Dylan's Birthday Cake

Baked the infamous 'Beer Box Cake' for Dylan's 17th birthday yesterday! (see previous postings for the recipe)


But we were in an enormous rush, because Dylan had a Maths class after school, and then had an appointment with a sculptor friend of ours for the afternoon, for advice on his art project.


Then we all went straight to prayer meeting until 7pm!


I had baked the cake in the afternoon, so, on our return and in between clearing up the dinner dishes, we had a combined effort at the icing!

I simply melted a large slab of milk chocolate which I spread over the top of the cake, and then melted a smaller slab of white chocolate which I poured into a ziploc bag. I cut a tiny hole in the one corner and 'piped' a very rough guitar shape onto the hardened chocolate 'icing'


Patrick helped with a creative edging
All done in 10 minutes flat!

Everyone had a huge square, which was savoured with much licking of lips and fingers, while we had a great family game of Trivial Pursuit.

Dylan is going to have a few friends around for a braai/barbeque - to celebrate his birthday in a less rushed fashion - but this was thorougly enjoyable and no less special for all of us :o)

Happy Birthday to a very special 17 year old! We love you Dylan

And wasn't this a lovely way to have our coffee break this morning?

a study in snoek

Patrick caught two beautiful snoek (Queen Mackeral) off his fishing ski this past weekend. What a privilege to be able to enjoy a healthy meal of fish, fresh from the ocean. We gave half to our neighbours who turned it into a delectable meal for their family that evening.

Whenever Patrick gets back from his morning's fishing, he cleans and guts the fish straight away.

This time I asked if we could turn it into a lesson for the children (and the neighbour's children), because we happen to be in the middle of a marine theme in our studies. I thought it would be fantastic for them to actually see the parts of a fish first-hand.

Warning: Some of the photos are graphic - and may offend very sensitive viewers.

So, I made us each a cappuccino coffee, and got the Sea Fish Guide off the bookshelf, so that we could identify the different organs as Patrick prepared the fish.

He cut off the tail first, and then carefully cut off a lovely thick, boneless fillet from each side of the fish. He wanted to get the flesh into the fridge as quickly as possible so that we could take our time dissecting the rest of the fish.

The neighbour's children were a little worried and uncomfortable at first, but their fascination soon overcame their squeamishness!
I just love the body language - don't you? :o) One of the first things we identified was the Lateral Line. This line runs down the length of the fish, and is an amazing sense organ which helps the fish to detect movement in the water around them. There are receptors in this line, called neuromasts, and they in turn contain hair cells, similar to the cells found in our ears, which pick up vibrations and wave movements.

The line can be seen running from just behind the gill openings towards the tail, at the top end of the fishes body.

Here is a closer look

Next, we looked at the gills. What an efficient breathing system! Water is taken in through the mouth of the fish and passes through the intricate filters which extract the oxygen from the water, before it passes freely out of the gill openings.

We all felt the beautiful, soft filters of the gills and proclaimed our amazement at their design!
Nestled in just behind the gills is the heart.
Hard to believe this tiny little organ is responsible for such a big task.

Here is another shot of the heart on the right, with Patrick's thumb under it, and a great view of the gills again.

We then established where the brain would be situated, and Patrick cut straight through to get a cross-section.

Perfect! You can clearly see the two halves of the brain, with the spinal cord coming from it.

The boys all exclaimed that it looked just like a guitar!

Interesting to note that the brains of all bony fish are divided up into three parts: the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain. The forebrain is responsible for the fish's ability to smell, so fish with a good sense of smell, like the eel, have an enlarged forebrain. The midbrain is responsible for sight, learning and motor responses. The hind brain is responsible for co-ordinating movement, muscle tone and balance - so fast swimming fish (like the Snoek) have an enlarged hindbrain - which is why it looks like a guitar!!

We did look at the internal organs like the liver, kidneys and stomach as well - but I'll leave those for another time. Usually it is fascinating to cut open the stomach and discover what the fish has been eating (Patrick uses this as clues for what bait he should use!), but this time the stomach was empty, which is why this fish came on the bite so quickly - he must have been hungry!!

Lastly, we dissected the eye, but I'll spare you those rather gory shots. :o)

I did, however want to show you the lens ...

Isn't God's creation amazing!

does God speak to children?

Since we started home schooling, we have always started our home school day with a time of prayer, worship and bible reading.

This has always been such a special time for all of us, and no two days have been the same in the more than four years that we've been doing it.

I have found that God proves his lavish creativity over and over again within our prayer times, because it becomes a time of the unexpected, the fresh, the profound, the wonderfully surprising.

