Eee is Five

My little Eee has turned five.

I can hardly believe it.  Usually this age signals an entry into school life. I am very glad to say that we are enjoying our home school life so much we will be continuing that for little Eee as well.  Of course she is already learning but I guess I will 'up that a notch' as her early literacy skills develop and need enhancement.  She is currently at that lovely stage of absorbing so much information and eagerly desiring to learn new things.  "Would you like to go and play? or would you like to do your Maths?", "Maths!" is her reply.  I'll lap it up while it lasts. :)

The cake required for the birthday was quite a simple trampoline. I was very grateful for this as I was unwell for most of August.  Getting my head around a more complex cake was not what I needed as I recovered from persistence congestion and coughing.

I have always included my girls in cake decorating for their birthdays rather than keeping the cake a surprise for them.  For this also I am grateful as it means that they set to work in decorating for themselves while I simply supervise.  They are also learning valuable skills as well as setting their creative minds and fingers to work.

And with the addition of a few sweet little dollies the trampoline comes alive.

Happy Birthday little Eee!

From your cute little nose

to your tippy-toes

God's wonderful work surely shows.

Happy Birthday Tutu you.

You made me and formed me with Your hands. Psalm 119:73

(printed on the card received from Granny)

Icing Granny's Lamingtons

We did ice these lamingtons just a day or so after we baked the butter cake for them.

I just have not got to blogging about it.  I'm probably spending my time eating them ;)

Creaming the butter

Sifting icing sugar with cocoa

Adding the secret and unique ingredient ;)

Production line in swing with Ess and Eee.  My hand seems to need to be in every bowl :)

This box of prepared lamingtons reminds me very much of the box my Granny would carry out to our picnics.  Beautiful pale, hand-formed lamingtons, coated in chocolate icing, covered with coconut.

The finished cake is a sweet, rich and moist delectable delight which few can resist the lure of.  Very moorish as well unfortunately.

I have to say that these lamingtons were definitely given the thumbs up.  The girls have been telling me lately that my food should be "sold in a shop".  I think I'd prefer to cook less and eat more than anyone running a shop, and stay home with my family.  Ess is letting me know as I write that "they are certainly fit to be restaurant desserts".  I'll take that as a very high compliment.  Really I am just glad to be creating fond memories for them which they'll cherish for their lifetime.

Lamingtons: Butter or Sponge?

Fresh Butter Cake squares waiting to be made into lamingtons,
 if they aren't consumed first.

There are some times when you just wish you still had your Granny around to ask a few questions.

Do you find that?  As I'm getting older and have a more mature perspective of the world, shall we say, I find myself wanting to ask my Granny a few more questions than I had thought to before she died when I was about 20.

Creaming the butter

When growing up I took for granted the fabulous lamingtons my Granny made for the family to share on picnics out on the farm.  I just devoured them.  We all did.  They were fabulous.

Little Eee loving helping with creaming the butter and sugar 

As I grew older I realised there were other sorts of lamingtons you could buy from bakeries and also supermarkets.  I never really took to those at all.  I have however come across a few and eaten a few as they are a favourite sweet of my dear Generous Gentleman's.  They always left a metallic taste in my mouth, and still do.

Ess helping sift flour into our bowl

So when the opportunity arose to take the family to the Great National Lamington Bake Off in order to celebrate Australia Day we all jumped at the chance.  I was curious to see what it was all about and how a chef might interpret the lamington these days.  My girls love baking (and tasting of course) and my lovely husband just loves eating lamingtons.  So it was a match made perfectly.

Fresh golden butter cake with the recipe I transcribed
at the age of about 10 years

When it was discovered that two out of the three chefs were baking a sponge cake for their lamington a question arose concerning the original and authentic lamington.  Would it have also been a sponge cake or would it have been a butter cake?  Granny always made a butter cake for her lamingtons and I have assumed that the spongey light and fluffy cake was made by the bakeries and supermarkets.  However it seems that some others consider the sponge base is a more authentic lamington.  Or perhaps they prefer the light and fluffy sponge cake?  It seems that the CWA baked a butter cake for their lamingtons as well.  I am yet to find an example of the sponge cake being used for lamingtons by the older generation, apart from mass production for school fetes and the like.  What is your preference?  

For the results of the bake-off take a read of the Canberra Times article.

Waiting for icing and coconut

Now I'm on a mission to bake lamingtons with my family in the fashion of my Granny's, to share with them the tradition I hold such fond and vivid memories of.  I'll ask them which cake they choose as their cake of preference: butter or sponge?  I already know my choice.

Ess is Eight!

As has become tradition for our Ess' birthday, we found a beach to explore.  This one is on the South Coast of NSW.  I really do miss having easy and convenient access to the beach as we did in South Australia.  Indeed I miss South Australian beaches and seaside towns - they are just less developed, less commercial and more rustic.  Nevertheless the girls had fun playing in sand and water.  It was a lovely time.  (I shouldn't be so critical should I after my first trip down this way.  Forgive my pining heart for the home that was :))

First of course, we had to bake, decorate and eat cake.

For as long as I can remember Ess has wanted to have this octopus for her eighth birthday.

Apparently she has "wanted the octopus for ages but it only looked good as an eight".

Indeed it does, I'm sure you'll agree.

I used to bake and decorate for my girl - now Ess is very much involved in the whole process.  I think she really baked the chocolate cake quite independently, now that I think back on it.  She made the icing, coloured it to her liking, and is really keen to learn how to spread it.  It's a tricky job but she'll get there as Mum learns to let go more and let her just try!

