it started with two hours of my current addiction, civilization iv. (no, really. we set alarms and everything.) then a trip to adriano zumbo’s patisserie for macarons. i’ve never watched masterchef, but i figured that the number of people raving about his macarons can’t be wrong. it took about an hour all up, from the time we joined the rather long queue to the time we walked out of his tiny little store, but i think it was worth it. it’s certainly not something i’d be keen on doing regularly, though.

next stop: sydney aquarium! i had a free double pass, so thought the day of shan was the perfect opportunity for it.

penguin swimming underwater

i found nemo!

a shark, as seen through the glass bottom boat

dugong! so cute

fresh flowers make my weekend {and my apartment} happy.
may all your days be filled with fresh flowers!

step 2: ice them, preferably in pretty colours

step 3: add a marshmallow (prepared a few days earlier) and wrap in cellophane.

step 4: decorate with a bunny rabbit

step 5: have a happy easter :)

but oh, summer. promise you’ll never leave me?

i love this time of year. we all know the weather isn’t supposed to be like this. the nights should be colder. we should at least be starting to think about hot chocolate and apple pie. but, no. it’s still long, hot, sleepless nights and endless sunshine and spontaneous sunday picnics.

i’m not going to lie; i love it.

i’m clinging to every last inch of summer as tightly as i can, and i’m not going to let go without a fight.

isn’t it just gorgeous?! i’ll post photos of the package I sent soon :)

you can see more photos of the swap in the flickr group here

in summary – listen to spoon.

gift tags:

plus some new card designs:

be sure to have a look and let me know what you think!

last weekend was a different story – we spent valentine’s day casually wandering around, having loads of fun. breakfast at a cafe:

chinese new year markets:

and i made this for my valentine, from bakerella’s recipe:

it was just lovely. but that was a whole week ago! next weekend will be the last one of summer. it just goes by so fast.

there’s been three very specific things i’ve wanted to make lately:

1. marshmallows. because i bought some homemade marshmallows at the markets recently and they were divine.

2. vegan chocolate avocado cake. because i saw laura’s post about joy the baker’s recipe and it sounded amazing. and weird, which i like. and i don’t eat eggs outside of cakes so it seems odd that i eat them inside of cakes. {it’s not a moral stance or anything, i’ve just never been able to eat them.}

3. banana bread. because we bought too many bananas last grocery shop and i needed to use them up.

so, first up: marshmallows. the recipe was fairly simple, but having never made anything like this before i had a bit of pre-marshmallow anxiety – “is this thick enough? how do i know what this is supposed to look like?!” – but they turned out perfectly. i’ve already planned to make these as easter gifts.

next up was the chocolate avocado cake. this was really simple; no different to a normal cake, really. i snuck a quick taste of the batter just as i was about to pour it into the pan, and was horrified to taste nothing but baking soda. ack! i forgot to put the sugar in! lesson learnt: ALWAYS TASTE YOUR COOKING. but with some extra stirring i was able to work it in just in time. i haven’t had a proper piece yet, but the bits i’ve sneakily broken off have been amazing. i’ll be taking it to an afternoon tea tomorrow, so i look forward to people trying it without knowing what it is. i was originally planning on making a different icing, but decided to make the avocado one just to see what it’s like. tastes good to me!

and lastly, banana bread. i got this recipe from the australian women’s weekly BAKE book. haven’t got it yet? go now. run. i haven’t tried this yet, but i think it might be a little overdone. i’ll sample some for morning tea tomorrow!

now why can’t i be this productive during the week?!

here’s the month of january, in edible form:

you can see the full size photos in my Edible365 set on flickr.

PS. Now that it’s January 31, I can happily report that I haven’t eaten any more chocolate since that minor sponge cake incident. it really wasn’t that hard at all! I’m thinking of continuing into February, but loosening it a little. I still won’t eat straight up chocolate, but will be forgiven for chocolate flavoured things.