Happy Birthday to me

After having a horrible birthday this year, I decided to change the date to make sure that my new birthday was with people that I loved. So indeed it was post-poned a few days and I spent it with some of my favourite people in a small country cottage with great food, wine and a lovely home made birthday cake.

The simple things in life are the best things and I am glad I moved my birthday date a few days forward! A dirty seagull swooped down and ate some chips from my plate on my birthday this year -gross (that was only one of the bad bits!). My special Easter/Birthday lamb dinner was prepared with love and was probably better than most 5 star restaurants and my banana birthday cake with one candle (to signify turning 21, of course!) was just what was needed for a great birthday.

Thanks to the Bunny for making my special cake and to the D&E for a fantastic weekend!

Hope everyone had a happy Easter with loved ones.

Without Betty & blenderThe first chocolate cake I made without Betty Crocker! All ingredients were individually mixed, with no blender (my arm was hurting) and some Kiwis were laughing at me that I never made a cake from scratch. Who needs to make one from scratch when Betty Crocker's takes 3 minutes to blend and all you have to do is add 2 eggs and some water!? My mother was a working woman!

No ingredients came from a box and luckily there was baking powder or baking soda in the cupboard. It took WAY more time than using a ready mix but was interesting to try. It was delicious but am not sure it came out exactly right as it felt really heavy, not 'moist and delicious' like Miss Crocker promises. (Betty Crocker is a brand of cake mixes in America for all those peeps that don't know who I am referring to)
Stellina and the heckler (BH) enjoyed decorating it and eating it and it was worth all the hard work in the end. I think my next purchase is a blender. I probably have one arm muscle bigger than the other as this weekend I made a banana cake sans blender too. All these cakes are not good for my preparation for the beach in March but I guess that is what flowy sarongs are for.