Shirley's party advice part 3 - in which Shirley may make a guest appearance

[stealthsquiggle]

We appear to have filled another thread

To have a stash of props i mean not a striking resemblence to a dragon

Hahah! When I get five minutes I'm going to read the thread.

I've been dieting [sadface] since Xmas on and off, and had some dental surgery which is ongoing, and have been exercising and giving up smoking and cutting back drastically on the booze....

therefore I have been DISTINCTLY unparty like.

Of course I don't mind that you've carried on - I'm chuffed!

at comparing Stealth to a large dragon!

It's good to see you Shirley, we've missed you.

Many of my colleagues would agree with you on the similarity to dragon (I appear to be having that kind of week)

DBro and his GF are visiting on Saturday so I have an excuse to do a birthday lunch even if DH doesn't want one :)

It's got to be trifle for dessert as Dh and Dbro (and I) all love it - It'll be with jelly I'm afraid - but what shall I make for main course?

I'm sort of fancying pulled pork with rolls and coleslaw and salad but there'll only be 4 adults and 2 kids so that might be a bit much maybe?

Do the pulled pork and freeze surplus? I love trifle with jelly!
When i was pregnant i craved them and my foodie friend went on a rant about how trifle had to be with fresh fruit etc etc. i was saying i like the cheapest ones best fruit cocktail and jelly. Chav tastic!

Mmmmm trifle. If I could get away with it, I'd just have the custard and topping to be honest

I'm making 2 this weekend. Saturdays will be Strawberry jelly with sponge and fresh strawberries in, topped with custard and cheap nasty dream topping and crumbled flake.

Sundays will be much more foodie with cherry madiera cake soaked in Kirsch with fresh cherries, kirsch soaked cherries and cherry jam, topped with custard and proper whipped cream decorated with more fresh cherries.

I'm betting Saturdays will be nicer. I made something very similar at Christmas and DNiece devoured it. Both her parents are very foodie and I'm not sure she'd ever had one like that before

I've been and bought Pork but I couldn't get as big a piece as I would have liked and I couldn't get a joint with the bone in. Will it be OK or should I go on an emergency shop tomorrow?

I've got salad, coleslaw, soft rolls and posh crisps to serve it all with. It's only lunch so that will be enough right?

That'll be plenty, Blathers. Who doesn't like pulled pork rolls (with loads of crackling and apple sauce of course)? And trifle - I love the jelly & birds custard and the foodie versions - not sure I could choose between the two, TBH.

Are you going to stick candles in the trifle for the grinch DH?

I got thoroughly carried away in a stress-relieving baking session last night - today's team meeting got 3 types of cake + decorated cupcakes for 2 birthdays (fortunately I work with lots of greedy appreciative people)

Bedtime soon. DS finally home tomorrow.

I'd forgotten about apple sauce! Luckily, I have some in the fridge. I got some gerkins too. I hate them but DH likes them and they seemed to be part of every recipe I saw.

And yes, I was considering sticking candles in the trifle for the Grinch who stole birthdays

I'm going to be having a very foodie day tomorrow. DS has been invited to play at a friend from pre-school's house. Whenever he comes here, his parents send over some sort of delicious polish cake/pastries so I'm feeling the need to reciprocate. My plan is to make Lemon drizzle cake as most people tend to like that and it's reasonably 'British'. I also need to do the jelly layer for Saturdays trifle and get the marinade made for the Pork as well as Dinner. I've found since I've been doing weightwatchers that I cook from recipes far more often so most nights end up being a proper cooking night at the moment. Tonight we had steak and fries with chimichurri sauce. It was nice but I'm glad DH had some too as it was very garlic-y!

See i was gonna say the only foodie type trifle i like is cherry.mmmmmm

I think ive switched back to my two tier bootee cake again rather than the shades of pink. Unless you can find me sandwich tins that are bigger than 8"?

I've got to make the castle cake a week before dd's service so im thinking if i make fruit cake and one sponge to stack then its only one cale i have to make in dd's week. Not 4/5 shaded layers.

Type in swiss dots cake on pinterest. Thats what im aiming for.

Can you buy ready made royal icing to pipe? I can never ever make it right.

I feel I need to jump in here and say that the words " pulled pork " and " leftover " tend not to appear in the same sentence !

