happy birthday to me...

well yesterday was my birthday, i turned 28... a pretty unspectacular age but a birthday is always reason to celebrate... or perhaps i can only say that because im still in my 20s hehe

T got me a where the wild things are max toy which i had been lusting after for so long and the cutest antique pot/jar/something holder which i had seen in a trader store in sandringham..... then it magically vanished from the window after i displayed my interest in it to my lovely boyfriend :P oh! and some tiny tiny cupcake cases :D

 

we went to white at the hilton for lunch, lucky for us we got to sit on the balcony with the most beautiful view of the harbour! i had linguine with pesto, roasted baby tomatoes and feta.. it was delicious and the service was friendly ... id really recommend it!

speaking of restaurants we had spent the previous 2 days in wellington, we went down to see jason alexander and to have a mini mini break! we went to logan brown  which is supposed to be fantastic but i found it completely over-rated! the service was shocking.. well the waitress was rude! and the serving sizes were tiny! i thought that the little dot in the middle of the plate days were over but apparently in wellington thats still acceptable! the tiny bits of food that we did have were actually nice but i would never go there again or recommend it...

after seeing jason alexander in wellington T convinced me to wait around the side door so we could meet him.... haha i was completely against it of course but went along with it and this was the result...

 

anyway! back to yesterday.... as promised i attempted an old fashioned sponge layer cake... it turned out pretty well looking home made and retro, i got the recipe from my new favourite book (i have one every week haha) martha stewart's baking handbook. so i baked 2 9 inch sponge cakes as per her recipe and cut them down the middle, creating 4! i also made strawberry meringue buttercream (from my brand spanking new martha stewarts cupcake book) plus normal cream and layered them on top of one another

 

then i sliced up strawberries and covered the cream with them..... then did that with the next 3 layers, stacking them 1 on top of the other

 

 

topped it off with the same plus more strawberries and some blueberries..... and just to add to the cute factor, got some of those little chocolate lady birds and popped them on :)

 

 

so yea... wasnt the most polished looking cake but it had some charm and retro chic! and best of all it tasted delicious :)