Frisky Friday kittens.

I’m shooting with Sports Illustrated today – and I’m going to be arriving at the shoot in red socks.

Why red socks? Not because they go with everything… because they don’t….

but they do represent a number of things – red socks fridays is “a movement dedicated to making a difference, being passionate, inspiring others and being inspired, staying positive, remembering friends and expressing yourself!”

You can follow the red socks movement on twitter here or facebook here.

Red Socks Fridays was started by John McInroy

John likes his speedo. We forgive him because he looks delicious in it.

He is also (more importantly) a part of the Unogwaja Challenge:

Amazing right!?!?! Follow the challenge on twitter here: *click*

Facbook here: *click*

Twitter here: *click*

Or on their official page here: *click* where you can find all of the details

I’ll tell you more about them later – but in the mean time if you cycle – keep the Thursday the 24th May open – and ride the first 10km with the team I’ll be there. I hope to see you there… and if you can’t be there donate some of your money to these fabulous charities.

In the mean time have a frisky friday and hold thumbs for me for Sports Illustrated.

Thank you again to everyone who has supported me and got me into the finals in the first place.

All photographs by Robert Miller - who is a superstar photographer, master of light and in this case also space and time.

Scar – the hair salon all of the best and bad love – have decided to take it one step further this year, giving people not only the opportunity to pop into the balcony and have their head shaved by the wonderful Natalie Roos or Dan Nash, but also allowing them to donate money through supporting the auction which so many amazing people and brands have donated for.

Gary Cool is MC’ing on the day, there is rumor of wasabi peanut cupcakes from Anja, a bar run/drunk by Snoddie and vegetarian/home made beef burgers complete with home-made mayo, relish and served on a home baked brioche made by Neill Vaughn and myself.

This is how Neill and I spent our Friday night…

making the brioche

making relish

making mayo

making fig and blue cheese sauce...

mincing beef patties (hygienically)

and having fun

Find out all of the details on the event here: *click* and I hope to see you later today

My fabulous personal trainer and inspiration, Noeleen Bridle, will be popping in from 1-2pm, so anyone who would like to meet her should be there then!

A huge thank you to Jo for the fabulous additional company, and Caryn for the company, extra hands and mad photographic skills

I know some of you think Dubstep is the answer to your musical needs – and some of you think it sounds like aliens raping one another… but I came across this song this week and I really enjoyed it so behold it is today’s Thursday’s Themesong!

This song from Angus and Julia Stone has also been on my mind when I wake up this week, so you can have it too.

Photograph taken by Samantha Kaye on the 22nd September 2011, at "Tapped and Packed" in London

I came across this little info-graphic showing the awesomeness of coffee throughout time. Check it out:

Created by: OnlineMBAPrograms.org

Having already counted over 3000 cats, they stopped by my sister’s house to paw some answers from our five felines.

Mario didn't want to answer some of the more personal questions...

I could only find Mario… the other kitties were hiding or hunting or playing cat tricks on us…

so I entered their answers later online.

Then I took some photos of them playing with Lucky Pet toys – and trying out Lucky Pet’s New Supreme Cat Food – which all cats love with the exception of Minki – who refuses to eat anything other than freshly cooked chicken or “packet food” – in jelly, not sauce.

Mario looking pleased with his stash.

ping pong balls - somthing we always need because the kitties always hide/eat/pawn them.

You can keep kitty amusement trickling into your facebook stream by liking Lucky Pet here and follow the link to include your own furry friends in their cat census.

The kitties pictured here live with my sister Natasha, if I didn’t adventure so frequently Mario would have moved in with me early last year.

Lest they feel left out from the blog, I feel it only fair to mention some of the other very special cats who have touched my life.

Ms Marzipan Fairy:

Is the kitty who looks after me in the UK. She is from Cape Town, but moved to England with Emma and Andrew in recent years.

Handbag Cat

Passport Protection Cat

Mr Dunlop Pirelli Clause Esquire:

Is the kitty who I have always felt a special bond with. We dug each other the moment we laid eyes on each other and we lived together for nearly two years. Dunny kept me company whilst I figured out how to blog and started this website. He lives in Cape Town with his father, Darryn.

Hurry up and enter your own kitties in the cat census here: *click*

Lucky Pet are going to provide us with a cool infographic once they feel they have collected enough data – I’ll keep you posted.

In the mean time, give me a caption for this picture of Mario in the comments section below.

If you’re superstitious, you probably think Friday the 13th is a pretty unlucky day.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called Friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom “Friday” is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen)

The fear of zombies is called Kinemortophobia. (The fear of the undead.) or Necrophobia (the  Fear of death or dead things) or even Ambulothananatophobia (The irrational fear of the walking dead)

The fear of a beautiful woman is called: Venustraphobia

You don’t see the connection?

