What A Difference A Year Makes

What A Difference A Year Makes

Remember the blog entry about the Melting Cake??? Well it's been 12 months since Mother Nature played her cruel joke on me, simultaneously baking Sydney and melting my cake!

What a difference a year makes Old Woman .... My eyes are clearer, my cakes are better (and firmer) and your getting soft in your old age. Or is it just that your plans for 2014 don't include breaking any records in Sydney this January??
I shouldn't antagonise the beast. There's many a cake still to be made this Summer. I can laugh about it now ..... Still wish I had seen a photo of that melted cake though :)

So last week, as promised, I delivered a miniature version of that fateful wedding cake to the door of the most understanding Bride of 2013.
It was my absolute pleasure to do this as a first anniversary gift to the lovely couple.

Grabbing my car keys and walking out the door with cake in hand, a wash of panic came over me as I saw the Frustrated Painters car and realised he was well on his way to QLD in MY car with HIS car keys!!! Are you kidding me?????

His suggestion when I called for help ..... silence ....... then "there is a spare key in the drawer, it's not broken, just bent and twisted. Get a hammer and try to smash it flat"!!!!

I did and then delivered the cake.

X Nadia



Sent from my iPhone

Nothing is as simple as it seems

I love going to work, I really do, and I am one of the fortunate ones that loves their job! I am paid to play with food, bake cakes and make things out of icing. If you reread that first sentence,  you'll notice that I place particular emphasis on the word "going!"  The act of physically and mentally leaving one's home, getting in the car/bus/train and travelling a distance to one's workplace. This, I love. But with four kids, there is a hell-of-a-lot-of behind the scenes that goes into making that happen.......

So last Wednesday night, after 5 hours of Baton twirling training with 11 kids to yell at, a further hour of general preparation for the following school day ahead and then another 4 hours of fiddling with cake pops, I finally got to bed.   With roughly 4 hours sleep under my belt, I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30am and hit the ground shuffling for a long day ahead.
The Frustrated painter was on school drop off duty, which allowed me the luxury of simply going to work. Rephrase that....... there is no "simply" anything when  kids are involved. The preparation, to allow me this luxury, was anything but simple, but in the end, simply walk out the door I did.

I arrived at the Studio a good hour and a half later, scanning for somewhere to park my beast of a car as I drove up the narrow, already car-lined street. I have to admit, I must be a sight, turning up to inner city studios, where there is limited parking, limited road size and more often than not, height restrictions as well. I drive a 100 series, Landcruiser with 33 inch mud tyres, a 2 inch lift, heavy duty roof racks and and a candy cane aerial made for the CB and UHF that seriously is, taller than my kids. I don't look like I'd have the strength to carry my boxes, let a alone manouvre a car like the one I drive!!! . I left my car parked across the studio driveway and wandered into the studio,  politely asking the photographer if there was somewhere close by I could park OR if I could park in here (with the other cars) Something tells me, the next part of the conversation did not go the way he imagined. "Could you have brought a bigger car?" he commented. "Well that is my car. I don't have a smaller one," I replied.  He went on to say "You can leave it in here, but I have to fit in 6 cars," as he put his hand out for my keys??  I think my puzzled look and refusal to hand over my keys confused him. "You don't trust me?" I questioned as I eyed him, sizing up my car and the size of the entrance to his studio, the 4 cars I had to move around and then me! "It's my car, I drive it all day everyday, I can park it myself!!" I didn't mean to be rude and I certainly hope he did not take offence. I just spoke the truth. He reluctantly agreed that I could move my own car and  watched me like a hawk, as I used my best precision driving skills..... I missed all four cars, both side walls, his garage door and parked as close as humanly possible to the car in front to allow all the other cars he was expecting, a parking space of their own. With all that done.....I could finally get on with my job :)
It seems its just as hard to get into the Studio as it is to get out of my own house!!!!

This is how my every day starts!!! Coffee :) 

Just another busy day at work! This time from Gloria Jeans at Cronulla .....

Sharing the love ❤❤

Ready Steady Cook and the video clip

One of the advantages of so many children is there is always one of them around, usually asking me for something, but nonetheless, there is always one right by my side. An added advantage is this generation of kids are coputer savvy, ipod able and technologically gifted. Put these two together and you have an 8 year old that can film a video clip of me decorating one of my cakes, add special effects and upload it to Youtube.