Last week, I felt we needed to introduce a new element to our prayer times, by asking the boys to spend time praying on their own before we prayed together, and then bring whatever they felt God had said to them to our 'together' prayer time. I was a little nervous, because I didn't want to put pressure on them which they perhaps weren't ready or mature enough to cope with. But they were both very excited, and eagerly went and found their special spots where they could pray in solitude.

Braeden brought these two stones when we got back together, and said he had felt God say to him that he wanted us to be like the stone on the left, rather than the stone on the right. He asked me to feel each stone in turn.

He said that he felt God had said to him that we should ask Him to make us smooth so that when we are with other people, they want to be with us, just like he wanted to hold that smooth stone because it felt so nice in his hands.

So we spoke about the ways that we can become 'smooth' and then we spoke about what makes us 'rough'.

Then we prayed that God would mould our characters so that we become more like Him, and that we learn more and more how to truly love one another.

God's kindness touches my heart so deeply.

loving Wednesdays

Two and a half hours of right-brained activity
with no pressure other than to decide if my pot should curve outwards or in.
(I chose out as you can see!)
Once again, Braeden made a whole lot of clay figurines and bowls and other oddments, while I plodded on methodically with the next stage of my pot/tureen/planter

We have the kindest, most patient (not to mention enormously talented) teacher :o)

from here, we went straight on to his piano lesson before heading home for lunch.

Wednesday's are turning out to be my favourite day of the week so far!

boot camp!!

A couple of months ago, my two youngest boys were invited to a birthday party with a difference!

It is called Boot Camp - situated about 30km out of town in a rustic setting.

It is quite pricy to have a party at this venue, and I had such a laugh as I watched these little boys being yelled at and bossed around like army recruits (albeit the 'sergeant major' was a gorgeous blonde!), and loving every minute!!

Who would have thought?



If they didn't refer to her with a 'yes, sarge' or 'no, sarge' they were immediately told to 'give 10' (press-ups)

They had orders barked at them from the time they got there until the cake was cut - and I've never seen more obedient, focussed boys!

Afterwards I asked some of them how they 'enjoyed' it, and every one said it was by far the best birthday party they'd been to!!

Do you think I'm depriving them of something? :o)

Then they had to have the mud treatment - and, of course, my boy went the whole 9 yards!!

See?
the younger one was a little more circumspect

He hadn't lost any of his teeth yet .... but look at him now, just a couple of months later!!

more gaps than teeth I'd say!!

But back to boot camp - and one last shot to prove that we didn't just sit on the sidelines the whole day!!

more 'liquid' images (and more to come)

creative morning

I was all set up for my homeschool open day today ...

But only one couple arrived

So, I thought I'd make creative use of the time, and got all my boys into the kitchen for some fun drawing exercises!

A friend of mine has been teaching me from the book by Betty Edwards called "Drawing on the Right Side of your Brain"

It is fascinating - she gives you line drawings which you have to copy .... upside-down!

You do other contour drawings (for example, drawing your own hand) ..... without looking at the page at all!!

And without lifting your pencil off the page either!

So, I got all the boys doing it to the sounds of some gorgeous classical music

What a lovely morning we had!

PS. Now you can see the REAL colour of my kitchen walls! :o)

(reference - look at the bottom of this post)

going potty!

Braeden and I started a pottery class this week ....

My first attempt ever

She started me with a coil pot, which you can see in the foreground.
Braeden was much more uninhibited than me - he completed a coil pot as well as a host of other animals and various creatures!

Can't wait for next Wednesday!

the best ever!

I have lost count of how many recipes I've been given with the title "The best (.......) ever"

And although some of them don't quite live up to their grandiose claims, I have one which definitely does!!

This then, is "The Best Chocolate Box Cake Ever"!!

Also known as the Beer Box Cake. (you'll soon see why - it is actually amazing)

I've had quite a few people asking me for this recipe, so I thought the blog would be the perfect forum for getting it out there, after being inspired by an amazing blogsite called http://www.pioneerwomancooks.com/ which a friend put me onto.

Now, to warn you upfront, this is a LARGE cake - perfect for birthday parties or functions. It lasts well for about 3 days however, so you could make it, share it with the neighbours and enjoy it for a few days! I've taken some photos to help with the making of it. (I only thought of the idea after the first few steps, so I can't really call these step-by-step photos now can I?)

The ingredients and their quantities are listed at the bottom of the post.

First, get yourself a beer box. Yes, those cardboard boxes that the cans of beer come in! How it doesn't catch alight in the oven still mystifies me, even after making it more than 40 times (and yes, I've counted)

Line the beer box with aluminium foil (the lightweight type), shiny side up. (who knows why - I was told to do it that way, and I'm too petrified to try it the other way and waste all these precious ingredients to bother to test the theory!)

See, I'm such a loyal South African!

Why is that pineapple in the shot? And the bottle of olives?

