then out of nowhere there’s a big gust and you risk breaking your umbrella or looking like a dorky out-of-towner who should’ve just stuck to a rain jacket.
• A baby’s descent into your pelvis is measured in fifths, as the average adult hand is roughly the width of a baby’s head. My current descent is 2/5, meaning the proportion of the baby’s head above my pelvis is equal to the width of two fingers, and 3/5 of its head is already buried inside. She’s preparing for delivery!
• I love cinnamon donuts.
• If you want monster pastries, the bakery in Hataitai Village can help with that. Look at the giant donut and apple croissant we got!

Big cinnamon donut - what value!

Big apple croissant which was much fun eating with all the icing sugar and flakiness going everywhere

My belly button now looks like a moon crater with raised edges.  I wonder what it will do by the end of this trimester…

On Sunday I had my baby shower. Thanks to my cousin and Ms Constantine for organising things, and everyone who made it there.

Of course I had to make cupcakes and opted for the favourite black forest. I also made a lemon coconut flavour so I could make use of the dessicated coconut that I finally got around to getting (although I only used it on the icing).

Baby shower cupcakes

I opted to ice the lemon cupcakes by using a layer of butter cream and then plonking a giant marshmallow on top. A sprinkling of coconut made them look extra fluffy. Some royal icing helped to cement the teeny fondant flowers on top to complete the baby girl look. Lazy but quite effective I thought. I also learnt that I need to use more butter cream because the marshmallow may look like frosting but doesn’t give the same moistness and finger licking quality as frosting :)

The hubby made some cookies that I put away in Chinese takeout boxes for the guests.  Mmm, chocolate cherry, and almond and white chocolate…. He thinks he may have missed an ingredient from the chocolate cherry ones because they turned out rather flat and floppy, so apologies. I think they still tasted good.

The baby shower was great fun. We also got a lot of useful stuff that will help us get started when the baby arrives. Baby clothes, especially girls’ things can be unbelievably cute! Can’t wait to use everything.

We also had our first antenatal class last Wednesday. It’s quite scary learning what is going to happen. My cervix is apparently going to expand to nearly the size of a compact disc and that’s before I can start pushing the baby out!

Last Sunday we were invited to Kiwi Wolf’s hubby’s surprise birthday get together.  Myhubby volunteered me to make the cupcakes – lucky for him I like making cupcakes and he knew it anyway.

I decided to make two flavours – lemon lime (based on the Coconut Lime Cupcake recipe but minus the coconut essence) with a zesty lemon butter cream, and a Black Forest cupcake with fresh cream flavoured with cherry liquer. They were both delicious and I was sad that I could only fit in one of each :[

Lemon lime cupcakes with lemon butter cream frosting

Black forest cupcakes with cherry liquer flavoured cream

The hubby decided to make chocolate chip cookies. He managed to find the other recipe that we love. This one has coffee in it, and is a light cookie with a salty sweet scrumptiousness. I prefer it over the last chocolate chip recipe I posted. Unfortunately I didn’t get around to taking any photos before they were all eaten.

I’m not sure exactly where we got this recipe from or what we had altered, but it’s gooood.

The intention was to use the dessicated coconut that had been hanging around in the pantry since ages ago, but when it came to it I couldn’t find it anywhere. Maybe I’d already thrown it out because it was getting manky…

So I ended up using coconut essence, which isn’t the same, but it gave a nice subtle flavour.

We also bought a jar of Marshmallow Fluff when we were in the States a few years back. The hubby thought it was a great souvenir because it’s ’so American’, but we didn’t really know what to do with it. Then on an episode of Good Eats, Alton Brown made some marshmallow fluff-type frosting, so that gave me another reason for baking these cupcakes.

My recipe is as follows, and as always it’s based on the basic Scout’s cupcake recipe.

