let them eat cake ....ice-cream cake

March was insanely busy with a big work project, trips interstate and other things going on, so I’m only just getting around to loading some posts and photos from the past few weeks.

You may recall that I posted about my birthday and plans to make an ice-cream cake back here. Well, I’ve finally downloaded the photos so have the results to share!

My husband and I ended up making two separate choc-honeycomb ice-cream cakes, one for morning tea with my family and one for afternoon tea with my besties.



cake 1 - morning tea

cake 2 - afternoon tea.
I didn't realise until afterwards that we had forgotten to add the Maltesers. Oops! Oh well.. more for me!

Both cakes had three different layers - one with just plain ice-cream, one with pieces of chocolate covered honeycomb and one with pieces of chocolate cookies. Each cake was then topped with frozen raspberries, chocolate covered honeycomb pieces and Maltesers. 

It wasn't bad for a first attempt and they definitely tasted good... actually even better than they looked.

I was almost afraid that they would be too sweet, but the raspberries added the perfect balance to any overpowering sweetness.

Serving cake #1 at morning tea

 

serving cake #2 at afternoon tea

My husband found the recipe here on taste.com.au – so most of the credit goes to him.



My amazing hubby serving cake #2



This is one recipe I'll definitely be using again!

With baby bump (26 weeks)
- relaxing between my birthday morning and afternoon tea.

Michelle xx

from city to country

I spent most of last week in Melbourne for work and was fortunate to stay in the lovely Langham hotel in Southbank.

While the interior style of my room was a bit too traditional for my taste, there were so many little details about the hotel and the service which made it such a nice place to stay. Hello turndown service, slippers and bath robe!

Langham pool deck - unfortunately I was too busy to get to this.

The breakfast was ah-mazing. Easily the best I've ever come across. There was just so so much variety. And not just the usual suspects you'd expect like cereals, bacon and eggs, fruit salad etc.

Stand outs for me were the giant piece of fresh honeycomb hanging on a wooden rack, omelettes made to order, freshly cooked pancakes with all the trimmings (chocolate ganache, chocolate flakes, blueberry compote, smarties, fresh cream, maple syrup) and smoothies. Then there were glass stands (like you'd expect to see in an art gallery) filled with a bowl containing one type of fruit. I went crazy for the passion fruit one.

I'd definitely love to stay there again.

 Images via the Langham



Breakfast at the Langham - a nice start to a tough working day



It turned out to be an extremely busy week away from home, as my husband and I then spent Saturday and Sunday in South Australia’s Clare Valley, attending an event on Saturday night.

We stayed in a little B&B which was an old stone-walled stable converted to a one bedroom cottage. It was situated on a working farm with a vineyard, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to spend on the property to fully appreciate the surrounds.

On Sunday we went for a drive through historic Mintaro and stopped in the town of Auburn for coffee. Then I was ready to come home for a much needed nap.

We'll have to hit the Clare Valley wineries next time!

coffee shop exterior - Cygnets at Auburn



The cute interior of the coffee shop we popped into. Such a gorgeous French poster.

Coffe stop - in the town of Auburn