Author: Anna Hogbin

To Dream a Little Dream

Hello friends,

I hope you have all had a great week. Is anyone else looooving the cooler change in the weather? FINALLY!! Let’s hope it settles in and gives me a good reason to get out some winter clothes. Walking around in the cool, crisp air really makes me feel alive. My energy is always revitalised with the absence of sweating (ugh) and the life sucking lethargy of summer. Yep, I’m a winter girl through and through. But that’s just me. I realise most of you humans prefer stinking rotten heat. (I’ve got my eyezzz on you Suzy!! )

Speaking of feeling alive, at the beginning of the year I paid a little visit to my lovely doctor to talk about the big M and she gave me some great advice. When dealing with a dramatic life change like menopause, it’s imperative to pave a pathway for yourself through it. You must incorporate self care into your life. Especially as mothers, I think it is easy for us to continue to put everyone else’s needs first and risk running ourselves into the ground, eventually having nothing healthy to offer our loved ones.

My doctor’s words were a wake up call to me. To survive menopause I would need to make some changes. I need to carve out time and be intentional about doing whatever I need to do to fill up my tank. This looks different for everyone, but for me, fueling my creativity and having an outlet for the billion ideas that continually swirl around in my overactive imagination is my number one tank filler. No matter how small the project, or how limited my free time is, I am choosing to walk forward and give myself permission to create. This decision has been quite liberating.

While I have those big dreams like writing a book, selling  faaaabulous cupcakes from my divine 1960’s Danish glove counter that is waiting ohh so patiently for the right time, for now I am roping in those starbursts (or more accurately, flinging them heavenward towards Jesus for safe keeping), and looking around to see what is in my hands now. 

Hello blog!

In this season with so many bodies still in the house, my time and attention is still pretty much taken up with caring for my family, but what I can do, is bake and photograph cupcakes each week and write letters to all my friends here in my happy place. For that, I have all I need at my fingertips. By turning up each week and practicing baking, photography, styling and storytelling, my skills are developing and I begin to flourish in my divine God given design. This is who I am created to be.  As I give those interests, ideas, passions and desires room to breathe, I am coming more fully into alignment with my unique purpose and destiny.

I heard a quote the other day, which jumped straight into my heart.

“Dreams are God’s way of showing us His plans”  

The things that we are naturally passionate about, that burn deep inside us and make our heart skip a beat are there for a reason. We need to pay attention to what it is that fuels our soul and makes us want to burst. (Unless of course you are one of those unexcitable, steady people who never burst, kinda like the lovely man I am married to. If that’s the case, then sorry, I have no idea how your brains works.)

As we stop and notice the things that make us feel fully alive, we are aligning ourselves with our own individual, personally crafted, God given design. These are clues which often hold the keys to our identity and purpose. As we embrace that uniqueness, instead of pushing it aside or even feeling ashamed of those aspects of our character, we are able to move forward with more confidence into who God created us to be.  

I mentioned last week that I was hoping to write a post about our heavenly son Noah. As you can imagine, it was a tough week remembering his birthday and I wasn’t quite up to diving into the open wound. Sometimes distraction and tender self care are the best methods to ride out the pain. However, as baking and photography fill up my creative tank, I made the cutest memorial cupcakes and did a sweet little photo shoot that I will post next week. You may have had a sneak peak of these on my social media. They were just sooo pretty! I can’t wait to show you. 

So, thanks again for joining me today. I cannot tell you how loved up I feel with all of your kind comments and virtual head nods in agreement with my last post about the dilemmas of the school run. Phew! It looks like I’m not the only mama out there dealing with shoe and sock trauma. As one dear reader commented…’motherhood sure isn’t boring’. I would like to add to that statement…life isn’t boring. It’s a tremendous gift and we all have a part to play in making it fabulous! So, find out what makes your heart soar, what makes you beautifully unique, embrace it and start walking towards it. You never know where those wings will take you.

See you next week.

Don’t forget to leave a comment, introduce yourself and say hello. I’d love to hear from you.

Lots of love,

Anna xx

Let Them Eat Cake

Hello Lovelies. How was your week? Mine was full of the usual ups and downs… a few high points, which I will tell you about in a moment, and more than a few episodes that left me shaking my head in disbelief, wondering if this is normal motherhood. Let me explain.

