Howdy all, hope you are having a good weekend.
Monday, 24 October was Pink Ribbon Day in Australia, when workplaces around the country held morning teas to raise money for breast cancer research. We held our Pink Ribbon morning tea two days later on 26 October, and there was lots of yummy food on offer. I made pink ribbon cupcakes (pictured at the top of this post) as my contribution to the morning tea, complete with pink ribbon cupcake papers and pink ribbon sprinkles from the Cake Deco shop in the Port Phillip Arcade. The icing was a little more lurid than I had envisaged, but that's what happens with a slip of the hand when using liquid food colouring.
I used The Crabapple Bakery Vanilla Daisy cupcake recipe, which is my favourite basic cupcake recipe. You can find it online here. My colleague Linda liked the cupcakes so much that she asked for the recipe - so it is not just me that thinks that this recipe is tops. The cupcake is moist yet light, and is the perfect blank canvas for whatever you fancy.
Moving right along to a totally different pink topic, it is a big horse racing weekend here in Melbourne. Today is Derby Day, when all the punters traditionally frock up in black and white. On Tuesday, it is Melbourne Cup Day (a public holiday in Melbourne), when they run the race that stops the nation. I can remember at primary school it was a big treat for the year 6 and 7 students to go to the library to watch the running of the Cup.
I have only been to the Cup once, five years ago, and it was a disappointment for me as I arranged to go with a friend, who decided not to get out of bed until around midday, so we only arrived for the Cup itself, missing most of the day. For me, one of the highlights of the races is going early to see everyone looking gorgeous before the inevitable rot caused by too much drinking and heavy betting losses sets in. Some men wear toppers and frock coats, and they all wear suits (other than the novelty dressers), and look so amazing. With the ladies, it is a mixed bag - some of the younger set wear clubbing dresses, but you have the other end of the spectrum with elegant ladies looking like an exotic perfumed flower garden gracing the track.
Accordingly, I was so excited when I was invited to go to the Cup in a marquee as a guest of a work colleague's husband when clients pulled out. Hooray! I have never been in a marquee (and am never likely to again!), and we are travelling there by water taxi, which I have also never done before. I feel a bit like a kid in a candy shop.
In keeping with the pink theme of this post, I thought I would share my dress for Cup Day:
It is dusky pink, despite looking beige in this photo, and was on sale at Jigsaw last weekend. (I actually bought the dress before I received the invitation to the Cup - very fortuitous!)
I also bought this fascinator to go with the dress:
I hope to look pretty in pink and feel like a lady, at least at the start of the day.
It is a busy weekend for me, as Tim and I are going to QI Live today (gotta love Stephen Fry's soothing voice and Alan Davies who will always be Jonathan Creek to me), then I am going to see Contagion at the movies with E and T tomorrow. I believe we are eating beforehand!
Have a great weekend!
