Barbie cake

Yesterday was my niece's birthday.

You'd never guess she turned 16........

She absolutely adores Barbie. Like, a ridiculous amount.

I bought her a Barbie cupcake baking kit, and a bottle of something that probably is meant for 18 year olds, but we won't tell anyone about that gift.

I also baked her a Barbie cake:

Vanilla cake, with vanilla buttercream, covered in fondant. She was suitably impressed with it.

As she is such a wordly age of 16, she's now allowed to learn to drive. She went for her L's this morning, and I received a text message from my sister with this photo in it:

My reply? May god have mercy on us all.

Apparently I volunteered to give her some driving lessons - if you don't ever hear from me again, assume the worst....... :)

Happy 16th Birthday Maddison!

Bakers Block

I think I'm having bakers block - does that exist? If not, it does now.

Much like writers not being able to think of anything to write, I can't think of anything to bake. Well, I mean I can, but stuff that I haven't baked before. Things that I haven't baked, but that my plain taste boyfriend will eat.

I baked some brownies last night. I've been struggling with brownies. I want the perfect recipe. I remember making some brownies a while ago that were really really good from the Masterchef magazine, but boyfriend said that they were 'too rich'. Blasphemy! No such thing!

The brownies I baked last night have real potential to be amazing. The recipe proclaimed them to be 'the best brownies ever'. I'm sometimes hesitant with recipes claiming to be 'best ever'. Anyone can say something is the best ever. I could say this blog is the best ever. That doesn't make it so.

Anyway, the batter looked delicious, I have bought expensive chocolate to use to give it the best chance possible. I poured it in to my brownie pan. This is when I hesitated. The pan sure did look full. Almost to the brim. Hmmm. I put it in the oven and hoped for the best.

Cue burnt edges, but a pretty good centre. I think it might have something to do with the oven at my boyfriends (my?) house too. I'm not used to cooking in it, and I seem to be ruining a lot of things lately which isn't like me. Anway, the brownies are ok, but could be better.

I don't want to post a photo because they're uuuuugly.

Now I'm looking for inspiration for other things - I'm going to leave brownies and come back to them later down the track. I have a billion things bookmarked on foodgawker, but just can't decide.

Mini apples pies with sour cream? Nahhh we're coming in to summer.
Home made pizza dough? We had pizza for lunch on Saturday.
White cupcakes with almond buttercream? I've done cupcakes to death really.
Two bite nutella cookies? Delcious, but not very involved.
Cake pops? A great idea, except candy melts are as rare as hens teeth in Australia.
Coconut cake? Hmm....coconut cake.....I'm going through a 'coconut is the most amazeballs flavour on the face of the earth and anyone who thinks otherwise is a jerk' phase. Maybe we'll see coconut cake on the blog next......I have a funny story about coconut cake to accompany it. I think we have a winner.