This is Broulee Beach.

South Coast, New South Wales.

A nice spot for some beach fun...

and creating a new beach fan in our little baby.

Look who's One!

My little baby J has turned one!

We celebrated with a delicious Lumberjack Cake by Not Quite Nigella.  You must explore her site if you haven't already.  Her work is delicious.

We enjoyed a ride on the Carousel in Civic with friends who have made this a family ritual to celebrate birthdays.  Indeed it was such a sweet thing to do, I think we should also make it a birthday ritual.

If indeed we last that long in this part of the country.

Meanwhile, we are currently in a contract to purchase a house.  All is proceeding OK but we are not doing so without extreme caution.  Neither of us could say we are excited.  Neither of us can see that it is actually going to happen.  The events of this year have knocked it all out of us.

Cooking with Division

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~Chili Davis

Today we spent the whole day decorating a special birthday cake for my Generous Gentleman. We worked at it from 9am until 2.30pm when my Ess was adamant she would soon be having a rest, yet at the same time so willingly helping with packing and tidying up.

Seeing as we are exploring division in our mathematical thinking at the moment I decided that baking and decorating a cake with multiples of evenly divided lollies using an old-fashioned recipe handed down to me via Mum from my Gran would be motivating and inspirational. This was just such a fabulous decision as Ess took on the whole project with ease and I took on the role of facilitator/supervisor. I just love that role and have been longing for my family to reach the stage where I could assume that.

First task was to make icing. The recipe required Ess to measure ¼lb butter providing a fabulous mathematical thinking opportunity. Having just completed a unit on measurement whereby Ess had learnt all about grams and kilograms, there could be no better opportunity to extend that learning into incorporating the old imperial system used by her grandparents (and myself in my childhood), just after a visit from Granny. Armed with the information I provided her that one pound of butter (1lb) is equal to 16 ounces (oz) she quickly counted out her favourite pip squeak pencils to discover she needed to weigh out 4oz butter.

Then came the fun part: creaming the butter with a pound of icing sugar, and some stiffly beaten egg whites to make the icing.

Each carriage of the train required a different coloured icing to yet again Ess was required to measure and divide her icing before she coloured it. One whole bowl of icing needed to become four even bowls of icing. This she did entirely independently.

After watching her mother ice most of the carriages, with a whinge or two of frustration thrown in here and there, (I just find the placing of the icing onto the cake the most horrible part of cake decorating!) Ess quickly took over the role and finished icing a carriage by herself while I attended my baby.

Upon assembly of the cake my older pair of girls each assumed mathematical roles. Little Eee counted out the paddle pop sticks and laid them as train tracks. She also sorted the smarties into colours, while Ess counted out and multiplied and divided her sweets until she had an appropriate number per carriage. "Hmmm, one pack of mint slice biscuits divided between four carriages. Do I need to open the second pack? Will there be enough bikkies for each of us to have a bikky now?

Little Eee is randomly decorating the engine with her smarties here. :)

The jellybeans loaded up on each carriage were great to use as counters as we explored division a little further with our Singapore Maths workbooks, concretely representing the pictorial division problems contained therein. Receiving a jellybean per each correct maths problem proved great motivation as well. I was amused when Ess decided she had completed enough maths problems because she now had enough jelly beans. It just happened to be before one of the more complex division word problems...conveniently.

Happy Birthday my dear beloved!

Oh the joys of home education.

We are able to spend our whole day delighting in how much you mean to us, by creating something special for you, and still have such a meaningful day of education.

Lots of thought was also put into planning and preparation of cakes for upcoming birthdays as well. ;)

Little Pear, Chocolate and Brioche Cakes

It is, in my view, the duty of an apple to be crisp and crunchable, but a pear should have such a texture as leads to silent consumption. ~Edward Bunyard

Googling the ingredients you have in the cupboard can provide you with some wonderful new possibilities I have discovered lately. Do you do that ever? Just google your available ingredients. The other day I knew I wanted to make some soup with some cauliflower and spinach. Not able to find the recipe I thought I owned in my recipe book, and thinking that it had become lost in our move, I decide to simply google those ingredients. I found this lovely nutritious soup which I proceeded to make and enjoy with my husband during this week. It didn't go down so well with my girls (except my baby), but then soup rarely does.

These little cakes however have gone down very well. Although poor little Ess has been unwell this week and found them a bit too rich for her delicate tummy :( Yet again I googled an ingredient - stale brioche. I thought it should be able to make some sort of sweet custardy type dessert like bread and butter pudding. Not that I am a fan of that in any way - but my husband loves it and so, it would seem, does little Eee.

Ess was very enthusiastic to make the little cakes, feeling a little better and always keen to bake something sweet. Thus I declare these a great project to do with children: very easy to prepare and needing very little supervision.

Simply slice the brioche.

Slice the pears - ensuring you leave the stem on and being mindful of the shape you'd like to use as you stack your cakes, vertically.

Slice the dark chocolate.

Prepare one yourself by stacking ingredients in the little pans.

Leave the room and allow your little one free rein in arranging these ingredients.

Upon your return you'll need to mix the custard mixture (the entire recipe can be found here).

Add some to each little cake, allow time to soak in, then bake.

My life is rather busy with my three little cherubs so I was delighted to be able to present these for dessert. Usually I would have just baked or poached the pears but with Ess keen to help, it allowed me time to feed and change my baby, and Ess the opportunity to be creative in the kitchen independently. A skill which I highly value and nurture at every opportunity.