They would do if I followed the recipe I had tourist! It's supposed to feed 20 and I'll have 4 adults and 2 small children! That a LOT of pork for anyone :)

I'm sure I've seen ready made royal icing but I'm not sure where #helpful

Could you not part fill bigger cake tins to make your layers if you can't find sandwich tins?

We'll see you around 12 on Monday then ready to go to MILs and eat the cherry trifle? I'll have plenty of leftover puller pork you can eat too

If you buy the royal icing sugar (the purple packets) then the secret, IME, is to use a stand mixer and beat it for a long time. Thinking about it, I think you basically need to beat the egg white in it until stiff IYSWIM.

Agree. I put mine in the KitchenAid and beat it for at least 5 minutes.

I have a packet in the cupboard. Right tomorrow i'll practise piping dots.

What size tins would you use for a two tiered cake? I tell ya i cant make any decisions i think its because so many people will be looking at it. If i do bottom tier fruit and top sponge will i still need dowels or will the fruit cake be dense enough to support it?

Ive got 40 adults 11 kids.

When I did 3 tiers for PIL Golden Wedding (which I had nightmares about, so I do feel your pain!) I went for 12", 9" and 6", so I think for 2 tiers I would fo with 12" and 9".

Oh - and I wouldn't personally bother dowelling the fruit cake, I don't think.

I did a 12" cake for 60 people recently (NIGHTMARE) so I would agree with stealth and go for a 12" and a 9", doubt you'd need dowling.

I had to mix the mixture in a (new) Washing up bowl so be prepared! heh!

I am officially getting a divorce!

I told 'D'H that I was making him slow cooked pulled pork for his birthday lunch and how meltingly tender it would be after 16-24 hours in the oven.

His response - "That's going to cost a fortune in electricity to cook"

Feck him, it's only his birthday. I've got some sausages to go with the meat and been out and bought a selection of the most wonderful looking rolls from M&S this morning - the cheese knot ones were still hot out of the oven! I'm impressed that so far, I've only had to eat one

I've even invited his parents

12" and 9" sound about right for the tiers DW. I doubt you'd need to dowel the fruit cake too. Assuming it's going on the bottom that is?

bleeding typical, Blathers.

One word of warning - we discovered that our smartass oven times out and decides that you have left it on by accident after about 8 hours - it turned itself off in the middle of cooking 24 hour pork .

pirate bag is done (for party tomorrow)

Mine's not smart - it's from IKEA.

Although it is the one they used in the advert Their's wasn't covered in bloody fingerprints though!

Bag looks really good. I wish I could sew like that. The Octonauts outfits are still in the same state my Mum left them in. The DC have been taking it in turns to get me up early while the other one has a lie in making me simultaneously knackered and late for school DD's so tired, she's having to have a catch up nap right now! I'm making lemon drizzle cake and trifle to cheer myself up while trying hard to resist the bread rolls that are smelling soooo nice on the table

I feel your pain blathers dd2 keeps waking about 4-5, then dd1 is waking between 5.30-6.00. Today its been lazy day, no time to practice piping dots. Im actually scared to cook the bloody fruitcake now you gits. Washing up bowl?!!! But ive got tons of ingrediants left over from cooking xmas cake and i need the cupboard space so i'm going for it. In fact dh is away next weekend i'll do it then. And feed it bottles and bottles of booze.

I asked the venue to do chilled desserts like cheesecake/gateau instead of a fruit platter. They were extremely hesitant which i dont understand and came back to say how about a chocolate fountain?!!!!

Yes because with 11 toddlers near a christening gown what i really want is a chocolate fountain.

Blathers i love cooking esp from new recipes. In jealous of you being able to bake and cook so leisurely. I seem to have a limpet on my boobs all day. Im not enjoying feeding at all really. It feels like a chore because the whole time im sat there im looking at all the jobs etc i could be doing!

I remember those days! DD refused any sort of teat so bottles were out and I BF her until she was a year old when she swapped straight onto cows milk from a tippee cup.

At least this way you're not having to wash bottles between feeds and faff about with boiling and cooling water and powder and all that mess. No sideboards full of bottles when you're BF and no need to be quite so organised when you go out either - I never forgot to take my boobs

I hardly ever get the change to bake like that as DD was my attention all of the time so it was lovely that she napped - for 3.5 hours in the end!! - so I could get on. The cake went down perfectly too as apparently when the Dad was a child, things like lemons were very hard to get in Poland and were a big treat so he's loved them ever since :)