Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I have to be honest, I can't think of anything worse.

Ok, on reflection, I can think of heaps of things worse. Still, pineapple in cake - blegh.

But it just so happens that pineapple upside down cake is my husband's favourite, so I had to give it a go. And by 'favourite' I mean I asked him what he'd like me to make him, he replied 'pineapple upside down cake', I said, 'I've never seen you eat that the entire time I've known you,' and he said, 'yeah, I haven't had it for like 10 years.'

Still, his favourite apparently.

For obvious reasons (seriously - pineapple in cake?? Why am I the only person weirded out by this?!) I'd never made pineapple upside down cake before, so had no idea how. I googled the recipe and found a brilliant - and easy one - on bestrecipes.com.au.

This was the result:

It's a bit of a cake wreck in my opinion - see how it sags in the middle? I'm assuming that's the fault of my terrible, terrible mini oven as opposed to a flaw in the recipe. My oven never cooks anything in the time it's meant to. This cake is meant to take an hour - it only took 25 minutes. But at least it was cooked all the way through. That's something, right?

This cake is definitely one for those with an over-active sweet tooth. See how it's darker on top? That's because you have to spread the bottom of the cake tin with mixed brown sugar and butter before putting the pineapple down.

I managed to make the whole damn thing without a single taste test :P

Personal bias aside, my husband and the two friends he shared the cake with thoroughly enjoyed it - and as an FYI for those that actually like pineapple in cake, have it warm with custard :)

Random Photo Day!

Today I present to you, in a single photo, why Brunswick is clinically insane:

Nuff said.

Happy Sunday! :)

Our chest of drawers

I've been making earrings out of left over puzzle pieces from the puzzle my husband and I used to cover our chest of drawers.

Why cover a chest of drawers with a puzzle? Why not? But specifically though, it's kind of my fault.

We'd bought ourselves a very cheap, white chest of drawers that you have to put together yourself. This was easier said than done. Cheap flat-pack furniture hardly ever goes together the way it should, and this was no exception. I ended up poking a hole through the top from underneath with a piece of dowel. You know, as you do.

So we had to cover it with something, and a puzzle seemed the obvious choice.

We bought a wolf puzzle from the local op-shop for $6 and set to work.

Here's what it looked like at the beginning:

Note the messed up bit on the bottom left. Yeah, that's what happens when you're more stubborn than the dowel.

Basically, we made the bulk of the puzzle directly on top of the drawers so we could see how it would fit and where we wanted it. It was a fair bit wider than the drawers, so we had to call in reinforcements: 

Once the puzzle was completed we used a piece of card to very carefully slide it off, applied a thick layer of Selleys Kwik Grip glue to the top of the drawers with an old sponge (we did try out a small section with the craft glue in the first picture, but no joy. Also the lack of an apostrophe in 'Selleys' greatly disturbs me) then slid the puzzle back into place and smoothed it down. 

Because of the width issue the sides had puzzle pieces overhanging, and gaps where the remaining puzzle didn't quite reach the sides. To compensate, we pre-removed a few random pieces top and bottom, to try and make it look like it was all just part of the design :P

Once we'd left it overnight to dry (and nearly suffocated in glue fumes - that Selleys stuff is insane) I cut off the overhanging puzzle pieces with a scalpel. 

And voila! 

A fun, cheap way to re-vamp boring furniture :)

How to make puzzle piece earrings!

Today’s post will show you how to prepare puzzle pieces to use as jewellery, so you can make stuff like this:

And that's the basics covered :) Now go watch Always Sunny and have some fun!

How did I never notice...?

So, I was re-watching the first season of Buffy the other day, when it suddenly dawned on me...

I just blew my mind.

Although I did also just have six chocolate chip cookies for lunch, and the sugar overload is making everything kind of amazing right now.

In other news, I'll soon be posting a tutorial for puzzle piece earrings and showing off the chest of drawers we revamped :)

Random Photo Day!

