Making Scones With The CWA aka Cheating

Those who know me, will know that I can't make scones to save my life.  I have tried and tried.  The lemonade ones, the nanna's recipe ones and even the packet ones.  Once I touch them they turn out like biscuits or rocks.  Never light and fluffy and yummy.

Today though I decided I was not going to be beaten.  I brought out the big guns - the CWA scone mix.  All I had to do was add water.  I had high hopes that "adding water" was a process even I couldn't stuff up.

The Big Guns

I sallayed forth into the kitchen with Farmgirl with my cheat's scone mix.  To avoid my usual rock like scones I decided that the less I touched the mixture the better (given that I seem to be the kiss of death when it comes to scone making).

A Scone Shaped Rock That Farmgirl Found In The Garden - What Not To Create

My plan was to cheat even more and pop the mix and the required 280ml of water into the KitchenAid and let the dough hook do the kneading.  This plan went swimmingly.  Then all I had to do was roll out the scones and cut them with my cutter.  As I said, I utilised as much of a no touch technique as I could throughout.

And look - it worked.

Nanna Scones

They are not perfect, but they are edible and believe me that is one step up from my usual effort....

I am ridiculously excited with my effort.  I am going to make sure I always have the CWA ladies stashed in my pantry in future.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesdays.

Farmboy's Birthday, An Attractive Shade of Green

This coming Monday is Farmboy's birthday.  He will turn six.  I am sitting here wondering what happened to the last six years.  My beautiful baby is now a fully fledged boy.  He can ride a bike with no trainer wheels, catch the school bus and come extremely close to beating me in a game of Draughts/Checkers... Watching him grow into such an adorable kid has been magical.  However I am now faced with his requests for a birthday party...

Last year he had a large "Pirate Party" in the front garden of The Beach House.  It was a great day with what was intended to be a lunch time soiree extending well into the evening with some very merry grown ups by the end... This year we have decided to go low key (having made a decision to only have a proper party every second year) and have some friends around for an ice cream cake and late afternoon drinks.  We are heading to The Beach House again tomorrow so once again that will be the location.  I have decided that the ice cream cake will come straight from IGA as I think I can only face that Women's Weekly Cake Book every second year as well.

Last year I was a complete uber Mum and produced this.

Pirate Cake

I was super proud of my efforts but a bit upset with the colour.  Cake decorating supplies are pretty basic in a country supermarket so I could not find brown food colouring.  I debated going for a Gaudiesque multi coloured extravaganza as primary colours were definitely on offer.  Then I remembered something.  All parents know from years of experience with play dough and paint sets that if you mix all the primary colours together you get a fetching shade of khaki.  Just like this.

Farmgirl's Playdough (With Glitter)

Analogies to dog poo are completely acceptable at this point.

And so I created a lovely muted khaki pirate ship.  Actually I was very fashion forward in my thinking as the military look is now well and truly in.

Anyway I am definitely looking forward to the low key "party" on Monday afternoon.  A couple of friends, a cake and some candles will be enough for Farmboy to have a wonderful day.  And will be much more relaxing for his Mum.

Cupcake Carnage aka The Baking Gods Are Cross

Today I am hosting a ladies brunch for one of my dearest friend's birthday.  All of my friends are getting pretty tired and a bit fed up with harvest and the endless hours of work being done by their husbands.  So I thought a little celebration would be a nice idea.

I have decided to use all of my best "Nanna Style" china and want things to look all lovely and flowery.

 I managed to find these gorgeous cupcake cases.

Gorgeous Nanna Style Patty Pan

Whilst they may be super cute, they are also about half a cupcake larger than the cases I would usually use.

I busily got baking yesterday afternoon.

Busy Baking Scene In The Farmhouse Kitchen

Unfortunately I misjudged the baking time due to the bigger cases. Or The Baking Gods were frowning on me.  Either way I pulled cupcakes out of the oven that looked like this.

Cupcake With Big Crater In Middle

I quickly whipped up another batch and made a few adjustments and had a little word with The Baking Gods.  The next lot looked like this.

Lovely Craterless Cupcake

Unfortunately there are not enough nice ones.  I can't be bothered baking anymore.  I have a couple of standard recovery methods from baking failures.  The first is to give everyone enough champagne that they don't even notice.  The second is to cover the failed baked goods with mountains of whipped cream and rose petals...

Here is a photo of how I rescued some dodgy cupcakes and turned them into Farmgirl's Christening Cake.

Puddings At Farmgirl's Christening

I am going to get onto the whipped cream first thing this morning.

If all else fails I have one other plan.... Fussy Eater's Mum is coming today and has made this beautiful chocolate ball tree.  If I can't come up with anything else I am going to give people lots of champagne.  And try and persuade them I made it.

A Farm Christmas

This year I am getting very excited about Christmas.  The reason for this is The Farmchildren.  Farmboy is almost six and Farmgirl is three and a half.  They are at the stage where they are completely enraptured by the concept of Christmas.  Last year was magical - even if they did wake up initially at 2.45 am and The Farmer and I had to put them in our bed to stop them getting up...

I have been thinking that there will probably not be that many Christmases left where there is this level of magic.  So The Farmer and I have decided to milk every bit of a joy out of this one we possibly can.

It has started already.  Farmboy's class are doing "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" for their item at the Christmas concert.  I know the sight of Farmboy and his gorgeous classmates dressed as angels will make me want to cry.  Farmboy himself is interested in the word "hark".  We have explained it means something along the lines of "stop and listen".  He now walks in the kitchen and says

"Hark.  I would like an apple."

It makes me laugh everytime (and is better than a few other words he has picked up at school lately).

The Farmchildren's Christmas wish list changes daily.  This morning Farmgirl wanted a penguin, but only a small one.  Farmboy wanted a leopard seal.  When asked why he replied

"Because they eat penguins"

The potential of the almost six year old mind for evil is astonishing...

I have gone overboard on the planned decorations for the house.  We will have a big tree and lots of traditional decorations in our formal dining/lounge room.  I have a funkier theme planned for the kitchen and TV room.  I am resisting the urge to put all the decorations up until early December.  I think the wait for Christmas is going to seem long enough for The Farmchildren as it is, without going too hard, too early.  There is also only so many times I want to redecorate that tree..

The Farmer bought Freddo Frog advent calenders.  So I have hyperactive Farmchildren to look forward to every day for 25 days.  The Farmer has also decided he wants lots of lights outside.  It has been suggested I make a trip to the local hardware and stock up on supplies.

With the exception of a few items, I have tried to do as much Christmas shopping as I can in our small town this year.  Like many towns dependent on agriculture for business, it is suffering somewhat because of the poor season this year.  I also like wandering into the local butcher and discussing the size and type of ham and turkey I need.  Or chatting with the post office ladies about the best wrapping options for a lazy farmer's wife...

We have close and extended family coming to The Farm on Christmas Day.  And some friends too.  I am looking forward to planning our menu and cooking for them all.  I have decided to do the traditional Christmas dinner and all the trimmings.  I think that simple things done beautifully is the best way to go.

A Small Christmas Tree - Very Cute According to Farmgirl

I am hoping we have a Christmas to remember.