T W E N T Y - O N E

Last week I turned the big old 21.

In true me style, I decided this soiree should take form in an afternoon tea full of finger sandwiches, macarons, coconut ice, and plenty of cocktails with my most beautiful closest of friends. To go along with this I decided I needed to create the right atmostphere, and I love any excuse to collect old tea cups and saucers, so attempting to recreate a tea room was a great reason to trawl through vinnies looking for the perfect floral plates and pretty tea sets. Maybe I went a little OTT with the decoration bit but I couldn't help myself...

Unsuprisingly, this also applied to the food...With the much needed help of my amazing mother, I served up bite sized baked salmon ricottas, little filo tarts with caramelised onion, feta and beetroot, pizza with basil pesto and fresh tomato, sandwiches of chicken and chilli lime mayo, roast turkey, cranberry sauce and avocado, rare roast beef with horseradish cream and roasted capsicum and of course smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers. For the sweets there were baby pikelets with jam and cream, chunks of coconut ice and rocky road fudge, individual mini lemon tarts with raspberries, sundae glasses full of old school lollies, passionfruit, vanilla, salted caramel and vanilla macarons, and tiny cupcakes with vanilla icing, pistachios and persian fairy floss.

The afternoon turned into evening as we continued to drink and stuff our faces for 3rd and 4th rounds on the food, until we finally could eat no more. But of course I wouldn't of had it any other way. It was truly the best way to celebrate my birthday and I thank all of my gorgeous friends for sharing it with me.

I'm going to share with you my absolute favourite recipe for rocky road fudge. I have made this countless times, partly because it is so easy but mostly because it is honestly the most decadently rich chunk of badness you will ever consume. It's amazeballs- make it, you won't regret it... but your bum might.

Rocky Road Fudge

500g dark fair trade chocolate

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon kahlua

200g white and pink marshmallows

100g shortbread biscuits

150g pistachios and/or macadamias

100g white chocolate

40g butter

Melt chocolate with the butter in a heatproof dish over a simmering pot of water. Add the condensed milk and the kahlua and stir to combine. Once fully melted and incorporated, take off the heat and set aside.

Roughly chop up the marshmallows, shortbread, nuts and white chocolate. Line a baking tray

with baking paper and pour just less than half of the melted chocolate into the dish. Now add the chopped up pieces on top in a messy layer and finish off by pouring over the rest of the melted chocolate on top to cover completely. Set the fudge in the fridge overnight and cut into big chunks when completely set.