Have you ever had one of those mornings getting kids ready for school when out of the blue all hell breaks loose and suddenly you find yourself in a war zone all before 8:00am? I am relatively new to the whole school routine, but have heard mums talking about the before school stress and always thought ‘oh how hard could it be?!’ OK. well, now I know! This week we had such a hoo haa that I almost had a breakdown before breakfast and it took me all day to recover. After dropping the sweet treasures to school, I headed to the gym, parked out the front, stared into space for fifteen minutes, then drove home, made a pot of tea and rebelliously, ate a corned beef sandwich. 

Oh glory. I think that sandwich was the best thing I have eaten in months. Don’t you miss the days when eating a sandwich was normal. No guilt, no carb-oh-phobia (carbs! nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things, make you fat), no judgement, just soft fresh bread with a slab of meat, cheese and relish and not a scrap of salad in sight. Pure 80’s school lunch box bliss. Sigh. Ahh, they were the good old days.

I digress.

As I sat shell shocked munching on my divine comfort food, I was wondering how mothers survive doing the whole school routine for years and years. Or maybe I am the only mother whose household erupts into manic mayhem with no apparent trigger greater than being unable to find socks, or a child wearing a sibling’s shoes. 

Speaking of shoes, the morning after I lost my way eating carbs, we were getting ready for a school sports carnival, when meltdown number 65 exploded over unsuitable footwear. Being the attentive mother I am, I didn’t even realise they had a carnival on till that morning.  All of a sudden she who shall not be named decided that there was literally no way she could run in her (perfectly acceptable) sport shoes. WELL! After tears and fruitless negotiations, we finally convinced you know who that it was all going to be ok and managed to get four young females into the car.

Driving into town I started to relax, feeling a bit pleased with myself for the shoe victory and was looking forward to going to the gym (actually no, that’s an exaggeration, I never look forward to it… I was really having an internal dialogue that went something like this “just go, don’t think about it, just get out of the car and go..you can do it, then you can reward yourself with a coffee.”).

We were almost at the school, and lining up behind the millionth car in the usual morning traffic jam that now dictates the crawl into our town, when someone noticed that she who shall not be named was barefoot!! How did I miss this!? WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES!? I whisper quietly with my usual impeccable self control, before realising that you know who didn’t bring them! You’ve got to be kidding me. So, I drop the other three at school, turn the car around, say farewell to the gym again and drive back home with little miss singing sweetly in the back seat.

Seriously mamas, is this normal?! Or is there some divine plot to send all mamas crazy in the head with the slow drip, drip, drip of tiny incident after medium meltdown after colossal catastrophe, all in the same week and usually over the big issues in life, like shoes, lunch box options, missing socks and my personal favourite, trying to catch the bus on time. 

Ahhhh…ANYWAY! Ha! Best to keep it all in perspective hey!?

Despite my uptake of carbs, low take on the gym and intake of too much kiddie stress, my week wasn’t a total disaster. The best news of all is that we finally brought our vintage caravan Dorothy home from getting her final reno touches done. Oh my beating heart! (Boom! BOOM!) She is a dream! So now the fun part begins where I unpack all the vintage treasures I have set aside for her and play doll house. Keep an eye on her very own instagram account (@mydarling_dorothy) for styling updates and all the creative goss. The first plan is to get baking and set up a little photo shoot (yippee!)

And now a word about these little vintage sweeties. I was given the colour scheme by my client and the more pretty ruffles I piped the more they reminded me of Marie Antoinette and her opulent court.  Frills, ruffles and feathers adorn the cupcakes  with complementary dried flowers, macarons and pearls. What’s not to love? Oui! 

So, thanks again for calling in for our weekly catch up. I hope you have enjoyed my pretty cupcakes and at the very least, can go away feeling like a better mum than me because I know you would never have such unruliness in your household.

Next week I hope to share a heartfelt post (with more pretty cupcakes ) as we remember what would have been our dear heavenly son Noah’s 19th birthday on Monday. I look forward to seeing you here.

As always, I’d really love to hear from you, so say hello and leave a comment below.

Until next week, 

Love Anna xx

RECIPE || Lemon & Blueberry Muffins

Hello Lovelies,

How has your week been? I felt like a giddy school girl working on my post last week and couldn’t be happier with how well it has been received. So a hearty thank you to all of you beautiful people who are celebrating this wonderful new season with me.

