My baby is a TWEEN!!!

Yes, she is 10 going on 11!!! I am unable to get over it, she's growing up.. or has she already?!!

We had a big family party to celebrate 3 birthdays that fall in August. So her actual birthday was a very low-key at home celebration.

I had a very adventurous experience baking her birthday cake. V's order was quite simple - a basic vanilla sponge with strawberry frosting. I had everything planned out perfectly and had the vision of a perfect looking cake. Now "Man proposes God disposes" right - so my perfect plan was not to be!! I started the baking quite early. A few minutes after the batter was in the oven I could smell something burning - of course it was my cake!! I realized only 25 minutes too late that I had started the baking in microwave mode and not in convection mode!!! Silly, stupid, **##@@** me!!!! So, I started from scratch all over again. This cake was just the perfect sponge
Next step - the frosting. My brother had got Wilton stamp set last year and I wanted to try that. But by this time I had run out of patience and did not work enough to get the smooth finish that is required for neat stamping. So, the stamping did not look neat. But all that matters is the taste - that's what I tell myself. My dad who's quite tough to please actually said "It is yummy and had 3 pieces" and V and her friend loved the cake too.

That's it from me today friends.. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep crafting.. Au Revoir

Oohh Caramel!!

That's right, I've been experimenting with various ways of using caramel

Last time you saw that I made some Dulce de Leche. Now we can't use everything up in one go. So, V was very curious to know how I plan to use the remaining

I found this yummy recipe to make brownies with Dulche de leche. Recipe can be found here. It was so irresistible that I could not wait for it to cool completely before unmoulding, resulting in a brownie crumble

There was some home made caramel from earlier, which I used as topping.

Enough of caramel, let's eat something healthy. I made Apple walnut custard tarts last weekend for dessert.

The tart shell was so soft and came out so well, I fell in love with it. Apple is not V's favorite, so it did not go down very well with her

Now as you know, seashells is progressing at snails pace, but yes I am making some progress there. I have decided my next picture will only be after I make some good progress

Till next time dear friends.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir :)