Caleb’s baptism morning tea

This weekend, Jac and I joined my family and friends at my nephew Caleb’s baptism. It was a double baptism – my brother’s best mate T’s daughter Grace, born around the same time as Caleb, was baptised too. My brother and T have been friends since they met in primary school when they were both in Grade Two, the year my family arrived in Australia. It’s pretty wonderful that they are still friends today. I feel a little sad admitting that I don’t have any friends from that far back in my life.

After the service, we had a potluck morning tea in the church hall. The hot water urn was switched on for coffee and tea, and everyone jumped in to help remove the GLAD wrap from dishes – morning tea was served!

Here’s some of the food we ate.

An eternal family favourite, butterfly cakes, some with strawberry jam, some with lemon curd.

My cousin Carol made this ham and egg slice, each piece topped with half a sweet roasted cherry tomato.

This sponge cake was cut into hefty blocks but was beautifully soft and fluffy, generously iced and sprinkled with hundreds and thousands.

There were different sandwiches, including these ham, tomato and cheese sandwiches and ham, cheese and lettuce sandwiches.

Jac’s and my contribution to morning tea was our marinated chicken wings. Jac chopped the wings into two and I marinated them overnight in light soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, honey, lemon juice, black pepper and sesame oil. In the morning, an hour or so before we cooked them in the oven, I added freshly squeezed orange juice. We cooked the wings at 200C for around 20 minutes then turned them, dropping the temperature to 180C for around 30 minutes. We were catering for 70 people or so – we cooked 4kg of chicken wings. We had three trays on the go and had to keep rotating them in the oven so they cooked evenly. They turned out well and were a hit at morning tea.

These scrolls had ham, cheese and roasted capsicum in them.

These meatballs were pretty good. I ate several!

These cupcakes were gorgeously moist chocolate mud cake with jaffa (chocolate and orange) icing.

As usual, my nieces Ruby and Zoe had a great time at morning tea. Their Nanna got them plates of food and cups of water, and like me, they ate sweet and savoury items all together. A bite of chicken wing, a nibble of cupcake, a mouthful of jam tart, then back to chicken wing again!

The black boxes you can see on the table are watches my dad bought for the girls on a recent holiday in Malaysia. Zoe’s watch has a bear on it and Ruby’s has a pink horse. Ruby can already tell “o’clock” time and kept giving me time updates using her new watch. :)

Caleb had some mashed veggies followed by milk for his morning tea.

“When can we eat Caleb’s cake?” Ruby asked. She was referring to this cake, made by her mum. I was hanging out to try the special cake too.

The girls waited eagerly for the cake to be cut and ran up to the table for a closer look. Zoe wanted to get a better view, so poor Milly the tiger was used as a footstool! By the way, both girls’ outfits were chosen that morning by Ruby. As you can see, stripes are very “in”. Both girls wore their wellington boots but Zoe removed her pink wellies the first chance she got.

On top of the cake, lemon butter icing. In between the sponge layers, lemon curd and lemon mascarpone.

Ruby used her finger to eat the icing, marscapone and lemon curd, leaving most of the cake behind.

It was a delicious cake! I love cakes with butter cream icing and I love lemon-flavoured desserts, so this cake was perfect for me!

Meanwhile, Caleb had fallen asleep in his Nanna’s arms.

By this time, the girls had eaten their fill and were full of energy (and sugar). They ran outside to the covered play area next to the hall. My sister C and I kept an eye on them.

The girls took turns on the rocking horse. “The horse’s name is Sophie,” Ruby told me as she rode. She told me the pink horse on her new watch is named Sophie as well. :)

Zoe had a more vigorous riding technique than Ruby – she preferred all her rides to be at galloping speed.

Clearly, this is what I should be doing after every meal – working it all off at the playground!

Caleb woke up again when it was just about time to go home. That afternoon, he slept blissfully for another three-and-a-half hours. He did have a pretty big day out, after all. Can’t wait till he’s running around with his big sisters.

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