My mind is brimming with new recipe ideas and I have been in the kitchen testing them on unsuspecting visitors.  Last weekend I made the most delicious Sticky Date cupcakes with butterscotch sauce. The good news about these sweeties is that they are completely refined sugar free and you would never know it. I thought they would make the perfect wintery treat now that the days are finally starting to cool down. So, keep an eye out for the recipe in coming weeks. 

For now, let me tell you about these delicious muffins. Our friend Pinocchio has been guarding them for some time now, waiting not so patiently for his moment of glory. These are moist vanilla muffins with a generous swirl of home made lemon curd and blueberries baked into them. Topped with toasted coconut flakes for extra crunch, they are the perfect after school snack or breakky on the run. Best eaten the day they are made, but they will keep for a couple of days at room temp.

Let me tell you a secret that will revolutionise your muffin baking.

If you have ever made muffins with frozen berries and mixed them into the whole batter, you will notice that the mix can turn pretty ugly pretty quickly, making for a very unappealing muffin. The frozen fruit bleeds into the mix making it quite grey and blah. Plus the berries are quite rebellious and usually sink to the bottom of the mix and never stay on the top where you want to show them off.  The answer here is to put half a dozen or so berries into each muffin case just before you pop them into the oven. This works especially well with frozen berries, but I also do it with fresh berries as it just looks better and you can strategically push some into the batter and leave some on the top.  Also, if you have control issues then you will find this most satisfying.

With these muffins I have also mixed the curd into each separate muffin to ensure it doesn’t get lost in the batter and to also get that sexy swirl of curd around the top if you play your cards right. 

* A  note on lemon curd. Once you have made your own curd, I promise you will never buy it again. The difference will blow your mind. Trust me on this.  Also, I am not here to reinvent the wheel, so I use Donna Hay’s awesome Lemon Curd recipe. The only alteration I make is to not strain the curd to get the zest out. I mean, who could be bothered, plus it makes the curd extra yummy.

5 from 1 vote
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Lemon and Blueberry Muffins

Delicious, not too sweet muffins infused with a swirl of lemon curd and pops of plump blueberries.

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 18 minutes
Author Anna Hogbin

Ingredients

  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup lemon curd * approx
  • 2 cups plain flour * substitute with gluten free flour if desired
  • 1 tsp bicarb soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup castor sugar
  • 1 lemon zest
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 cup toasted coconut flakes optional

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180 C

  2. Line two muffin trays with 18 cupcake liners (or spray with canola oil spray if not using paper liners)

  3. In a medium bowl, using a hand whisk, beat together egg, oil, vanilla, sour cream and milk

  4. In a separate bowl, sift flour, bicarb and baking powder

  5. Rub lemon zest into sugar until fragrant. Add to dry ingredients

  6. Carefully pour wet mix into dry mixture. Stir with spatula until only just combined.

  7. Spoon into muffin trays until each is 2/3 full

  8. Take a generous teaspoon full of lemon curd and swirl one into each muffin

  9. Place half a dozen or so blueberries into each muffin, pushing some underneath the mix and leaving others on the top.

  10. Add a sprinkle of toasted coconut flakes on top

  11. Bake in moderate oven for 18 minutes or until brown and firm to touch

  12. Rest trays on wire rack until cool. Best eaten freshly baked or on same day.

 

Now, I need to know, who has ever read Pinocchio? No, not the dumbed down picture book version and the cute Disney movie doesn’t count either.  I’m talking about the real, unedited grown up edition written by Carlo Collodi in 1883? I read it to my girls a few years ago, back when they still thought I was a cool mum and listening to me read aloud was not a waste of their precious screen time. 

Let me just say. OH BOY!! Or more accurately, OH PUPPET!  What a disrespectful, foolish,  disobedient, selfish, rebellious, insolent piece of wood! Collodi is so clever the way he is able to get you emotionally involved in the story and literally yelling at the book begging Pinocchio to pleeeease make the right choice, pleeeease don’t trust that stupid shady Fox, please just do what your father says and stop being soo darn obnoxious! UGH!

I have decided that young Pinocchio is the author of the rebellious teen. It all started with him. I’m convinced that every hormonal 15 year old has secretly smuggled this handbook into their beds at night to get some good tips on how to drive their parents up the wall. 

