I love Cupcakes

I'm not so much a fan of eating them as I am making them. I love it - I don't really care if anyone eats them, they must just be displayed - well the good ones at least :) 

I have two flatmates, who have always been keen to be my guinea pigs, so at least I didn't have to try any of them. These are obviously super amateur, but I am proud of them and have posted a few below to share with you.

O by the way, sometimes cupcakes are way more fun, depends on the mood. They just take long!

I'm starting at the very beginning. This Barbie cake was for my friend, Anina's bachelorette two years ago. I don't think anybody ever ate this cake, but we enjoyed looking at it. This was a first attempt and came out better than predicted. It was however challenging as my hand was cramping for weeks after attempting this. I also used my mothers lazy susan as I don't have a rotating thing.. 

Next up was a cake for my flatmate's Island birthday party (yes... I live with grown-ups) - I thought this one was quite a success and made up of all the toys I could find around the apartment. I am still to find a cake recipe that doesn't look like it's been squashed between two pans... 

Now this one didn't come out exactly as planned. I felt VERY creative, but obviously slightly hungover and not as I envisioned it to be. Nevertheless, this was for my friend Eugene's birthday. It didn't really have a theme, I just made one up - It's meant to be Eugene in a life raft with a treasure chest... 

I had a pirate birthday (I LOVE themes!) for my 27th birthday and made my very first fondant cake. I actually loved the look of this cake - cannot for the life of me remember the taste though. I do remember the crappy taste of rum in my mouth the next morning and crying when my friend asked me to breakfast. 

Well, ok yes, it's not completely covered in fondant. I don't think I'll ever be able to do that, but will off course keep trying. Then it was Halloween and I started playing around with smaller fondant figures and cupcakes :) :) 

The one with the white thing on is meant to be a blade with blood everywhere.. This was before I discovered Tylose powder, so as soon as the fondant was out of the fridge it got soft and ended up looking like a 'vrot' flower.

Frikkie had a birthday again the following year (as you do...) and this time the theme was Mexican. Again, the cake didn't come out exactly as planned, with the chilli's looking like carrots etc. However the cool thing is that this is a 7 minute microwave cake that had smarties inside - like a piñata! That at least was a cool surprise. 

Moving along swiftly - I realise this is getting boring. Long story short, I started experimenting with Sugarveil, butter cookies, more cupcakes and a dessert:

These are moustache's, not lips.

This is sugarveil. Expensive and hard to come by, I've only played with this once. It also take WEEKS to dry :( 

Halloween again ... The little 'spokie' makes me very happy!

Cheesecakes should not be decorated... However, this one made it all the way on the plane to Johannesburg

This, I call the berry Star pie - it's basically berries with stars and was for Christmas. It looks much nicer than what it was... 

Guess what... It was Frikkie's birthday again - this time Tight and Bright (yes... he also loves themes!) I got awesome neon food colouring at my local baking store which I love working with!

Something simple for my Gran's 80th

And red velvet with fondant roses for my boss' birthday

Lastly, this weekend I made cupcakes for the Christmas in July party at Cafe Caprice. I made little snowmen, reindeer and random white cupcakes with snowflakes. It was quite a mission to find and make white icing, but it worked our really well and didn't taste too bad :) 

All the cupcakes were devoured by drunk people :) 

Iced, sealed and delivered. Good night :)

PS: #cupcakes #xmas #cafecaprice #barbie #baking #hashtag 

Weekend Adventures

As promised I will tell you about my weekend adventures.

It didn't go as planned as such (does it ever really?!), but I did make a really good soup from my new Indonesian cookbook that I feel I have to share :)

Chicken and Chive soup is really easy to make and the perfect weapon against a vicious cold.

All you need is:
- Chicken
- Chives
- Fresh Garlic
- Fresh Ginger
- Bamboo Shoots
- Water
- Chicken Stock
- Mushrooms
- White pepper

Sauté the garlic and ginger in a little bit of oil. Add the stock and water and bring to a vigorous boil. Add the chicken (really small cubes) and boil for about 5 minutes. Bring down the heat, add the mushrooms and shoots and chives and simmer for another 3 minutes. Add the pepper and voila!

My food photography obviously needs some work, but you get the just of it. It was delicious!

How do you add hashtags to a blogpost? #chicken #soup

Anyways, I also flew up to Johannesburg and took a few of our Australian guests to Marataba Safari Lodge up in the Waterberg area. The lodge is located in the Marakele Game Reserve.

As Africans, we are very fortunate to have some of the worlds most amazing animals right on our doorstep. Luckily all of the Big Five (Elephant, Rhino, Leopard, Buffalo and Lion) can still be found in the wild - although not for long.

It is just amazing showing these animals to guests from around the world. Most of these guys have never been to Africa and have never even dreamt of seeing these animals in real life. Looking at someone seeing an Elephant for the first time is pretty spectacular.

The game viewing at Marataba was incredible - we saw a month old baby elephant, a leopard with three cubs feeding in a tree, hippo, wildebeest, giraffe, lion, warthogs and thousands of antelope.

