October 08 - New Year, New Thread.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

10th Sept (Due 1st Oct) - loulou33 - Boy - Joe Louis David - 6lbs 12oz
16th Sept (Due 8th Oct) - Ksal - Girl - Emma Rae - 6lbs
21st Sept (Due 5th Oct) - myjobismum - Girl - Naomi Caitlin - 5lbs 10oz
2nd Oct (Due 12th Oct) - star6 - Boy - Quinlan - 5lbs 15oz
4th Oct (Due 30th Sept) - Aubergenie - Boy - Stanley - 7lbs 12oz
8th Oct (Due 6th Oct) - ronshar - Boy - William Dexter - 7lbs 11oz
9th Oct (Due 17th) - 50ft - Girl - Martha - 7lbs 10oz - Elective c-sec
10th Oct (Due 1st Oct) - CantSleepWontSleep - Boy - Duncan Elliot - 8lbs 4oz
12th Oct (Due 4th Oct) - pistachio - Boy - Thomas Fraser - 10lbs 2oz
16th Oct (Due 11th Oct) - heather1980 - Boy - Alexander James - 9lbs 5oz
17th Oct (Due 10th Oct) - pepperrabbit - Girl - Jessica Rose - 7lbs 15.5oz
24th Oct (Due 29th Oct) - Ekka - Boy - Matthew - 7lbs 15oz
26th Oct (Due 20th Oct) - jenwa - Girl - Phoebe Jasmine - 9lbs 2.5oz
28th Oct (Due 23rd Oct) - RachieW - Boy - Jack - 7lbs 4oz
31st Oct (Due 20th Oct) - KnickersOnMaHead - Boy - Samuel Paul - 9lbs 11oz
5th Nov (Due 29th Oct) - Honeymoonmummy - Girl - Poppy Grace - 6lbs 15oz
5th Nov (Due 30th Oct) - MamaG - Boy - Harry James - 10lbs 9oz

I've only just registered so not sure exactly how it works out. Has the CM registered with the scheme as well? She'll need to be registered before you can do anything. Make sure your dh registers too. It's frustrating, as dp is self employed so can't join the scheme, otherwise we'd be able to double our savings.

BTW - Busy Bees have changed their name now: Here

x-post Ksal

absolutely definitely not illegal! make sure you get what you are entitled to

I am officially a domestic disasater.
Cake in the oven.
As a cake
peanut butter choc cupcakes but I made it as a cake not cupcakes and decided I'd pass on the peanuts in the cake I'll use pb in the icing. Didn't have butternut squash so I used sweet potatoes, didn't have the right kind of sugar. Used bread flour not rice flour. No salt because we never ever ever use salt in anything.
We'll see what happens...
oh, and it said finely grated.. well, for some reason I took this to mean peeling so I was finely peeling with a peeler - difficult to do with cooked sweet potato (not even sure if I was meant to cook it b/c it called for squash or pumpkin anyway!).
ugh. It can only get better I guess.

I respect this book tremendously! I just couldn't find anything I needed. Do you think, based on the description, that it will be edible??

Sorry 50ft I htink I went into a bit too much detail about how I try to eat less at dinners out... I just reread that from earlier .
I learned once from a nutritionist that you should never finish all of what's on your plate unless it's the fist sized portion.

Oh dear Star, I hope it turns out OK! I think the nuts are quite an important feature as they are partly a kind of flour substitute that give body to the cake. I reckon sweet potatoes are a reasonable substitute for butternut squash. You don't need to cook the vegetables unless it states in the recipe. Let us know how it turns out.

well, it definitely won't look like the book because in there, they are cupcakes!

ohmyGOD! It just gets worse! I am now looking at icing recipe and I only have crunchy peanut butter. It calls for smooth. Surely an extra textured icing won't hurt anyone? And wtf is golden icing sugar? I only saw regular icing sugar in our cupboard... damn it.

I think it'll be edible Star, but probably wont taste very nice. I hope you prove me wrong though.

Normal icing sugar is fine. You can get golden icing sugar in posh places like Waitrose.

pistachio you are a totally normal size! You're beautiful in your pics on fb I am giggling uncontrollably at your "", though. That was so funny! hahaha

Pistachio.

Fortunately, I have enormous hands...

goodness, I'm needing more advice and hand holding making this silly cake than I did when I was in labour! We'll need a new thread soon b/c of me

I wanted to say as well - I'm not complaining about hte amount the cm wants up front. She's so good that I wish I could give her loads more up front and pay her loads more weekly. I really want to give it to her, I just physically can't. She said she'll speak to the other cms again and find out what they do but she's sure we can work something out. She's single and no kids and needs to pay her mortgage so I totally understand her wanting to save her own a

I doubt very much that she'll want to lose a potential client if she's just starting out Star. I hope you manage to sort something out. If she's been nannying, then she'll probably be used to working with quite wealthy people, rather than us mortals who use CMs.

That's what I was thinking too, aubergenie. But that she spoke to other cms in the area and they do this as well made me feel a bit badly that I can't do it for her. The area is generally quite wealthy. There is of course a housing estate but because I'm american also she might assume I have more money as most americans in this area live in enormous houses and go to my school and make loads and loads of money (unlike dh and I... and other teachers!)

The sweet potatoes haven't become a part of the cake. Big orange chunks evident. But it tastes ok around the chunks....

Oh Star! Sweet potato is usually grated for the cakes and wheat flour is much denser than the rice flour so makes a heavier cake. I made the cupcakes with wheat flour the first time and they were nice, but a bit dry. The second time I made them I used rice flour and they were so much better. They were moist and gooey. Yum! The ingredients are a real pain to find but well worth making the effort for. Word of warning, if you're doing anything with zucchini don't leave it too long as it will ferment and make the cakes taste absolutely vile!

You've been talking loads tonight I can't keep up!

It's mostly me talking, 50ft

Thanks for hte tip. I'm adding ingredients to tesco order right now.

Stop talking about bloomin' food and cakes all of you!!!!!

Just got back and have tears running down my face reading about star's cake making!

I think she does mention about cake sizes in the blurb at the start of the book, and says that it is fairly important. Certainly cooking times will be greatly affected by it.

ok rice flour and more veg is on it's way in the shopping order today.

Can I just clarify that the veg is grated like with a cheese grater? How do you "finely" grate it rather than just normally grate it?