Aww, bless her!

Maddie must be knackered today - she's been snoozing for about an hour now despite all the movement going on around her (we are trying lighting the wee stove this evening) and it's right next to where she's curled up.

And that's another thing - look where she's sleeping! In the travelling crate! Yes, the very one I bought at enormous expense (don't tell Richard) for her and which she has been resolutely ignoring for the last two months. 

Truly Christmas is arriving!

Power of the spoken word

Wayhay! Managed to stop Maddie mid-flight there - for some unfathomable reason she suddenly scrambled out her crate and took off towards the back door. I just said her name - "Maddie?" and she screeched to a halt and looked back at me enquiringly.

Once she'd ascertained that I didn't have anything interesting to say (or eat) she turned back and shot out the petflap. But hey, that's progress!

Message for Santa

Maddie has a wee message she'd like to get out there...

(a friend of hers is helping)

cake crisis?

Honestly, I may have bitten off more than I can chew this year. Got carried away with Christmas enthusiasm in September and decided to make not only our Christmas cake, but also wee ones for my parents, brother and sister/bro-in-law. Seemed like a good idea at the time and the cakes were duly made and carefully wrapped up to keep.

Come last week and the juggling of what to do when to get everything done in time kicked in - with baking, cards, shopping and wrapping, house decorating etc. Thus all the cakes were duly marzipanned on Monday night and sat waiting for their coating of royal icing.

Yesterday was a hectic rush round the shops to try to get cake decorations (thought of everything else but not that!) and last night, the kitchen clear, I set to work.

Now I'm not a creative person so despite all the cake decorations was never going to end up with beautiful looking concoctions. But it turned out to be harder than I thought -

First cake - happened to check the date on the glycerin (which helps keep the icing soft) - it was 2 years out of date! oops. Oh well, as it was only our cake, I carried on. Then - oh oh, I need 2 egg white (medium). I only have eggs (large). So it was a bit of guess work trying to use one and a half egg whites. The result - a nicely iced cake but lord knows whether we'll be able to get into it after a few days!

Second cake - oh oh, running out of glycerin. Cue a 45 minute trip round all the local supermarkets to return with - nothing. Naebody has glycerin! Sigh. Oh well, will have to make it with royal icing sugar instead (always a bit hit or miss, I find). However, it seemed to go OK. By which I mean that so far, the icing hasn't rolled off the cake!

Third cake - noooo! Run out of royal icing sugar now! Patched it with the remains of cake 2's icing and finished up the glycerin with a half batch of icing made the traditional way. Looks ok - phew!

Fourth cake - ehhh, no. Not happening. No glycerin, no royal icing sugar = no icing. So cake 4 is currently still sitting in its marzipan, no doubt feeling a little nude beside it's festooned siblings.

The great glycerin hunt is on!

comparisons

Have you read about what was found in the woods in Edinburgh? - a 6 foot boa constrictor! eeeeeek!!! We were reminded, here at work, of the Toronto tragedy a few months ago where two wee boys sleeping above a pet shop (having a sleepover with the owner's son) were killed in the middle of the night by another such beast.

Now say what you like, dogs may eat any baking left carelessly around in the middle of the night, but at least they're not going to sneak into your house and eat you!