Happy Birthday Mum!
Because it is not long since Mother's Day, where we'd all given Mum bigger gifts than she'd been expecting, my Mum requested that me and my sisters didn't buy her any birthday presents this year. Instead we gave her flowers and took her out for lunch. Izzy still wanted to give her Granny Lou Lou something though!
Izzy and Liam spent the morning painting to produce this lovely mini tea set!
She couldn't quite bring herself to give away the whole tea set, but she chose the pink and green cup and saucer set to give to Mum :) She and Liam also made a cute card...
Love having an arty husband!! ;)
Same as for Mum's birthday last year, today my Mum, my sisters, my Grandma and I went out for lunch. Mum was under instructions not to eat too much as Colin is taking her out for a surprise dinner this evening, so she and I both opted for the vegetarian special - salad with halloumi, beetroot and hazelnuts...
This was really tasty, and actually surprisingly filling. Not that I needed to worry about that as after lunch we all went back to mine for cake...
The Pink Whisk's Chocolate Orange Cake which I topped with a simple icing made with icing sugar and the zest and juice of an orange.
This was lovely - not too sweet thanks to the dark chocolate pieces running through it, a wonderful fresh orange flavour, and with a really dense texture. Mum said it reminded her a bit of a cake made with polenta (in a good way!). The icing complemented the cake perfectly too (and in fact I would have liked a thicker layer of icing!) but the cake would be equally delicious without - a great easy "have with a cuppa tea" cake!
I love the chunks of orange running through this as well as the chocolate. And Liam enjoyed this as well so it's one to add to my "make again" list - success - I do like to keep adding new, slightly more adventurous baking recipes that I know Liam will still be happy to eat!
Have you ever done any pottery painting? Either at home or at a pottery painting cafe/place? I know there are few pottery painting cafes near(ish) to us, but I've never been to one. Izzy's had loads of painting sets over the years though - a cow, a pig piggy bank, this tea set, a fairy...plus when we went to Woolacombe she painted another fairy that was then fired so it looks all nice and shiny! Liam and I said at the time that we wished we could paint some things ourselves, but it obviously wasn't possible with the children. I know a group of friends that have gone to pottery painting places for a day out a couple of times, and all painted their own mugs/plates etc...quite a therapeutic activity (when children aren't involved!) I imagine!
Right, enough rambling, I'm off to put Izzy to bed and then watch Silent Witness. We completely forgot it was on last night, so have to play catch up before the 2nd part of the story at 9pm tonight! Have a nice evening everyone!
That lunch looks lovely, as does the cake. I love the idea of a chocolate and orange cake.
ReplyDeleteWe have a pots of art near us, and a lot of the children at school go there for birthday parties. When I was little I was often given kits like that- I still have a piggy bank which I got to paint myself! Those sorts of things always looks lovely- that little teaset that Izzy made looks so pretty.
Yes the cake was great, although I think I would use better quality chocolate next time. I always use cheap dark chocolate from Lidl for my brownies, which is fine as the chocolate gets melted with everything else anyway, but this cake could have done with a slightly "softer" chocolate if that makes sense, the cheap chocolate made it a bit more bitter than it should have been I think. Still tasty, but not so much for people (my sister) who don't love dark chocolate at the best of times!
DeleteYes the painting kits are great, Izzy loves doing "arty crafty things" and the kits contain everything you need so they are a slightly easier option! :)
Oooh the orange chocolate cake looks amazing, I might give that one a try sometime.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see granny had a good birthday and love how Izzy insisted on doing something for her :-)
Well to be honest, the main reason we did the cake was for Izzy - she didn't come to lunch with us and I knew she'd want to celebrate...a birthday isn't a birthday to her without cake and presents!
Deleteoh i love halloumi! Did the hazelnuts work well with the salad? That cake is the king of cakes! Dark chocolate, orange, icing... my mouth is watering!!
ReplyDeleteYeah the hazelnuts were pretty good. I left most of mine til the end as they were a bit of a pain to get on the fork, but the flavour worked well. Mum loved hers more than me I think - she couldn't believe I hadn't been eating them throughout!
DeleteThe cake was good...I could have happily eaten the icing on its own too - it tasted like it had been made with condensed milk when it all it was was fresh orange juice & zest with icing sugar!