Seriously though, It it’s definitely worth a read, especially aloud to the kids. I highly recommend it.  So much better than the kiddie cartoon version. The book is full of adventure, mishap and the oh so frustrating, foolish immaturity of the original block head.

Undoubtedly, the most endearing part of the story lies in the character of Geppetto, Pinocchio’s creator and long suffering father. His steadfast love for his son and relentless pursuit of him, despite his continual rebellion and selfishness, speaks volumes to anyone who has ever failed or let the team down with imperfection.  For Pinocchio to be so unconditionally loved and sought after, even when his heart is made of wood, shows the unflinching, redemptive love of a true Father. 

But he is still a rat bag and makes a complete mess of everything he touches.  Soooo annoying! 

Well, thanks again for stopping by.  Let me know if you make these muffins. They are super easy and great for weekend baking with the kids. Why don’t you grab a copy of Pinocchio, make a batch of muffins, sit down with a pot of tea and go on an adventure of bad behaviour, foolish choices, their consequences and then ultimate redemption. The kids will love it. The teenagers, perhaps not so much, although even they might learn a lesson or two! 

Next week I will show you the prettiest vintage cupcakes that would make even Miss Antoinette herself swoon.

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Lots of love,

Anna xx

 

 

 

A Time for Everything

Hello Lovelies,

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to spend a few minutes with me. I am so happy you are here. It has certainly been a long time.  My last blog post was in December 2018 and it feels like an age has passed since then.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to be back.  As with all of life, the journey has been long and winding with many twists and turns.  A lot has changed in our lives and family over the past two years and I want to give you a good catch up while also sharing my vision for Mama Bear’s Kitchen in this new season.  I promise you this post won’t be long and tedious, but you might want to make a hot pot of tea and get comfy.  Sit back and enjoy looking at some of my favourite cupcakes while I share my heart with you.

As some of you may know, for almost twenty years we have been pastoring a local church and homeschooling our large brood of eight children (plus one heavenly son). You may correctly suspect that such an intense lifestyle doesn’t leave a lot of time for indulgences like blogging. Two and a half years ago I decided to put this creative outlet aside to focus on my family. While still enjoying making a few cakes, cupcakes and styling parties here and there, I ceased my weekly blog posts. In 2019 the tide turned somewhat and two major shifts took place in our lives. The church closed down and our homeschooling journey came to an end. While these were difficult decisions to make, I look back now at the hand of God in it all and see His tender care in looking after one very weary Mama bear (Can I hear an Amen!?)

While it has taken many months of adjustment and trying to figure out our new normal, I now I find myself in the joyous and privileged position of experiencing life as a full time school mum. Woo Hoo! We have four children in school, two adult children still living with us and the best news by far is that our oldest son, his wife and two grandchildren also live in a cottage on our property. The only one who has flown the coop is our eldest daughter in Sydney. I realise all this still sounds crazy busy, but at least I get those oh so glorious hours during the day where I can be alone and breathe. So here I am, after 26 years of motherhood so far, with another decade to go, for the first time knowing what it is to put my wee kiddies on the bus and come home to an (albeit crazy messy), empty house.  Forgive me while I pick myself up off the floor! Oh what bliss! 

I can hear the birds singing outside, watch the wind rustle in the trees and sit for more than thirty seconds without being interrupted. Somehow though, without even realising what has happened, I look up now and see someone I hardly recognise. I have emerged as a 51 year old menopausal mother of mostly teenage girls (!) and grown up children,  with no nappy or pram in sight. Instead of books and art supplies we are now dealing with boyfriends and attitude.  Learner drivers and hot flushes are the new normal. Vegan, Keto, no sugar and vegetarian diets battle it out over the family meal table and long gone are the days when tiny faces light up over mama bear’s not so legendary bangers and mash for dinner.

Oh my.  How the times have changed. It takes courage to face these new challenges. Courage and a whole lot of faith. Wisdom to know when to lean in, when to step back, when to loosen the grip and most poignantly, how to accept the inevitable invisibility with grace and maturity.

Through it all, I am moving forward with anticipation of wonderful things to come. New freedoms, reignited dreams, privacy (well, I’m still working on that one. Trying to have a bath last night I was literally interrupted five times) and grand creative ventures.            