Watch this:

and then vote for me here: -> *click*

If you want to get brainy about the zombie metaphors saturating our screens at the moment read this article by Slavoj Zizek.

The backing track for the Zombie prowl/plants vs zombies frenzy is a remix of this song by EMP. Jo chopped and changed it for our purposes – she is beyond amazing – follow her on twitter here:  @editmonsta

A special thank you to Joanna Morton, Caryn Rippe, Darryn Ten, Ernst Heusser, Cara Morris, Kyle Giliam and Johan from Scar. Without you this video would have never been possible.

I love this song – and we all deserve a Thursday’s Theme-song.

How to make Mojito Truffles.

You will need:

110g Chocolate – spend money here – the better the chocolate the better the truffles will be. Read the ingredients at the back and look for a slab with a high percentage of cocoa solids rather than a chemical blend of sugar and vegetable oil.

5Tablespoons of butter

170g icing sugar (sift it before you set it aside)

100ml ground almonds

2 egg yolks – the lethicin found in egg yolk is a binding agent that holds the truffle together.

25ml Bacardi Rum - (you can substitute for 25ml of another liquid if you avoid alchohol)

a drop or two of peppermint essence (again you could substitute)

a pinch of vanilla seeds

candied lime peel (zest the green part of the lime, roll in egg white then castor sugar then bake with a fan/oven door open on the low heat until the lime is candied.)

Things to dust your truffles in - such as grated chocolate, cocoa powder and ground almonds. Candied flowers make for pretty decoration.

Method:

1) In a double boiler/glass bowl placed over steaming pot melt the chocolate and butter together.

2) Remove from heat and add all other ingredients. Stir until combined.

3) Spread accross a plate to maximise cold air exposure and place in the fridge for about 2 hours (minimun 30minutes.)

4) Roll the truffles into balls, coat the outside with cocoa or mint leaves or whatever inspires you.

5) Share.

Easy huh?

So easy we took the opportunity to make this video to show you how:

Director/Camera/Editor: Joanna Morton @editmonsta www.joannamorton.tv

Domestic Goddess/Hair & Makeup/Wardrobe: Samantha Laura Kaye – @slkaye

PA/Script/Art Director/Food Stylist: Caryn Rippe aka Betty Sue
Thanks to Matt for keeping quiet during filming (most of the time) and Jodi for being super hot

True to promise, here is photographic evidence of what I made. Everything is edible with the exception of the yellow straw and the eggshell.

That's brownie in there

I made the easter eggs out of chocolate ganache cake pops which I dipped in white chocolate that I added some food coloring to. I used an egg poacher to sit four little bowels of coloured melted chocolate for easy dipping and double boiling – it works well.

I made the nests out of high fiber bran sticks which I coated and clumped together with melted chocolate (thinned with a splash of cream and sweetened with icing sugar.)

The “patted flat” nest is a nest built around a chocolate buttermilk cupcake  - while the other more textural nest is just chocolate and bran.

I got the idea for baking a brownie inside an eggshell on Friday while I was doing my easter baking inspiration research.

I placed two mojito truffles inside for a little bit of naughty (I’ve got a video showing you how to make these coming soon.)

Finally I got some straw to bed the whole thing on and scattered some fondant hearts into the box.

Ta da!

I tried to make a fondant easter bunny – it looked like Frank from Donny Darko in a pink and white theme  - so he’s sitting in my pantry as a scarecrow to my cake decorating orchards.

How was your easter? What did you make?

I wanna spend Easter in Japan.

It’s Easter weekend so I thought it fitting to bake an Easter Cake and practice my fondant skills. Looking for inspiration I came accross these monstrosities and have been making notes on what to avoid in my Easter baking splendor:

I think its mum and dad might have been brother and sister...

Creepy beyond

Easter Sperms? Balloons? Creepy.

I assume this is a dog cake that they coloured in to look like a bunny. Its fairly terrifying.

What is this?

[Images courtesy of CakeWrecks]

My friend Cara also pointed me in the direction of a blog detailing some awesome cheescake filled chocolate eggs.

Passionfruit yolks...

You can learn how to make the chocolate eggs here: -> *click*

Cara also showed me where I could learn how to bake a brownie inside an eggshell

Click on the image to take you to the recipe.

I think I’m still going to make a cake cake – I want to practice fondant – and I don’t want it to be creepy.

What do you think belongs on an easter cake? A bunny? Baby Chicks? Eggs? What else? Tell me below – I’ll be playing pat-a-cake all weekend *happy face*