Happy 4th of July

Today we celebrated, Lor willing, our last 4th of July in England.  I didn't have much planned because its not a celebrated holiday here in England, for obvious reasons.  I had planned on my making the traditional flag cake with the girls. But as I was getting everything together to make my cake and fresh whipped cream topping, I realised I was missing a BIG instrument needed to make this cake.  Can anyone guess what I probably shipped already? You guessed it, my kitchen aid mixer! I about fell out of my chair when I realised this.  Both girls were in the kitchen, ready to bake...how could I possibly pull the plug on this exciting task. So, I looked around and saw I had a whisk. Ok, no problem, I could whisk this cake and make whipped crime by hand...all I need is a mixing bowl. Oh wait, another big problem... I sold all my mixing bowls at the carboot sell (well, actually, Steph fell in love with them and couldn't let them go lol). Ahhhhh! So again, I scoured the kitchen, both girls beginning to get restless. So, I ended up mixing the cake in a giant plastic popcorn container. Oh, and since I got rid of all my rectangle lasagna trays, I had to use two square trays and then just push them together afterwards. Now, the whipped cream...all I can say is, my arm is still so so sore! I put one of the girls small princess bowls in the freezer, along with the whisk. I took the container of double crime and , shake shake shake shake shake...you get the picture.  After about 5 minutes of doing this, I poured it in the cold bowl with powdered sugar and vanilla and whisked it with my cold whisk for a very long time! Powdered sugar was EVERYWHERE! The kids though this was hilarious!  By the time it came to decorating, I was so tired that I just let the kids go crazy. The store had ran out of blueberries, so we used grapes. Olivia was in charge of that section...and would bite them in half and stick them on lol (don't worry, we didn't serve that bit to anyone). In the end it turned out.., lovely.  Our good friend Rebecca (who is canadian..,close enough) and her daughter Olwyn came over for vegi burgers, twice baked potatoes, corn on the cob, baked beans and watermelon. Oh and our lovely cake served with cookie dough ice cream. Yummy. It was a really nice Fourth of July.

So, the moral of the story...when preparing to move... Don't get too ahead of yourself and get rid of everything too soon!