Volition (n)- The act of making a choice.

WOW

I realize I’m like the worst blogger EVER!!  It’s been almost a full year since I went to Greece and I still haven’t told you guys anything about it….well not really.  Man do I have stories!!! Crazy stupid Heidi type stories.   

Yet here I am, not telling them….instead I want to talk about the next trip me and Twin are about to embark on…………we’re going to Australia!!!!!   Sydney to be exact!!!

I think what I love so far about this trip (and what was severely lacking in Greece) is that Twin is coming with me!!!  HOORRRRAAAAYYYYYY!  When I was in Greece the ladies I was with got very tired of me saying…”Twin would love this”, “I wish Twin were here”, “Man I miss Twin.”  I don’t think I got through a day without bringing her up at least a dozen times!!! I was crazy!! 

The worst was when we were in Fira, a town on the island Santorini…..

….which is the most beautiful place I have ever seen!!  Note: I ran out of space on my camera by the time we got to Santorini, so I have very few pics from there, which is why I used this one.  Also note I’ve been there!!! BEAUTIFUL!! 

  Anyway, we were walking back to our hotel after a very long day of touring/eating/shopping and I was beginning to miss Twin like crazy, this was near the end of the trip.  About a block from the hotel I found a little alcove with a pay phone and called home   Because of the time difference Twin was at work, when she got on the line I seriously teared up    I missed her……le sigh……..but not with this trip!!!!  Twin and Me in Sydney!!!!   Hazzuh!!

Last sunday the 4 of us that are going together, Twin, two friends and me, got together to plan all the stuff we are going to do while we’re out there.  This is what we came up with so far:

- Hillsongs evening rallies!!!!!!!!  (I’m just a little excited about this)

- Climbing the Sydney harbour bridge

- Take in an opera at the Sydney opera house

- Vist Tarango Zoo, Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Tower, Cruise Sydney harbour, go to Bondi Beach

- Tour the Blue Mountains

 This is going to ROCK!! 

So what would be a MUST see or do if you were ever in Sydney Australia??

Wow there have been a lot of food posts lately! And I have another 4-5 on the go!!!  Craziness……

Anywho, 2 weeks ago I posted the concept design for dessert sushi, now I will show you all how they turned out.  First I made a batch of rice crispy squares, and cut them into circles and rounded rectangles. Next all the candy was prepped and white chocolate wafers melted.

Then  I pretty much went to town, any surface not covered with fruit by the foot (candy seaweed), was coated with white chocolate, so that it resembled rice (sorta).  The sliced red “fish” is cut up twizzlers, candy fishes and fruit by the foot make up those two fish sushi you see in the background.

The two in the back, covered in red fruit by the foot were fun to make.  I “rolled” out a sheet of rice crispies, then placed a row of cut up apricots and green fondant on it, and rolled it up like normal sushi, then covered it in the roll-ups, and sliced it in half on a diagonal. Don’t they look fun?  I think so.

The circle sushi (I know they have a proper name, but I’m to lazy to go find it, and I’m definitely not cultured enough to know it off hand), were the most challenging to decorate. The ones with the “fish eggs” were more time consuming then anything, the eggs are rolled up strips of fruit by the foot.  The other circles are a combination of cut up pink gummy fish tails, fruit by the foot and sliced apricots.  Out of all the combinations I think they resemble sushi the most

Here we have the final product, complete with chopsticks!  What do you think??  Pretty darn accurate if I say so myself!!  I think what I loved most about making these is eating fruit by the foot!  I haven’t had that since I was a kid in school…..oh the joys   Do yourself a favor and go buy yourself a box of fruit by the foots!!! Yummy

So there ya have it:

Concept and….

Reality! Reality looks a whole lot tastier

Reality has hit!  Last week I posted the concept drawings for 2 projects I had over the weekend, Desserts for my sis’s vow renewal party (Black forest Cake and Cupcakes) as well as Dessert Sushi.   Wanna know how they turned out?   Well keep reading….

 First lets discuss the Black forest Cake and Cupcakes…… Saturday morning I whipped up 4.5 batches of my all time favorite chocolate cake batter (I’ll post the recipe later). 

The batter was then used to bake 3 10inch cakes and 4 dozen cupcakes   Everything was all baked and cooling by noon…..decorated and ready to go by 4:30ish.

Here’s the design I used for the cakes….it’s slightly different for the concept….

I didn’t have enough cherries, so only every-other piece got one, and the center decoration is less complex then planned.

The layers turned out amazingly well…… they had cake, cherry mixture, whipped cream icing, cherry mixture, another cake….ect.

Did you know this was my first time EVER making a triple layered cake! I LOVED how they turned out, the cake was deliciously moist and the cream/cherry combo was drool worthy.

Suddenly I crave Black forest cake………no idea why…..weird…

 Moving on…..

The Cupcakes used the same batter as the cake, and they turned out exactly as planned…..well except I changed the icing from the planned Marshmallow icing to butter-cream

That didn’t change the look of them, but the two icings taste decidedly different. Marshmallow icing is lighter and has a less distinct taste, whereas buttercream is slightly heavier with a creamier taste (yummmmmmmyyyy)

I don’t think anyone minded

All in all I’d say this Concept vs Reality was a success! Only slight variations required  

Latter I’ll show you the Dessert Sushi…..I must say they turned out even better then I planned.