#BigFive #Elephant #Marataba

Off to find more exciting things to tell you about x

How? What? Where?

Its embarrassing how quickly life passes you by. When was the last time you saw your best friends? When was the last time you did something crazy? When was the last time you saw your extended family? 

It's been over a year since my last blog post, where did the time go? I'm obviously not very good at blogging or keeping in touch. That being said I'd like to tell you about my past year. As so many times mentioned before, I'm not really sure if anyone reads this, if not, feel free to call it a lame journal. 

Since my last post I've had quite a few adventures, many 'lows', met amazing new people and spent a lot of hours working. I'm still single. I love my job. 

I've been very fortunate to have travelled a lot. I've seen a bit of Africa in the past year, I've been back to Australia, I've ventured into Bali and booked tickets to Russia today. I will be visiting Moscow and St. Petersburg in September. 

I lost one of my best friends last year to cancer and three family members.  One of my other best friends had a really cute baby. I still miss all the boys I've loved before. On this Friday night at home, I miss all my friends that live abroad. 

Life is good, I have a hand full of friends that really go the extra mile, I am healthy, so is my family. I have a roof over my head, a set of wheels, a little bit of food in the fridge and even less money in my bank account. I don't have a five year plan, but I still dream big and still plan to live in a foreign city and see the world. 

Change isn't something I'm very good at although I try really hard. They say it's as good as a holiday, just cheaper. I'm not so sure just yet, but I know it brings great adventures. Sometimes. I like adventures. 

It's funny how all your friends end up with their other halves and have babies and here I am alone at home on a Friday. It's also funny because I've waited for this moment the whole week. I was so excited to get home, switch on the tv and eat popcorn in silence. Now that I've cleaned my room and came across a few old treasures, I am bored. I did watch a movie and ate popcorn, but it didn't keep me busy long enough.

I've given up on this day, and will now start making plans for tomorrow. I will call a family member, catch up with an old friend and try and do something crazy. And if I remember, I'll tell you about my adventures in less than a year :) 

Night x

Sydney

As I always find myself disorientated and lazy it took me two hours to find my backpackers in Sydney. First of all the toll free number they gave me for my cheap airport transfer remained unanswered so I opted for a not so cheap train ride. I took a train to Central Station and then switched trains to go to Kings Cross (R200 later mind you). The hostel wasn't that far from the station and relatively easy to find. Also true to my traveling traditions my dorm room was on the third floor. Again I had the huge suitcase (the same one I dragged up the stairs in Barcelona). The dorm room was small, fucking hot, but relatively clean. By the time of check in I only had one room mate who wasn't there. It was a four roomed dorm for girls. This girl, obviously not from South Africa, had all her belongings lying all over the room obviously not even thinking that someone might steal her shit. Anyways I went in search for dinner shortly after check-in and found myself down at Wooloomooloo wharf and had to climb a shitload if stairs again to get to Victoria street which was where my bed was located.


I ended up at a small pizza joint called Doughboy just around the corner from Sydney backpackers. This backpackers is slightly different from all the other places I've stayed before. This one didn't have a bar or a tiny restaurant. It was all self service. Its cool for one night (just make sure you have your own towel, they don't provide that - however they do provide semi decent bedding) but I wouldn't recommend it. It was cheap though. The cheapest I could find though - should've been the first red light. Don't be fooled they have a really cool website. There are many other backpackers in Victoria road which looked awesome!


The following day I woke up to have my free breakfast - dry toast with strawberry jam and then packed up, dragged my suitcase down to reception and checked out. I took a taxi to the Blu hotel where we were booked in for work for the next few days. It really was walking distance, but with a million stairs between point A and B.


The hotel was beautiful and really centrally located. Check out the link : http://www.tajhotels.com/Luxury/City-Hotels/Blue-Sydney/Overview.html

NZ continued

Tori, one of Frankie's best friend celebrated her birthday while I was there. I was lucky enough to be invited to the birthday barbeque. To my surprise, two of Tori's close friends are South African. I found myself at a braai in Wellington with lamb chops, boerewors and biltong. WHAT?! It was great but surreal at the same time to be able to speak Afrikaans in New Zealand. Who would have thought? 

The braai was great fun. Somewhere in the middle of night, Frankie and I braved the cold and walked all the way to the shop to buy chocolate and cooldrinks. On the way back we hitch-hiked and we met a guy (in the parking lot) who looked extremely happy - smiling from ear to ear. Frankie asked whether he would take us back to the BBQ and he said yes almost immediately. Turned out that he just had the best sex with a random dude he just met. Being a little freaked out at the back of the car, it was incredible to see how happy this guy was and that his night was made. A little weird all in all, but we got back to the BBQ in one piece and everyone was really happy about the midnight snack :)

Sunday was our last day full day together. The weather was so miserable that we spent the whole day in doors watching movies and eating :) It was a great way to spend the day and it was so cool to just hang with Frankie and Dave like the old days. Who know's when I'll see them again.

