Crafty Mermaid

For some reason, I've been collecting photos of cakes past consumed.  These were somewhat worthy of a post.  I just can't seem to shake the idea that they need to be noted in some way. I think it all started with my fixation on getting a 'real' birthday cake as my birthday present from BM last year. Forgive the added flower effects - but I was rather excited on cake collection.  This beast was from Sweet Bakery in Marsden village . And was actually as tasty as it should have been.  Also rather larger than expected.  We had a dinner party for a few friends and despite our and their best efforts only got through half! I'm definitely going to have to up my cake baking game!   Many of the confections you can buy easily outstrip my best efforts. How can you remotely compare to decadent creations ala Louis Sargeant - at least they're manageable size wise! Although some cakes aren't really anywhere near as edible ...

There is something so decadent about afternoon tea on a working day.  Especially if you're on maternity leave and your dad is keen to come along too.  This was over 8 months ago - miss you Dad!  But such a lovely memory.  I was keen to try Louis Sergeant in Wellington for ages but that whole pregnancy food restriction thing was a massive constraint on my eating patterns (and in my case, I felt like emptying my stomach more often than filling it for the whole 9 months - gah! ). I've been a few times now and really enjoy the spectacular creations.  Some aren't as wonderful on the actual consumption scale as others but they all look amazing.  The puffy, gold hazelnutty one in the top image is my favourite.  Just need to combine my love of sewing with cake eating and I'm golden - high tea for the fabric hoarders perhaps?

A treat from a house guest - a visit to Strawberry Fare in Wellington.  While the mains were fine - the main event here are the stunning desserts!

As you can probably gather, I don't like posting photographs of people on my blog - but I really do use it to store all the wonderful memories made with those people.  One of the things I really wanted to do when my parents came to visit was to introduce them to my friends and vice versa.  I know its a lot easier talking to someone when they can picture the places and people you talk about.  So I organised a high tea at Martha's Pantry  for my parents and my friend, S.  They gave us the cutest Christmas pudding chocolates. S gave me a vibrant bouquet of flowers and I moved them around the house for ages afterwards as some of the flowers wilted.  Such a wonderful surprize :)

Its a rainy, rainy, blustery Saturday morning in Middle Earth.  Autumn has set in and its getting colder in the evenings and harder to get out of bed. The cats were very glad to stay in the house today!   But there are some bright spots!  I'm sitting under a quilt watching a recorded version of Graham Norton and smelling freshly baking bread from our 'new' (to us) bread making machine.  BM put on a batch to bake last night and we can delay the start to have the bread baked for breakfast!  I'm also rather excited about a sewing meet up tomorrow.  I've already put aside all the projects I want to work on tomorrow. Far too many - but God loves a trier! I thought this morning I've start sorting out my Christmas pictures (in March! eek!).  Just before Christmas, my parents and brother arrived to visit.  My other brother and his wonderful girlfriend sent over vouchers for Cobar , a great restaurant in Eastbourne.  The day was stunning. ...

During our recent stint without access to the kitchen for flooring reasons, BM and I visited the Flying Burrito Brother s in Wellington - yum!  Of course, I only managed to take two photographs that night: Wellington's famous bucket fountain - of passer by soaking fame and a frozen margarita from the FBB's. 

A recent celebratory dinner at the White House in Wellington.  We opted for the degustation menu and rolled ourselves home afterwards.  I only remembered to photograph two of the courses - yes, it is a strange thing to whip out your camera and photograph your food.  But remember, you eat with your eyes too! Think of this as the healthier version of seconds! The starter was a radish in a cream cheese and walnut 'soil'.  One of the other courses involved dry ice and sorbet!  It came out of the kitchen bubbling and steaming.  We figured it for a hot course, but were pleasantly surprised!

When we had our floorboards under construction recently, we had to operate without a kitchen - which meant a lot of eating out.  We tried the Mediterranean Food Warehouse Pizza place in Kelburn. Its a nice, cheap eat (though pizza pomodoro in Wellington do a better Italian pizza).  BM was intrigued by the taro cake on the menu.  I hadn't had taro before I came to New Zealand (apologies if I'm preaching to the choir).  Its a tuber veggie and is really common in Polynesia (and increasingly New Zealand).  It has a sweet nutty flavour.  I still haven't cooked it at home though and am pretty sure they added food dye! *** Giveaway details: http://crafty-mermaid.blogspot.com/2011/09/15-followers.html***

The second day in Martinborough saw us touring some of the wineries for wine tasting.  I drove so BM was able to stock up our cellar (doesn't that sound grand? Actually its a few bottles in the same cupboard as our cleaning supplies!). It can be quite good fun touring the different wineries and sometimes there's quite a drive between each of them.  Here's BM perusing the selection at one cellar door. And here's a smaller (but very cute) cellar door.  I find the whole idea of being able to visit wineries to be a wonderful idea.  I love that the climate supports grapes here. That evening we drove to Masterton and went to the Countryman for dinner and walked around the town first to peer in windows.  It seems that the young farmers contest was also on that weekend! Another wonderful meal.  The presentation was seriously appealing.  Paua frittter for BM and garlic bread for me to start. Scallops for BM and beef (...