So here it is.......

This was the cake that I was asked to make for the filming of the 1000th Celebration show for Ready Steady Cook. This is one of the many parts that no 3 filmed and the part that she gave me permission to post on my blog. I hope you like it.

X Nads

Mothers Day Eve

Although it took a little convincing, I managed to get the kids to agree that travelling from one end of Sydney to the other to watch Mummy set up a Wedding Cake at the Quarantine Station was an awesome way to spend Mothers Day Eve!!!

Im not entirely sure that I looked my most professional, turning up wearing Ugg Boots and with a car load of kids that looked and sounded like they had just been let out of their cages but that's how it happened. With the Autumn sun streaming through the windows, lighting up the empty hall, the kids strutted their stuff on the dance floor while I set up one of the prettiest cakes I have made all year. I finished off the cake with a last minute bow tied with a spare ribbon I found floating and some rose petals pinched from the tables. I loaded up my tools and my kids, piled into the Landcruiser and waved to the unsuspecting Bride as we drove out of the Quarantine Station.  



the people empty hall



Ben & Jerry's @ Manly



North Head National Park



 A quick visit and some sightseeing at North Head National Park and then a stop off in Manly for some much deserved Ice cream from Ben Jerry's would have been the perfect way to finish off our busy day. Amsuing the Irish Boy who served us by telling him my loud and over enthusiastic children were "a bunch of fat bastards" and then sitting back and watching them entertain passers by as they excitedly lined up over and over again to ride down the handrails and then drop to the sand below, was a pleasure that only the mother of four loud, over enthusiastic, fat bastards can enjoy......

Oh. I forgot to mention that our perfect day ended with an $88 FINE for forgetting to pay for parking :(



                    

OOPS!!!! 

Note to self: do NOT text and pour! 

I slept for 9 hours last night!!!! Was put to bed by midnight and slept till 9!! 
After about 12 hours sleep in 3 days, 9 hours in a row feels like a week ........ And I loved every minute of it! My week ended with an elegant 3 tiered Mad Hatter style cake with handmade sugar tulips and a crazy scientist cake with "chemical spills".... I hope they both went down well! 
I'm tired just thinking about this weekend coming ..... A christening cake, wedding cake and 3 kids birthday cakes for the Good Food and wine show!!! 
Wish me luck
X Nadia

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

Normally one for loving any school holidays and all that it entails - this one is killing me slowly.......

I love having all my children at home with me and that is when I feel the most at ease (in a strange sense of the word) when they are all around me. I love all the extra children that find their way to this house too...... the comings and goings and all the noise BUT for some reason this week has been driving me mental. You would think the older and more independant they got, the easier it would be for me.  Less services that I would need to provide to keep them all happy....it just doesn't seem to be turning out that way. Instead I find the mess that is created by their independance and the different activities they are now interested in requires many more services than those needed in previous school holidays. Not only am I the cook, cleaner, nurse, taxi driver, art and craft teacher and entertainment, I have become so much more....... the bank, computer technician, negotiator between the two groups of children and their widening age gap, counsellor, Video rating mediator and dog walker (as he has now learnt how to get his lead down from its hook and throw it repeatedly at my feet until I give in)....... The grass is always greener as they say........and I think back to the days when they were all just pottering around the house playing with thier Barbies and happy with the Wiggles on the TV.  But on this side of the fence the kids can make me a cuppa, pack the diswasher and walk up to the shops by themselves.
Perhaps I should stop complaining............. "can someone buy me a cappacino on the way back from the Video shop please!!"

The Sydney Royal Easter Show

Off to the Show tomorrow with the Hubby and 4 kids in tow.......and yes they will be dragged around and made to look at every single decorated cake in every finger smudged, face smeared glass cabinet!!!! Hope to have my socks knocked right off at the brilliance of some of our Cake decoraters.
Will let you know.
X Nadia

Is this working?

Hey there!!

Just wanted to see if this is going to end up on my facebook page.

Is it..... is it??

