Playing Catchup!

I have been so busy this past week! There was the Boots sale, mum staying over all week, Ginger staying over Wednesday, Aunts birthday party, scrapbooking, sale shopping, kiddy playing and dieting!
Here are a few snapshots of the cakes and a couple of the new layouts while i get my breath and come back tomorrow with a new recipe for you all! :D

Its all about the frosting....

This is delicious and because youre not using butter icing its a lot better for you too (ok im not saying healthy but you get what i mean!) lol
INGREDIENTS

• 200 g white sugar
• 80 ml water
• 0.8 g cream of tartar
• 2 egg whites
• 5 ml vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, water and cream of tartar. Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbly.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whip the egg whites and vanilla to soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar mixture while whipping constantly until stiff peaks form, about 7 to 10 minutes. Frost the cake of your choice.

Dont skimp on the whisking or the boiling - it is well worth it and well worth waiting just that little bit longer! :) These are now ready for my aunts birthday tea along with the marshmallow mermaid pie :D

Mmmmmm!

Marshmallow Mermaid Pie - recipe at the bottom of this post! I didnt make the base, i went for a M&S own bake pastry shell....cop out i know but i have too much to do! LOLI have made this for my Aunts birthday tea tomorrow, she doesnt know im taking cake so im hoping this one (which none have had before) will go down well :) Ive also made a huge batch of cupcakes to take too which will be decorated tomorrow so unfortunately no pics right now!

Here is one of the new layouts ive been working on :)Thanks for all the recommendations for The Secret Life of Bees, i started it last night and i love it so far!

Marshmallow Mermaid Pie

9 graham crackers
1/2 C. sweetened, flaked coconut, toasted
5 Tbs. butter or margarine, melted
34 lg. marshmallows (8 oz.)
1/2 C. whole milk
1 1/2 C. heavy or whipping cream
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, grated

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine coconut and graham crackers in food processor until coarse crumbs form.
2. Combine crumbs and butter with fork. Press to bottom and side of 9-inch pie plate. Bake 10 minutes and cool on wire rack.
3. Heat marshmallows and milk in 3-qt. saucepan over low heat until smooth, stirring constantly. Remove saucepan from heat. Cool completely (30 minutes.)
4. In large bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Fold marshmallow mixture into whipped cream with grated chocolate. Spoon filling into cooled crust. Refrigerate pie at least 3 hours or overnight.
5. Top with mini marshmallows, maraschino cherries and rainbow sprinkles.

Serves 8.

Birthday Boy!!

Its my hubbys birthday today.....( love you honey!!)
We took him into our favourite hangout.....Cafe Rouge. Its where me and Ethan go for coffee and chats - putting the kiddy world to rights over a basket of pastries and 2 cups of tea :) Anyways, we had breakfast there this morning with dh and wandered around for a little while (too cold to stay for too long and Ethan just wanted to find the busker so he could give him his pennies - how adorable is he!)
This afternoon i have made a batch of cupcakes and a huge chocolate cake for dh's birthday tea - they seriously think they can skip lasagne and go for the overdose of chocolate first! LOL
I started reading Out of the Blue by Belinda Jones but cant get into it - i did pick up Marshmallows for Breakfast and The Secret Life of Bees from the charity shops, has anyone read those and what did you think? Or if you have read Out of the Blue - should i stick with it??

Sorry i have only just gotten round to picking someone for the rak set at New Year :D

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

2

Timestamp: 2009-01-08 20:01:35 UTC

Yayy, Sue can you send me your addy please and i will get a goodies bag on its way to you :)

Stay away rain!

We got a little wet this morning as we went for our daily walk! 2 and a half mile round trip to the shops and it started raining half way home! pah! Picked up some goodies from the charity shops (glass cake stand and a couple of books) and got todays fruit and veg from the supermarket, wish we had a local farm i could buy fresh from!
3rd day of detox has gone well and i have brown bread etc in for tomorrow so i can have some toast for breakfast etc :)
Yesterdays layout..... not sure on what to do for todays as im so tired (i know its the not eating properly thats knocking me out!) - will give it a think and work on something once the kids are in bed :D

What was that i said about 21 days??

Erm im thinking i might switch to a 3 day detox and then just extreme healthy eating for the rest of the month. Then eek things (like cranberry and white chocolate cookies yumm!) back into my eating as treats. There has been so much stuff published and talked about lately about how much damage and unnecessary detoxs are that it kinda made me feel as though maybe 21 days was a little excessive.....3 days sounds better, that way im still doing it but i dont feel so guilty! LOL
I am still however cutting out meat, caffine and alcohol for the 21 days. - im now onto day 5 of no caffine and besides a headache again last night i feel so much better and i dont wake up with that yack taste anymore!
Alcohol - well i dont drink much anyways so thats not a problem.
Meat - now heres the deal...we are a meat eating family, always have been probably always will be . We like stews and broths, casseroles and sunday dinners. I think 21 days of no meat will maybe make me think a little more on using free range and organic animal products as its mainly the ethics that bother me if that makes sense.
OK Enough waffling.
I thought i would give Julian Graves another go after the poisonous pinenut disaster and went in today with plans of buying a couple of bags of nuts etc and i wander out with 7, yes SEVEN bags of various fruits and nuts later (had to buy more storage too!!) A lot of them were half price in the sale so well worth stocking up on when they have long dates! :) Bargain shopping too - this set of drawer will hold all my baking trays, moulds etc in the kitchen and it was only £19.99 in the sale! :DCurrently reading Shopaholic and Baby - so cool, so funny, so Becky!! Anyone who likes chick-lit has to read the shopaholic series of books.

Detox Day 1...

So far so good, about 15 hot camomile/fruit/mix teas during today and a bowl of fruit for lunch.... salad for tea and more water/tea later and thats almost day 1 complete! Me and little one even walked to the local shops which we are going to do each day for exercise. Im sure that if im out and about buying fresh stuff each day i will be more inclined to stick to it :)

Here is yesterdays layout - i cant share todays as it includes the before pics of my diet - not a pretty site and thats fully clothed!! LOL