Birthdays come but once a year

Yesterday I watched as this years birthday cake was being made. The cake itself is a coconut cake with raspberry jam sandwiched between and lemon icing on top. Recipe for the cake is here. 

It doesn't look like much but it will be delicious. More detail will follow in a later post but for now let me leave you with this. 

I promise I'm still here!!

So the last few months has lead to me being pretty absent from my baking blog. I've completed the last few Daring Cooks/Bakers challenges but just haven't gotten around to blogging them yet.

The biggest news is that I went out and bought myself a new shiny kitchen aid stand mixer last week. She's the 90th anniversary candy apple red edition and so called Toffee as here in Australia we have Toffee apples, not candy apples.

I have so far made 2 cakes, 2 frostings and a chocolate mousse in her. Next week will mean another cake gets whipped up, providing I can find my 6 inch cake tin, otherwise I'll have to use the 3 inch tins and they will take forever! The reason I finally splurged is that it was my birthday on Monday and every year I normally treat myself to some kind of baking/cooking course. However, I didn't get my arse into gear early enough and missed out on what I wanted so I spent the money on a mixer instead. She's perfect and takes the hard work out of beating butter and sugar together. My electric hand mixer will still be used. What else will I take with me when I go to other peoples houses.