Holidays

Its 12:30 am and I'm writing this as I sit in my bunk bed in a room small enough to be a bathroom. I am sitting on about 10,000 grains of sand and am literally surrounded by my children. At least its quiet.........our 14 children can make quite a noise, when they are pumped on sun, surf, sand and sugar!!! Add this level of excitement and the noise it creates to the other 13 kids (toddlers) my Mothers Group and I are sharing this South Coast bunkhouse with and you have my summer holiday!
The closest I have come to cake in the last week is my bright white, sand encrusted cake of soap. Embedded with finely crushed shell-like sand, it rips shreds from your sunburned limbs and guarantees to make a mess of your softer bits!
I have a week and half until school resumes and all four kids head off to school. For the first time in 12 years, I should be able to get my work done in normal peoples, daylight-working-week-hours. I am looking forward to getting organised and focused and planing some amazing cakes for 2012. I am so excited about having the time to write in my blog everyweek and am generally pumped about having a lot of fun with Cakes by Nadia.
See you in a few weeks at the Sydney Entertainment Centre for the ABS Bridal Fair.
X Nadia

Aha so this is my first diary entry for 2012......I'm tired after only 1 cake!! Gid help me with the rest of the year!!!!

Sent from my iPhone

This is ridiculous.......

I have just had the busiest 2 weeks of my life........."just get through this week, just get through this week" became my mantra. That and "get out of Mummy's kitchen". So much for posting my photos cake by cake!! I've been so busy making them and delivering them, I've taken photos of them but had no time to pretty them up put them on my website or my blog. Well I made it through the week and lived to tell the tale...........

In the last 2 weeks I have developed a feature for Good Food Magazine and one for Recipes + magazine. I made a 21st birthday present cake with matching cupcakes, a 40th Birthday Holden symbol cake and a chocolate Monster birthday cake for the kids at Google. I had lunch with the small business team at Google, made and delivered a wedding cake to the CH 9 studios for the Kerrie Anne Show, finished work on the ACP Book, went to two dance concerts and had a 2 hour training session with our choreographer. I made a massive wedding cake with 18 handmade roses and 3 big peonies and 3 extra mudcakes. I made a chocolate ganache wedding cake with chocolate lace work and a set of three pyramids. Got dressed up and went to the school fundraiser and last but definately not least, tonight i made Dorothy the Dinosaur for the Wiggles Birthday Celebrations on the Today Show for tomorrow morning. God that makes me tired just reading it.

The moral to the story is......check your emails and calender more frequently and actually look at what your have planned for the week!!!! I will never do that to myself again.

Kerrie Anne???

Speaking of things looking up, let me fill you in...........................One of my wedding cakes has been featured in Cosmo Brides Magazine and subsequently gained a little attention. This Friday, THE cake (or rather a real one I am remaking) will be featured on the Kerrie Anne Show. Go Figure....apparently Kerrie Anne is going to cut into mine and (hopefully) share it around. 4 tiers worth of white chocolate and raspberry cakes have just come out of the oven. I will ganache and decorate tomorrow. Along with the 2 other cakes I have on order and work on Friday on the cake book, that has nearly reached it's deadline. I have just done a shoot with Good Food magazine, booked 2 days with super food ideas, and have 2 features to develop. One for Good Food and one for Recipes Plus. It all sounds awesome doesn't it. Now I have so much work I am turing it a way. And then...As if by magic, or a ghostly placed lottery win, money turned up in my bank account. When does that ever happen? No seriously, when does that HAPPEN..... It doesn't happen to us. The missing accountant must have found his way to the ATO and submitted our tax!!!!  2 years back pay of parenting payments and childcare subsidies have saved us. Or rather helped us to save ourselves. ALL the bills are paid, the landcruiser is insured and the credit card has finally be paid off for the first time in 5 years!!  I can afford to get the kids a lunch order when I have no food in the house and dinners have become much more interesting than rice and eggs.

A horse, cupcakes and international day at school

Although I have never before attempted it, it doesn't seem to be worrying me too much (just yet). I have a horse to make.......a freestanding model horse made from wire and chocolate fondant.....Shall keep you posted, photos and all. I love a good "before and after"  Its more the 2 lots of 12 cupcakes, 2 lots of recipe ideas due, international day at school, training and our last qualifiying comp thats causing me angst this week.