Spearman family soda bread

In a large bowl, add the following ingredients:

270g Plain Flour
300g Self Raising Flour
1 teaspoon of Bicarb Soda (make sure you crush it in your hand so there are no lumps)
1 tablespoon of Caster sugar
600 ml Buttermilk

And now the all important part of the process - which is super easy once you see it, but not that easy to explain in words.. So below is a demonstration from my Mother in law Lily..

Happy baking!

Who doesn't love the Australian Women's weekly birthday cakes cookbook?

I swear this book has bought more joy into people's lives than many other 'joy-promising books' out on the market.  And even though it has moved with the times a little bit - there are still so many of the old favourites in the new editions.  I remember when I was a kid, it would be months before our birthday that we'd start flicking through it trying to decide which cake we'd ask for that year.. And to Mum's credit - she never said 'No way - too hard' to any of them? I don't know that I'll be that obliging when my child/ren start putting their orders in :) But seeing as Lola is still only 2, this year I got to choose for her as she is not quite at the stage of picking something out of many options (even chooosing between a red dress and a yellow dress - she wants both)..

So I chose the Bunny Rabbit cake for her this year, and here's a shot of the bunny, in all her glory

(actually, this was taken 'after' Lola blew out her candles, and she appears to have blown off part of the bunny's paw as well - oops)..

And of course, I had to include a pic of the birthday girl enjoying it at her party (Here Lola is saying 'I want the nose Daddy!!'

I also plan on writing in my book which child had what cake for what year (eg. Julie - 2nd Birthday). That's what Mum did in her book, and it's fun flicking back through it and remembering each party.

Spearman Family Soda Bread

Today I made my first ever batch of Soda Bread.

Lily (my mother in law) taught us last year how to make it the way her Mama made it. She did a demonstration (we told her to pretend she had her own cooking show), and we filmed the whole thing. It was really fun watching it back today. Lola was so young!! (she was 4 months old at the time) - she was sitting in her bumbo chair on the benchtop and she kept kicking (or 'kneading' according to Simon) the dough. This time when I made it she was standing at my feet and grabbing my legs so I'd pick her up and give her a cuddle (or a look at what was going on?).

Lily's instructions on the video were near perfect - if not a "little Irish".. (particularly the part when Simon asked her how hot the fry pan should be - and she said "it needs to be at the temperature where it's just at the right heat'... which made me laugh today)

Anyway, I think it turned out really well. We enjoyed it anyway! And my husband thinks I'm eligible for Wife of the year, so I'm happy.

Mid way through the cooking:
The end result... Served best hot with butter and cheese!

1st Birthday cake

So, Lola's party is not till this weekend - but being a first time "mother of the birthday girl", I needed to practice my cake decorating to make sure it was perfect for the party. So Si and I decided to make a 'test run' cake for the actual birthday to work out what works and what doesn't. So last night I made Lola's iggle piggle birthday cake.

I realised pretty quickly that ready to roll icing/fondant is more difficult and takes more practice than I first thought (the 'experts' showing me how to do it on youtube didn't help either).. So after 'removing' the layer of cracked fondant - I decided to ice it with regular icing instead (i have the most kickass pack of Wilton icing colours).. so the blue came up really nicely and I made his blanket and 'features' with fondant.

In the end I think it turned out well - and most importantly the birthday girl loved it too.