Ah yes, I was doing two things at the same time again - preparing the ingredients for the do-it-yourself pizza birthday party, whilst baking the cake!!
Multi-tasking is my middle name

Grease the foil lightly. In the meantime, switch the oven onto 180 degrees C.

Put 500ml water, 150ml oil, 90ml (6 Tbsp) cocoa powder and 10ml (2tsp) vanilla essence into a small pot, and bring to the boil while stirring. Take off the heat as soon as the mixture boils and put aside to cool.

Yay, we have photos now!!

Don't be tempted to taste this - it may look good, but we haven't added sugar yet remember!!

Break the 8 eggs (!) into a mixer bowl

I just love my very old Bosch mixer - I'm sure it could be classified as an antique by now! One of my closest friends passed it onto to me (I think a little reluctantly :o) ) when she emigrated and couldn't take any electrical appliances with her. I was a very willing recipient, and this old lady is very well-loved in our home.

Measure out 750ml castor sugar (I thought I'd show the measurement for those visitors who work in pints - don't say I'm not considerate! But don't ask me how it works - looks very complicated to me! What is that? 1 pint plus 26 ounces? I don't know, I'll leave it up to you)

add the sugar to the eggs (this was just said as an excuse to try out an action pouring shot :o)

Set your mixer to medium speed and whirr away while you start with the next step. (If you are beating by hand .............sorry for you!)

Oh goodie, another action shot - and this time I can use both hands to hold the camera!

In the meantime ...

Hang on, there isn't another step yet -

Well, why not use the opportunity to email a friend, have a coffee, read the front page of the paper ....

Oh, ok, ok. Use the time to clean up the egg shells, spilled castor sugar and crusted chocolate splatters on the stove!!

Your mixture will start to change colour after a few minutes ...

... but don't be tempted to switch the mixer off just yet!

Because, it needs to look like this:

We want air in this cake. And this colour will ensure you of the lightest texture - trust me.

This is the only part of the recipe where we will be mixing this vigorously, from now on, the less mixing, the better. (feeling for you hand mixers here)

Right, now we are going to add 875ml (3.5 cups) sifted cake flour and 30 ml (6tsps) baking powder. (I did say it was a large cake ....)

oops, nearly forgot the conversion photo for you non-metrics! Here we go then ...

That looks like a more straight-forward 1.5 pints to me?

This baking powder has my name on it!
(oh man, that was such a weak attempt at a joke - and only those who know us well will catch it anyway - moving on)

Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture ... very important to fold at this stage - no cheating!
remember how you twist the handle of the spoon while lifting the mixture up and over. Don't be tempted to stir - you'll regret it later when the cake is too dense.

Ouch, those shots were hard to do with one hand - I'm calling Patrick to take the next few!

Ok, now add the cooled chocolate mixture gradually to the egg and flour mixture. Keep folding - and it is vital that you don't over mix at this stage. Just blend it gently.

Now, at this stage, I got so excited about my cake, I forgot to take photos for a while!
And I was also feeling devasted at how messy the bowl was looking, so I got very distracted at this point!


But, once you've 'gently blended' the mixtures, pour the whole lot into the prepared beer box and place in the middle of the oven to bake for about 35 minutes.

So this is the photo once the baking is done.

You can see I couldn't find a skewer can't you? So, I had to use a rather large knife - and then I always doubt the first test, so I do it twice! Is it just me?



Right, so that's your cake. I will guarantee that you will not have any left over. We had people around for lunch the day after the birthday party, and we must have had at least 3 pieces each! It is such a moist, light, delicious cake - you simply have to try it!


Enjoy!



PS, Choose your own icing



I usually just do a simple chocolate butter icing, with about a half a packet of icing sugar, 2 tbls cocoa powder and enough softened butter to cream it. Sometimes I'll just sift icing sugar over the top. Other times I've melted a slab of chocolate and drizzled it over the top. (my personal favourite!)
I usually bend the sides of the box down once the cake has cooled and trim them off, so that I still have a perfect sized base for the cake to sit on and not feeling like we should be making a toast to Charles Glass while we're cutting the cake.

But this time, we were so busy with the pizzas that we just didn't bother.



My son wanted to use up some meringues I had in the cupboard for the decoration - so we did a butter chocolate icing and plonked the meringues on the top. Not the prettiest - but hey, I'm guided by the birthday boy!!
This is the only birthday cake I've made that the children actually eat!! And most come back for seconds too!
PPS
I just have to say that my kitchen walls are NOT that colour - they are a far more delicate shade of grey-green



Ingredients:
500ml water (2 cups)
150ml oil (10 tablespoons)
90ml cocoa powder (6 tablespoons)
10ml vanilla essence (2 tsps)
8 large eggs
750ml castor sugar (3 cups)
875ml cake flour (3.5 cups)
30ml baking powder (6 tsps)