And now I think I rock.

So I won the 'Best Cake' award! But not, as anticipated, for the chocolate cointreau cake - but for the rhubarb crumb cake (which I'd actually had to call Pre-Loved Rhubarb Crumb Cake as Tim and I had sampled a piece the night before the bake off) (well, you try sitting and looking at two whole cakes on your sideboard, with their scent wafting deliciously towards you, and your sweets stomach so so empty). There were some great entries - the Occupational Therapy team walked away with 'Best in Show' and 'Best Decorated'. They'd made a chocolate cake shaped in the letters O and T, and covered it with white marzipan. Then they'd fashioned four little figures representing the four aspects of OT - rest (a little guy sleeping), work (a Bob-the-Builder-esque tradie), leisure (someone playing) and self-care (a nudie dude putting his clothing on). It was truly tops and totally unexpected, and well deserved the prestigious awards it won!

So now I reckon I'm the best cake maker ever. I am off to dinner tonight (to meet Tim's folks for the first time, eek! J helpfully said I should wear a titty halter top so I look like a Nice Young Lady, ha ha!) and I have made dessert. In a cocky manner befitting my recent victory, I (foolishly) decided not to follow a recipe but to combine several. So here is my balsamic caramel glazed mango sour cream cake. Too many flavours, anyone?! The cake batter was great news (I licked the beaters, then the wooden spoon and then the bowl) but it rose a lot more than expected so I am not sure if it's going to be too dry and cakey. But nothing a good dose of nice cream won't fix, I guess!



Rest of the weekend has been nice - finally I burrowed my head in some readings. My final uni papers are due in just over a week and I got quite a lot of work out of the way which is, well, overdue. Went to a night picnic last night (Tim made a Passata Fritatta - while tring to make a roast spring garlic fritatta he accidentally started following the recipe next to it, which required an addition of tomato passata. The end result was a pinkish fritatta that was actually pretty tasty, and hilarious), played some night frisbee, and that's been about it.

Righto, off to go get my cleavage out before this dinner lark!

2008 Bake Off!

So sadly I have been having way too much fun to be doing any lamo blogging! I've had the Girl's Annual Holiday to MotoGP (it was our 5 year annualversary and also the first year my sister came) (it was, as always, tops. My husband AntWest did poorly but what's not to like about camping, breakfast beers, old mates, an island and loud loud motorbikes?!), school work that I've been shunning, a last minute idyllic camping trip to the Kangaroo Valley (idyllic if you minus the leech that secretly attached itself to my hip, ugh) and a fairly busy time at work. And speaking of work, tomorrow is the Inaugral DADHC Bake Off!

There are several categories - best cake in show, best looking cake, best non-edible cake and best non cake item. Punters can enter as many as they like, and people can pay $10 to be a judge. All spectators and eaters make a gold coin donation. The bake off has been led mainly by my team, as I suspect we're the greediest department there could possibly be! Some entrants include: a marscapone and nutella tart, a baked cheesecake, 'the best scones in the world' a vegan mud cake, and two types of rhubarb cakes (Ricky loves rhubarb apparently!).

I was thinking of entering 36 hour choc chip cookies (which I've been talking up for ages) and this big crumb coffee cake, but a chat with Phil at the noodle markets last week changed my mind. Phil declared that the secret to winning a bake off is liquor. Apparently it doesn't matter how much effort everyone else has gone to, or how gorgeous the cake is - if it's got alcohol in it, you're practically guaranteed to win!

So...I stayed with the coffee cake (only cos the crumbs looked divine, and I also am partial to rhubarb) but decided to also make a drink fused one just to hedge my bets. I found a recipe for a chocolate cake called 'Winning Hearts and Minds Cake', added a healthy dose of cointreau, and renamed it 'Winning Heart and Minds and Hopefully Bake Offs Cake'.

Either way it's win win - I'm paying my tenner to be a judge - not so I can be biased but so that I'm guaranteed to get a taste of all the goodies!