This Week!

I have officially become one of those people who cannot function without a smart phone. My very cute phone met its untimely demise last week. Couple of words of warning, Digimob have apparently got this insane sense of humour. $620 to fix and $628 phone, they have to be joking yes?

So this is my new phone. It’s a Nokia, it’s sell point was a torch… yeah a torch! My friends all think this is hilarious. I’m beginning to see the funny side.

It’s Fringe time in Adelaide, which if you have never been is pretty damn awesome. For roughly a month Adelaide becomes one of the best places on earth to live. Hopefully I’ll get to see Ross Noble and lots of unknown comedians! In my mind March Fringe is to comedy what September issue is to Fashion. Comedy and fashion in one blog. I aim to please folks.

A bunch of other good stuff happened this week too. I figured out how to watch free movies, but for the sake of what is one of the coolest things Adelaide has I’ll just direct you to here where you can pay not very much to watch movies on beanbags and such.

Valentines day happened. Oh and I got an internship at Hills Weddings; that last bit is huge. I cannot describe how lucky I feel to have gotten an internship at somewhere so perfect; the beautiful people behind Hills marketing (totally linked with hills magazine) are totally delightful and the office is surrounded by such a pretty little country garden.

I have plans for purchasing of chinos for this grown up occasion.

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Chocolate and Vanilla Cake

Before we start yes I will be mentioning Valentines day, no it won’t be in a lame way. Although really I don’t get all of the hate for it; I also don’t get the hype, I’m pretty darn neutral. I will however be wearing my new pink lipstick tonight, because you know what, I have a date. Yeah!

This post is mainly about furthering my skills in frosting, which was really my only measurable new years resolution. I like to think I’ve come along way since smearing frosting on with a rubber spatula; seriously what was I thinking?

The above cake was for my mum, her birthday is on valentines day. I would totally hate that, but she gets two lots of presents so I’m sure she doesn’t mind. I would though, because how many year of high school do you go through without getting anything, now imagine that kind of rejection on your birthday! Crazy; can i get away with saying cray cray, I so want to. I’m not American enough. Or you know… at all.

So here are the sites and tools I used:

-I always use a 6″ high sided pan with removable base, I just like smaller cakes and love layers. the high side means you can always get a minimum of three easy layers cut.

-Offset Spatula for frosting, super important.

-Crumb coat – this is just so ridiculous important, otherwise all that time you spent making flawless frosting is lost and your cake looks crumby; literally.

I found Meg Ryan from Miettes tutorial the best.

The best place for frosting recipes is Sweetapolita, this women is a goddess of frosting, her instructions are foolproof and you will not go wrong!

For piping in layers (keeps things clean and even!) I just use a Masterchef macaron piping set, it had the perfect large star nozzle!

Also in my travels I found out that you never put frosting that has touched the bare cake back with the fresh frosting, you’ll get crumbs in it. Scrape it on the edge of the bowl and try to use it in the crumb coat.

And as always, room temperature room temperature, room temperature!

The Past

When I watch films I tend to get overly involved with the story, I start imagining what my life would be like if I was there. I start trying to relate to the film in ridiculous ways. It probably explains my love for simple films; like Amelie and Sabrina, because that’s exactly how I would like my life.

More recently, aka today I watched Midnight in Paris; it was amazing, and my first Woody Allen film gasp! It got me thinking about how much of my time is spent thinking of the past. Also how much I love Paris.

I don’t generally talk much about myself, or maybe I do, but hey this is my little bit of the internet and you mostly don’t know me. And you definitely should, so this is stalking Rachel 101 lesson 1.

I like old things quite a lot, I like old books and old music because generally they have stood the test of time, they are well made, sturdy and dependable. Much like this guy, sorry that’s a bit sickly, with valentine’s day around the corner it must all be going to my head!

This isn’t to say I don’t live in the now; the two should meet. In fact where they meet is a vintage store, and those places are amazing! I’m trying to channel the whole ‘quality over quantity’ as of late, because it seems like a lot of people have forgotten. Also I have to save money.

My point is classics: time-tested, filled with love, amazing quality, classics! My favorite classic recipes, the songs I live my life to and the styles that I love will all be lovingly made, listed and photographed for you to decide how much you love me/ hate me/think i’m a hipster. It will be splendid.

But also what are your classics? that’s important too! Let me know yeah, cool, awesome.

Also that cheesecake I mentioned in the last post, mega flop, the Miette cookbook is something that inspires me visually but recipe wise has let me down in reliability. I did however make a strawberry milkshake flavoured cake, I’ll try to find some photos from the night and there will definitely be a recipe.