Monday morning I had to say goodbye to Frankie and Dave. It was a sad morning, but also a very quick goodbye (which I prefer). It's always a see-you-later and never a goodbye.

I would never be able to thank them enough for opening their home and their fridge to me for an entire week. I'm incredibly blessed to have such great friends. I just hope that one day I will be able to repay them. Frankie and Dave, you know my door is always open. Hopefully we can get you guys to South Africa soon. 

Lots of love,
Netta xx

In a land down under

I live for traveling, but man do I hate flying. It's long, it's boring, the food sucks and did I mention its long and boring?

My trip to Sydney (1 Feb 2014) was especially long. It started a Saturday morning at seven. Cape town - Johannesburg - Bangkok - Sydney (21 hours of flying without lay overs). Cape Town to Johannesburg was uneventful. As I boarded the Thai Airways flight to Bangkok I thought to myself: Ugh man eleven hours of sitting squashed up against some stranger ... Fun! To my surprise (and for the first time in my life) the plane was pretty much completely empty. I couldn't believe my luck! I had three seats to myself. What?! I had dinner (delish) and watched 'The Butler' (hectic!!) and slept the rest of the way. They woke us up for breakfast and half way through my movie we were on the ground. Nice, I can like to be traveling like so :)

Bangkok airport was a little confusing - I have to add I was also still half asleep. I sat outside my gate waiting to board without a drop of water or coffee. There was nothing to buy (plus I discovered that I forgot my Baht at home). As boarding time came closer I realised that the gate is still not open but that there are people on the other side. All the time I was waiting at the wrong side. Off course I was stuck at the side with nothing to do, nothing to buy and only about 3 chairs. All the open shops were just around the corner. fml


The flight from Bangkok to Sydney was pretty crappy. It was full, long and boring. Nine hours of doing nothing. Yay!

I did fall asleep once or twice. Also managed to finish watching Hugo (such a cool movie). Further more I watched Turbo and Tintin - still it felt like the clock was standing still.

Andy, Maggie and Michael were at the airport in Sydney to meet me and took me to their house. Andy and Maggie met my parents on a cruise in 2004 and have been friends ever since. Michael have visited us in South Africa and  now I've visited them as well. It was so cool to see where they live and to hang out with them. Enroute home they took me the scenic route - we crossed the big Sydney bridge and I could vaguely make out the opera house. It was pretty amazing and very surreal.

We had a couple of beers at home while catching up. I slept like a baby, literally woke up every hour but felt pretty refreshed the following morning.

Arriving at the Sydney airport the next morning, I was told that my ticket to New Zealand didn't include luggage, so I had to pay $80 for my suit case. Not a nice way to wake up. Nevertheless I had to do it cause I was going away for one week and really had nowhere else to leave my stuff. The flight to Wellington was uneventful and by the time I got off on the other end I was proper sick of flying. Didn't want to see the inside of a plane anytime soon.  Dave picked me up from the airport and drove me their house. I met Frankie and Dave back in Korea and saw this as the perfect opportunity to come and visit! Dave and I went home, made cheese sandwiches and had a chilled afternoon. Was so nice to see their house and their pets all the way from Korea. It was even more surreal being in New Zealand than in Sydney.

Our first night was spent out in the front yard with some friends of Frankie and Dave, eating pizza and playing cards.

Petone, where Frankie and Dave lives is a pretty little town. It has an American feel to it, super suburbia. On my first morning I went exploring down Jackson street, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed down to the beach. Thereafter I took the train to Wellington and walked all along the quay. Wellington is beautiful, just a pity it was a bit windy. The weather is a lot like Cape Town. I walked, I sat, I shopped and had Burger King :)

Our first official site seeing was that of Zealandia. It is a beautiful bird sanctuary that forms part of the green belt that runs around the city. Its over looks the city centre but feels like you are miles away.

The Friday was probably the highlight of my trip. We woke up to a drug bust in our street and watched the whole thing unfold. It was pretty exciting to see them catch the bad guys. It was a gorgeous morning so we headed off to town and rented some stand up paddle boards on the wharf and paddled up and down the coast of wellington city. The views were breathtaking, just wished I had a water proof camera to take it all in. We even managed to do downward facing dogs on our boards without falling off. We then headed to a little hill overlooking the airport for a picnic and went home for a well deserved nap.

It was a good weekend to be in Wellington.  Waitangi day as well as the Sevens. The Sevens is almost like Halloween in Wellington. Everybody dresses up and takes to the streets to get hammered.  We had cheerleading outfits but they didn't fit so we just headed out looking funny. We partied on the wharf and then went to a house party in cuba street where we got stuck in a lift. The house party was such a mood killer, there was only 6 people and we knew no one. It was on the way out that we got stuck in the elevator. Luckily it was only for a few minutes but it was really scary - it was so tiny and we were six people squashed up against each other. When we finally made it out we went to Courtenay place to check out a few bars.

So tuned for what happened next ... 

Some Barcelona pictures :) Next time I won't be so lazy and I'll add them to the text. Enjoy x