A few years back now I went to Taronga Zoo in Sydney with a friend, and I managed to snap some photos of one of the giraffes eating. This was the result:

He's. So. CUTE!
In other news, the following illustrations are now available to buy in my Etsy shop - yay!

And now I'm off to continue reading Murder by the Book by Jennifer Rowe in bed. And possibly fall asleep.

New Earrings!

My husband and I did a puzzle the other night (cos we're hardcore), and used it to cover a cheap, white chest of drawers. Since the puzzle was too big we ended up with a fair few left over puzzle pieces and I thought, 'now what can I do with these?'

The answer, obviously, was to make jewellery with them.
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First, a Narnia inspired piece:

These earrings show locations from the Narnian map: the lamppost and Mr. Tumnus's cave.

Each earring includes two natural black pearls.

Every puzzle piece is different - so every earring is unique!

Next, patchwork painted puzzle pieces! 

(Try saying that five times fast).

I kind of went for retro 80's colouring - who doesn't love baby pink and grey? Nobody, that's who.

The little black bows are my favourite bit!

 Both of these styles are now available to buy at my Etsy shop :)

Lazy Friday

Feeling crook is the perfect excuse to have a lazy day, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Tonight, my husband and I are watching all 4 Alien movies, and directly after posting this, I'll be playing Zoo Tycoon. (He's playing Diablo 3 as I type).

And since I've been having a pretty lazy week in general, I have bugger all to post. Hence I feel compelled to share a few of my favourite pics I've found on the internet - you know, to fill the void until I'm baking and creating again. All of these were found on either Win Blog, Pinterest, I Waste So Much Time, or Imgur.

A totally normal event...

I'm feeling a bit crook this week, so I don't know how much baking and creating I'm going to get done :( In order to recuperate properly hubby is assisting by spending the day watching movies with me.

But in lieu of an actual post, I present a totally normal event in my life:

The other day Rob roly-polied off his computer chair and into the kitchen, then turns to me and says "sometimes I wish I was a monkey. If I could be anything other than a robot I’d be a monkey".

This is followed by "that makes me sound like I'm currently a robot though".

The jury's still out on that one. 

Avengers cupcakes: the how to guide

Wanna know how to make Avengers cupcakes?... As birds?

Sure you do :)

 Firstly, follow the guidelines from my Harry Potter post.

Instead of using white fondant to make Hedwig’s body, use coloured fondant to make Avengers. Blue for Captain America, Red for Iron Man, Yellow for Thor (cos he’s blonde, get it?) and green for Hulk.

And that’s pretty much it. Oh, apart from the details…

Hand-cut a little white ‘A’ to stick on Captain America…

(a sharp knife will do the trick but it’s finicky work, so I used a scalpel).

Cut out a yellow mask shape to cover Iron Man…

Add strips of white for eyes and an orange triangle for the tip of a beak.

Now it's time to give Thor a helmet...

(I cut around my food colouring to make small circles).

I'm well aware Thor didn’t actually wear a helmet in the movie, by the way. But he needs to be identified somehow, right?

Make hulk angry by making the eyes as normal, then simply chopping them off at an angle. 

And you’re done!

Oh, but you wanna know the best bit?

Ta-da!

Before baking, I coloured small amounts of cupcake mix red, green, blue and yellow so each Avenger was an individual colour. It took a bit of extra time, but was totally worth it.

And oh yes, that's an Avengers popcorn tin. We use it to keep utensils in. As you do.

Random Photo Day!

When thinking about photos for this Sunday's post, I asked myself 'what is it that the internet doesn't have enough of?'

The answer, of course, is cats.

So here's Smudge. My husband and I took her in when she needed re-homing, and she now lives with my cousin, who absolutely adores her. 

And seriously, how couldn't you?

Look at that face!!! LOOK AT IT!!! It's not usually this blurry, btw. 

Still - n'awww :)

Just reading my literature book. You know, as is a cat's want.

British Blues aren't really known for having prominent noses... Or any at all.

Spot the kitty!

'Do you mind? I'm studying here.'

Aaaaand just like that I've established myself as a crazy cat lady.

Kind of ok with it.