So long and thanks for all the cupcakes

After going through close to a thousand kilos of flour and sugar in the past four years, it's time to pack up the mixer and say good bye to our little cupcake business.   It's been such fun baking cakes, meeting so many lovely people and hearing wonderful feedback from our customers. But well, there's so many exciting things happening in our world that we had to cut something.  And the weekly cake stall was it.

So what are we doing you may ask?  Well, we are super excited to be working on a new book with Matthew, Ross and Nick, we're still doing cakes by request, we're catering for events using delicious, sustainable and local ingredients, we're writing about food, styling for food photo shoots, and well, there is one project that we are so over the moon about that I have to pinch myself to check that I'm awake and that it's real.  But you'll have to wait to hear more about that.

As they say, you have to close one door before another one opens and well, this week that proverb certainly rings true.  Hooray for cupcakes!  Those dear little treats have been so much fun.

Bruny Island Weekend

After a busy Saturday market, on glorious spring day, we drove south to catch the ferry across the channel. We were heading to a Slow Food event - a dinner cooked by Ross O' Meara at the Lunawanna Hall, a little village on the south of the island.

Everything we ate was sourced on this tiny island off the coast of Tasmania.  Olives, oysters, pork rillettes, wallaby terrine, possum and rabbit sausages, corned wallaby legs (so delicious!) really incredible ( I mean, really incredible) spit roasted lamb, some greens and buttery pink eyes finishing with a simple Scottish dessert called cranachan. All washed down with Bruny Island wines.

We stayed at Ross's busy farm nearby and after a luxurious breakfast, slowly meandered back to the ferry, stopping to climb the lookout at the Neck, take a quick paddle on sunny Nebraska beach and drive past Daisy Banks my dream cottage by the sea that's for sale. On the voyage back to the mainland, I dreamt of moving to this magic island one day...as I always do every time I visit.

A sweet day

I was thrilled when Gillian agreed to let me spend a day in her chocolate shop as work experience girl.  A chance to live out my Juliette Binoche fantasies and learn a little of the mysteries of the chocolatier.  I can't say that I'm much clearer on the magic of tempering chocolate, turning dull brown chocolate buttons into smooth shiny bars with a marvellous snap.  Nor did any Johnny Depp type gypsies come swaggering into the shop.  But I did have lots of fun, spending the day with fun and very clever people who make beautiful chocolates.

Cottage by the sea

Did you ever play house outside when you were a child?  I did.  I remember setting up little outdoor kitchens where ever I could.  Under the water tank stand, in a small clearing amongst the overgrown shrubs or under the enormous pepper tree at my grandmothers house.  An upturned box for a table, an old jar filled with soursops and utensils made from found bits and pieces, cooking dishes with leaves and petals and mud. I would happily play for hours at a time.

I only recalled those childhood memories this week as we stayed at Lily Cottage.  A tiny rustic cottage, one L-shaped room, sparsely furnished with second hand finds and a kitchen filled with gorgeous vintage treasure.  Prettily painted windows frame views of the cottage garden and out over lush green pastures to the ocean beyond. No fridge, no oven, no electricity and a sink outside for washing up.  It's totally basic, totally rustic and totally charming.  It reminded me of a grown up version of playing house. And that's what I did on our seaside holiday.  Cooked delicious food and played house.  Just like I did all those years ago.