Coconut Lime cupcakes with Marshmallow Fluff frosting

We did a bit of surfing and decided to try a recipe that seemed to be popular on many websites. I can’t remember which one we tried but I remember it called for a stick of butter and one egg as the only liquid fat. It was way too dry and we had to hunt down a fix for it. The cookies didn’t turn out so bad in the end, but I’ll use a different recipe next time.

Lemon spritz cookies

Make a lemon meringue pie

MMmm! I used the Edmonds recipe. I won’t publish their recipe in case of copyright issues, but a quick Google will help you out :) Serve with ice cream and fruit.

Lemon meringue pie for desert

Make preserved lemons

Preserved lemons are great. They have a unique flavour that many Middle Eastern recipes ask for. They’re pretty easy to do too.

Preserving lemons

I make mine by washing the lemons, chopping off the green stem, making a deep criss-cross in each, packing them with uniodised salt, and covering with boiling water. I’d recommend adding about an extra half cup of salt into the jar before filling.

Leave them for several weeks, turning the jar a few times over the first few days.

What to do with preserved lemons?

I love making chicken targine with preserved lemons. I’ll post my own easy recipe soon.

They’re also great in couscous. You can also make a yummy couscous to accompany a main fish or lamb dish. Prepare instant couscous with chopped preserved lemon rind and taco seasoning mix, and stir in chopped parsley at the end. I usually make a caper butter for my salmon. After taking the fish out of the pan, add about a tablespoon of butter and a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar and let it bubble down a little. Add chopped capers and pour onto  your fish.

Salmon with caper butter and lemon couscous

Couscous can be a great vegetarian main. Try a spiced roast vegetable couscous by adding prepared instant couscous to roast vegies (such as asparagus, pumpkin, carrot, kumara, garlic, swede, yam, parsnip) and flavour with some ground cumin, coriander, chopped parsley and preserved lemon. Season to taste. Also, if you don’t have preserved lemon, just chuck in some lemon wedges while roasting the vegetables so you get some lemon infusion happening.

Make cocktails

This is a no brainer! Cocktails always taste better with fresh lemons rather than bottled juice. And they look prettier when there are lemon wedges muddled in the glass. See my list of cocktails for ideas. I’m going to have to wait until after the baby to have proper cocktails again – can’t wait!

My Lychee Likey cocktail

Vanilla cupcakes with lemon icing

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate flakes

Bright vanilla cupcakes with strawberry and apple flavoured icing

Vanilla cupcakes I made for my hen's tea party with Malibu, Cointreau and Kahlua icing

A selection of cucpakes for Ms Constantine's birthday

Blue Obama cupcakes (not the obscene version)

Well, we’re not American, but Obama’s presidency gave me an excuse to be silly with cupcakes. If you want to know what I mean, see my post on Cocktails and Obama Cakes.

Dark chocolate cupcake with lemon icing

Trial cupcakes for the brother-in-law's wedding

The 72 cupcakes we made for the brother-in-law's wedding. Flavours were chocolate, vanilla boysenberry and lemon, with vanilla or lemon icing.

Dark chocolate black forest cupcakes with fresh brandy cream

All my cupcakes are variations of the basic Scout’s Cupcakes recipe (see my Tea Party Essentials post) – the most simple, fail proof recipe for light, fluffy cupcakes.

But what is good for a pregnant woman in winter is some warm chocolate chip cookies.

I dug out this recipe that is based on one I found on the Interwebs a while ago, and tweaked it to my liking.

Method

Preheat oven to 180° Celcius.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy then stir in the egg.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix with a wooden spoon.

Use a sift or sieve to get rid of lumps in the flour

When it comes together as a dry dough mixture, add the chocolate.

Add chopped chocolate to dough mixture

Use your hands to knead the mixture so it forms a ball of cookie dough.

Use hands to form dough ball

Drop slightly-flattened balls of the cookie dough onto a tray. I do two batches one after the other for even cooking.

Arrange 12 cookies per sheet

Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown on the edges.

Cool a little and voila! Teeth-rotting tummy-fattening wickedness.

Brown on the edges and chewy in the middle