What's Cooking?
Seeing as I'm not exactly a cake fan, I didn't really think about making a cake forlHans's birthday last week until I came across this recipe for Gary Rhodes's Guinness chocolate cake. A cake with beer in it? Sounds manly, right? I had a piece and didn't actually mind it. It's really rich. (I chopped up a 100g bar of 70% dark chocolate and stirred it in just before pouring into the pan.)

I topped it with a yummy Irish Cream Cheese frosting:
4 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 Tbsp Irish cream
Blend cream cheese & butter together with a mixer. Gradually add powdered sugar and finally Irish cream. Lick beaters.

More Recipe Goodness
♥ Gourmet's Favorite Cookies: 1948-2008: via Kris. I don't love making cookies given that I only have one cookiesheet that fits in my abnormally narrow oven, but a few of these have almost tempted me. Speculaas, Dutch Caramel Cashews, and Lemon Thins remind me of Grandma.

♥ Greek Almond Tea Cakes I think we're going to make these for my birthday treat this week.

UrbanMAX
We're off to do UrbanMAX this year. (I heard about it from Kris last year.) It's sort of like doing The Amazing Race except just in our city. We have recruited a couple of people after our glowing tales from the last time. Hopefully we don't get too sunburned. This is a little photo of us kayaking in shark-infested waters (aka the Brisbane River) last year.

Making Coffee
Two weeks ago, I noticed that the coffee tree out back was filled with bright red cherries. After a little bit of online research, I thought it might be fun to give homemade coffee processing a try. (In hindsight, "fun" is not the word I would actually use anymore.)

You can see each stage of the process in my Flickr set. My thumbs are raw from taking off the parchment this afternoon. I hope to roast next weekend.

Links for Later? Yes, Please
♥ Mouse: Pretty photos, lovely handmade things. Will have to look through archives later!

♥ Kay Loves Vintage: Jealousy-inducing photos and inspirational ideas. And proof that Aussie IKEA is completely missing out on the good stuff.

♥ Handmade Typography Flickr Group

♥ Start to Draw Your Life & 75 Ways to Draw More

I shot two photos in RAW the other day. First time. I hate life now. It's like Paris Hilton getting to release an album. Talent optional. That is all.

The Goat Rescue Story
For those who haven't seen my story on Facebook...

One cold and rainy winter morning, the horses in the paddock next door were racing around playfully.


From the middle of the horse stampede came the cries of a little lost goat named Penelope. She could not find her mama and was very sad.


Our hero jumped the fence and carried her through the paddock back to the herd.


We like to think Penelope's mama was very grateful that we sacrificed getting to work on time in order to save her kid. The End.

Links for Later
Time to restart Firefox clean, but I've been hanging on to a dozen tabs I keep thinking I'm going to look at later.

Photos
♦ Ruby Slipper Bride: South African Wedding Photographer
♦ Once Wed: Another pretty wedding photography place

Food
♦ Scrumptious Banana Cake Recipe: I may have posted this before, but this one is SO yummy and SO easy.
♦ Recipe Girl: Recipes including how to make adorable marzipan carrots.
♦ Urbanspoon: Restaurant guide
♦ Sugar Snap Pea Soup with Parmesan Cream: from my hero Lynne Rossetto Kasper

Craft
♦ The Handmade Expo: Ipswich crafty show blog
♦ My Paper Crane: Super-fun, crafty person's blog
♦ Tubby Paws: Cute papercraft

Other
♦ Mimicking Birds: Good music. Free downloads.