A leave of absense

On the 31st May 2008 J took me away for my birthday. While we enjoyed a little picnic lunch on a rock at Mosman Gorge J got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Within a heartbeat (a very strong heartbeat) I had said “YES!”. From that day to this poor Berrysimple was put on the back burner.

We live in Sydney but our families live in Ireland and England. Because of the logistics of getting all those people over to Sydney we decided to have the wedding in Dublin, Ireland. To ensure no-one missed out we also had a wedding party in London and one in Sydney. Never let it be said that we don’t love a party.

While these three parties were the most enjoyable I have ever experienced they did involve a lot of organising (with the help of my sister, my Mother, my Mother-in-law and J). For the last 6 months I have had very little time to dedicate to cooking and even less time for photographing and writing about my cooking. But now the honeymoon is over and a girls mind wonders back to what nice things she can cook up for her new husband.

Before I launch into my latest soirée in the kitchen let me first tell you about my weddings cakes. Yes cakes, as in two - one cake for the wedding in Dublin and one cake for the party in London. The first cake was made by my mother’s friend and she did an amazing job. I had always loved a photo of a cake I had seen on Nordljus a few years back. Because this image stuck in my head we decided to go for something similar. There were only 30 people at the wedding so we could go for something small by wedding cake standards. I am not a big fan of fruitcakes so we went with a couple of light sponge cakes. Sandwiched with home made jam and cream. It was covered in a light icing, surrounded with white Belgian chocolate and topped with cream roses. It seemed like such a shame to cut. But it was delicious.

The Second cake was made by our good friend, S. who has been doing cake making courses and was keen to increase her repertoire. We were more than welcome to let her make the cake. This was a bigger party with 70 people so we decided to go with individual cupcakes. Wow, these were truly amazing. There was a little cake to cut on top and then lots of little cream cupcakes with gold skirts and hand made autumn leafs layered down to the base. Around the bottom there were real autumn leaves scattered around. This was an absolute masterpiece and didn’t come without its fair share of drama. When S arrived at the venue she realised she had forgotten the cake stand so they got back in the car and drove miles to get that pesky cake stand. When the cakes were being carried one box accidently fell … in a puddle!!! There was no recovering from that but there was still enough cakes to go around and I can tell you they were very well received by everyone. When I get the recipe for these cakes I will make them myself and post the results along with the recipe.

It's good to be back and I will keep you posted with what is happening in the kitchen these days.