Hubby's Birthday Cake

Recently we celebrated hubby's birthday with a simple yet happy celebration. Over the years, the celebrations had gotten less extravagant with additions to our family. Gone are the romantic fine dining dinners for two as we now have at least four at the table.

Our birthday boy (or rather, man) requested for a steak dinner at his favourite steak restaurant, Buenos Aires on Hutt St. He ordered a steak from the list while our invited guest, sis, and I shared a grilled seafood platter for two. The little princess ordered a salmon dish while the little bub had his "yummy" home cooked food. We didn't take any pics this time as we had been to this restaurant a number of times and the lighting was too dim for a good iPhone picture anyway.

What did I get for hubby as a birthday present this year? Well, since I didn't have much time (or funds!) to do much shopping, I decided to bake him a cake, the flavour which little princess chose. It was a raspberry swirl cake made with a White Wings cake mix in a box. It was very easy and all I had to do was add in some eggs, oil and water into the cake mix, beat it with an electric mixer and bake.

To finish it off, I made some icing and little princess and I decorated the cake with some mini M&Ms.

*This was post was dated 6Feb15 in the drafts*

 Planning to come back to writing blogs...watch this space!

Bartley Tavern dinner

It's Thursday again, our eat-out day! As usual we went to the library to return and borrow some books and dvds. The kids had fun playing there too, they always do.

After our library session, we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, the Bartley Tavern at West Lakes. We love going there as they also have a self-serve salad bar which includes cold and hot options.

Today I chose the Grazing Plate which includes a prawn & scallop skewer, stuffed bell peppers, marinated lamb back-strap, grilled chorizo, salt & pepper chicken, prosciutto, marinated mushrooms, crumbed haloumi, dips, bread & toasted ciabatta. It's huge even for a 1 person portion. Everything on the plate was delicious.

Hubby chose the one of the specials of the day which was not on the menu, lamb shanks on a potato mash with a tomato and vegetables sauce. This seems to be a winter dish but nevertheless was good even on this breezy summer's evening.