The Lord has shown me that I am now entering a season of renewal. Renewal of my health, of time, energy, healing, and renewal of my heart and mind. I am now able to stop running, slow down and change pace.  Most excitedly, there will also be renewal of my dreams….and I have oh so many dreams.  

We are now the proud owners of an adorable 1960’s vintage Bondwood caravan, affectionately called Dorothy. She is currently getting refurbished and when she’s done she will be incredible. I am so in love! My heart is to combine my love of cakes, pretty vintage treasures, photography and styling and do the most fabulous photo shoots, pop up appearances and create the cutest vintage tea parties, baby showers and small celebrations with her. 

Rumbling through my brain are other long term visions and dreams, including writing a book on themed vintage dessert tables with delicious cupcake recipes and party styling inspiration. I have my sight set on collaborative photo shoots with some fabulous hippy brands I love and even one day selling my boutique cupcakes from a local creative studio. Oh glory be!

Anyway, best to keep my head out of the clouds and feet on the ground for now.

The long and the short of it is that I’m back. Back here in blog land with much to share  about life, cake and creative passions.  I’m enjoying my time in the kitchen again and experimenting with delicious cupcake flavour combinations  (Pina Colada cupcake anyone!?) I will share some beautiful cupcake and cake photos along with recipes, stories of my journey and glorious news about magazine features, collaborations, photo shoots and cute vintage parties to inspire you.  Additionally, I aim to recreate some of my favourite baker’s recipes to share the cake love.  As before, I will post weekly on Saturday mornings. Keep an eye out on Instagram (@mamabears_kitchen), my preferred social media hangout for updates. 

Finally, a few words about these pink vintage sweeties. Don’t you just love the colours? And aren’t the roses a match made in heaven?! These are femininity in cupcake form. Dulche de leche cupcakes with caramel Swiss meringue buttercream decorated with buttercream roses and dried flowers. Keep an eye out for the recipe. Incidentally, who else is loving the dried flower trend at the moment? I can’t get enough of it and I hope it lasts a good long while yet. 

This week I had fun in the kitchen perfecting and photographing my Pina Colada cupcakes which I’ll share with you soon.  Next week however, I’ve got the best ever lemon and blueberry muffin recipe which is being zealously guarded by the naughtiest puppet around. 

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. I really appreciate every single person who reads my humble posts. If you have made it this far, I’d love to hear your thoughts and any suggestions for cupcake flavours you’d like me to try, so please leave a comment below. 

Take care and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Lots of love,

Anna xx

 

An Aussie Christmas Dessert table

Well hello lovely friends, it’s so wonderful to be back. I needed to take a few weeks off blogging to give myself a little creative breathing space. I enjoyed slowing down and even managed to do a few recipe shoots, so keep an eye out in the New Year for some delicious Summery baked treats.

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Sydney through my eyes//Part 1

Hello Lovelies. How was your weekend? Thanks for your patience with this blog post. I’d hoped to get it done earlier, but needed to zip into the hospital with one of my dear daughters. Hubby is also sick in bed with the flu and I am ignoring my mountainous pile of washing to get this done. All is well with my daughter now and the children are all fed and settled… well, for the next five minutes anyway. So let’s see how far I get telling you about our city escape.

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RECIPE || Pumpkin Spice & Chai Cupcakes

Good morning sweet friends. Are you enjoying this much needed rain and cooler days in your neck of the woods? Our family ventured on a road trip to Sydney this week, where the blustery winds and heavy rains have apparently settled in for a while. Not to be daunted, we braved the Manly ferry into the city today which was quite an adventure, full of wild seas, traumatised children and spew buckets, but I will tell that story next week!

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RECIPE || Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

Hi de ho. Here it is, my salute to Summer. Well, not technically Summer yet….Ok Spring. I am finally putting my face forward to the heat, sweat and humidity that awaits. I will do my best to embrace the long hot days ahead without complaint, but I make no promises. I will even try to smile about it. To prove my point I will inspire you with pleasant thoughts of Summer fruits, dripping ice cream and happy children playing.

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RECIPE || Double Shot Mocha Expresso Cupcakes

Good morning sweet friends. Have I got a treat for you today. These cupcakes are so delicious, the first mouthful will stop you in your tracks. More of an experience really, not just a mere piece of cake. A velvety chocolate cupcake topped with a swirl of silky smooth coffee swiss meringue buttercream and expresso ganache.  Well and truly a next level cupcake.

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