Blocks of colours

Turning one today! I just love making cakes for kids, they're never boring like the adults' ones. Sometimes I feel cakes get too sophisticated they lose its quirky/cute edge.. Well, anyway, for this birthday boy, our friend wants chocolate mud cake. It's a good base cake & very easy to work with as it rarely crumbles.

Sunny yellow in colour, tall #1 figurine with candle insert, colourful building blocks all around it and a couple of bears, tiny rabbits peeking out from the grasses & mother duck with her little ones feeding on.. the cake? ;) Happy b'day Richard!

Mt. Buller Ski trip

Last winter we decided to visit my sister in Melbourne, and planned a skiing trip to Mt. Buller. It was the first time for me to go on a ski trip, though I've seen snow before, I never knew how to ski (lived almost all my life in Southeast Asia, that's why) 

There were four of us and the trip to Mt. Buller took quite a bit of time, almost half a day from the CBD (if I remembered it correctly..) The road was long and winding, and I fell asleep countless of times ^_^.. When we arrived at the lodge near the mountain (still took us another 1/2 an hour to go up there..), we settled our belongings and headed out again, but since it was already late in the afternoon, we decided to look around & play with the toboggan (sled) only & come back for a quick lesson in the morning.. it was quite fun, and we had a bonus of a gently falling snow in the evening!! 

We came back the second day for a short lesson with the ski gear on. Wowie, I didn't think it's going to be this difficult! my legs felt like they were attached to iron pieces, stiff and felt really weird! I found it difficult to maneuver my movements, to coordinate the skis and my body.. and to remember to bend slightly otherwise I'd fall backwards.. 

After a gruesome 45 minutes that felt like hours, we were finally released to try out our 'skill' on a beginner's slope.. it was fun though nerve-racking at first. Felt like I was gonna go smack-bang and hit other beginners.. But after a few tries, we got more daring and went on a little further. the feeling of going down the slope was simply exhilarating! It reminds me of riding jet coasters (without the upside downs & loops), and I love riding jet coasters!! If I could choose any holiday destination, it'll have to be theme park with plenty of roller coasters... 

By midday it got a little misty at the higher slope, where my sister & I tried our luck (it felt like pure foolishness when, as we got dropped off the top by the ski lift, we looked down and gulped.. but there was no choice but to ski the slope down.. and boy, it was the best feeling as the wind gushed about us all the way down.. *thankfully, no accident whatsoever!*

As the day drew to an end, we packed our stuffs, returned the equipments, and felt the aches after the whole day of skiing. (we were all amateurs....) Oh well, at least the shabu-shabu dinner back at the lodge appeased our tastebuds & relieve the coldness of winter weather in Mt. Buller.. yum!

A basket of flowers for mum

The cute, country look of basket-weave never really goes out of date.. Especially for Mother's day/ birthday. I don't know why, but there's something classic and appealing about it that suits mothers/ grandmothers in general. This cake is simple yet cheerful.. ^_^ it's made up of White chocolate mudcake covered in vanilla buttercream. 

Normally I don't eat that much of white chocolate, I like milk/ dark chocolate better, but I  like this white choc mudcake, I can eat lots of it 'cos it's light and moist.. yum!

Albany, W.A.

Autumn is in the air, and we're packing our stuff & heading to Albany in W.A. The planned stay was for three nights at a self-contained unit, and we were so eager to get out of Perth.. :) It took around 4 hours from Perth to Albany depending on how fast you drive, and the road was mostly straight and long, and empty.

Long, empty road all the way...

Albany is a coastal town on the Southern side of Perth, a rather popular tourist destination that boasts the Gap (not the clothing shop :P), a dramatic 24 meter ocean drop, natural granite formation in the shape of a bridge, whale watching activities, the striking Middleton beach and King George sound, just to mention a few.

We made a few stops along the way, including Donnybrook shire, an apple producing town with rows and rows of apples growing in hectares of orchards, they were beautiful! this was where we found Spring Valley Orchards where you can pick your own fruits for a fee, a few wineries, and Solarfruit, a producer of natural fruit bars, chocolate covered apricots and the like. (great to munch on the way to the next town..)

Then we stopped at the tiny Bridgetown, where we saw a museum with a number of interesting exhibits including puzzles! 

NYC puzzle with the Twin Towers

As it was Autumn, however, whale watching was out of the season in this region; but we had other places to go to during our stay. It was more of an eco-tourism with plenty of walking trails, beach strolling and eating hearty foods at the town centre ^_^.. Talking about food, you gotta have the breakfast menu at the York St. Cafe, mushrooms, toasts, crispy bacon, tomato and scrambled eggs never tasted that good!

almost blown by the wind...

Natural bridge

The wind farm was an interesting one.. They are built to create a electricity for about 75% of Albany's electricity needs. You need to walk up the trail to reach the lookout near the turbines, but it was such a nice day for a hike and the view was quite nice from up here... 

seascape surrounding the area

all that walking really was enough to work up an appetite, so at night we were hunting for food places and enjoyed the meal at an Italian restaurant that I couldn't recall the name of.. -_- the food was great and though the place was packed (since it was a weekend night), it was still comfortable to dine in at. We ordered veal steak and polpette and they were awesome!!


There are still a number of attractions such as the Dog rock, Old Town hall, replica of Brig Amity and HMAS ship wreck site (this one is for diving enthusiasts..) that we saved up for the next day. On the last day, as we made our way back to Perth, we passed by Plantagenet Winery and tasted a few of their wines, and loved their muscat wine. It was a really nice dessert wine (for those who love sweet wines...), so we bought some home. :)





 

Shopping for cake decor supplies in Perth

Shopping for cake decorating supplies in Perth could be rather troublesome. First, I live around South of the River, and the closest cake decorating shop around is Petersen's on South St., but I wasn't fond of the place, it wasn't very completely stocked and things were rather haphazardly displayed. Major cake decorations in Vic Park is better, but it's a little out of the way, and rather pricey I feel, but sometimes I do go there. There are others, like Cupid's Delight/ My Delicious in Bibra Lake, but they're a bit small-ish as well.

So, it was nice to find online shop such as Complete Cake deco, based in Adelaide, SA that has quite a range of stock and delivers nation-wide for a reasonable price. I've been going there (virtually!) for a few times now and each shopping experience made me one happy cookie :) 

If you do quite a lot of cake decorating, it pays look around for online shops and wholesale shops too.. Some of them accept retail purchases and the price difference could surprise you! I personally love Springer foods in Melville to stock my other baking supplies, Bunnings for the inedible bits & pieces (usually for cake support), and Spotlight, for little things like ribbons and art supplies. Oh, don't forget Thingz home stocks up interesting items from time to time, so it's definitely worth your time!