I find great service to be a very rare thing in Namibia. One of my pet peeves is that people never, ever phone back! So it was wonderful to have not just one, but three, amazing experiences in just ten days!

MerryPak
Three months ago I ordered these adorable little handbag party packs for my eldest daughter's birthday party which was last week.

When they arrived, along with my gorgeous custom carrier bags, I didn't count them. A week before the big party I got them out to see how to put them together and discovered I had only been sent three and not six. I immediately phoned up Merrypak and apologised for taking three months to tell them that they short delivered. No questions were asked, they couriered me another three handbag boxes with an order for another of their clients and I picked them up on the morning of the party!! Big thank you to Elizabeth at Merrypak in Cape Town.

Ina Paarman's
Then another outstanding example of service was from Ina Paarman's. I bought a strawberry icing kit because it was pink. The party theme was pink hearts. I made up the icing early on the morning of the party and it curdled! Horrors! So I phoned up Ina Paarman's in Cape Town, told them what had happened and said, "Help!" I needed to rescue the situation. The Home Economist phoned me back (That is already a wow. No one phones back in Windhoek!) and told me how to fix it. 

Another lady from the company phoned and said they'd like to deliver a replacement kit. The local agent then phoned and asked for my address and asked how many I needed. I was talking about packets when I said, "One, please." She was talking about boxes!! Thirty minutes later I had a box of 12 packets!!

I immediately phoned Ina Paarman's back to say I thought there was a mistake and the sweet lady said I should keep 2 packets and they would collect the rest. Five minutes later Mrs Paarman's PA phoned with a message from Mrs Paarman to say I must please keep the box and give each mom who attends the party an icing kit!!!

*** GIVEAWAY****** GIVEAWAY****** GIVEAWAY****** GIVEAWAY****** GIVEAWAY***
I still have packets left over and am offering a packet each to 3 moms. 3 easy steps to enter:

1. Like my Facebook Page. Be sure to tell me you did in an email or comment below.

2. Sign up for updates from my blog. Be sure to tell me you did in an email or comment below.

3. Tell me about a party catastrophe or funny story relating to a party you threw. Email me or leave a comment below. The three best will each get an icing kit.

Shade Centre - Windhoek
I recently bought a large vinyl backdrop for those very messy Cake Smash sessions. I can just mop it and not have a major cleanup of the floors, walls and skirting. When it arrived my husband and I just looked at each other because we had no idea how we were supposed to attach this large thing to the wall. Shade Centre to the rescue. Etienne Stipp came and sponsored me a pole and brackets with a little winding mechanism so I don't have to manually manhandle a 2.6m x 5m piece of canvas. He came at a time that suited me and was on time; both times! Thank you so much, Etienne and Shade Centre.

CONTACT Rosalind | VIEW Portfolio | LIKE Facebook | ENJOY Website

Ultimate White Chocolate Chunk Cookie 'n Choc-kit Fudge Whitie

Most of you loved my post about the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie 'n Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar and I promised to try making a breastfeeding friendly version with white chocolate. I made them last weekend but just never got around to posting about it last week.

So I started off with the idea that I would just replace all the milk and dark chocolate with white chocolate and replace the Oreo's with a white chocolate biscuit. I had bought some white chocolate wafers but my husband vetoed those in an instant. He said I had to use white chocolate Choc-kits. Now I looooooove Choc-kits. I managed to find some but much to my disappointment I couldn't find white chocolate chips for the cookie base. So I bought some good quality white chocolate and made my own. They turned out more like white chocolate chunks rather than chips.

White chocolate chunk cookie base.

My little 3 year old was my big helper and she laid out the biscuits for me. 

When it came to making the Sticky Toffee Brownies, I used a little more white chocolate than dark chocolate just to get the flavour right. I also had to make more than I did for the brownies, the mixture was thicker and didn't cover the biscuits completely. I must add that I cooked the toffee mix a little longer to add extra fudgey toffeeness.

This was the final product. It doesn't look as decadent and mouth watering without the chocolate sauce drizzling over it but I had to leave that out. I guess I could have come up with a white chocolate version but I had used up all my white chocolate in the recipe itself. It was generally accepted that these were even better than the brown version.

These have been dubbed Whities despite not being at all white!

CONTACT Rosalind | VIEW Portfolio | LIKE Facebook | ENJOY Website

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie 'n Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar

So I found this ...

on this blog ... www.kevinandamanda.com and decided I had to make it. The sad thing is that I cannot have any of it because I am still breastfeeding and chocolate and a 5 month old baby do not mix well. I did have one little sliver to taste though. Absolutely decadent.

First you make a chocolate chip cookie mix and put it into a large lined baking tin.

The difference in colours is because the cookie recipe I used didn't make quite enough to cover the bottom of the dish so I whipped up half a batch more but I had run out of chocolate chips and substituted them with grated chocolate instead.

Then you put a layer of Oreos on top of that. Preferably what they call Double Stuffed Oreos. I've never seen them so I guess we don't get them.

Then you make a brownie mix and layer that on top and bake at 180 celcius for 45 minutes. I don't trust box mixes of brownies so I used my wicked sticky toffee brownie recipe.

 In the oven and we were all waiting with great expectation...

...And voila!!!!

Once they have cooled you stack two on top of each other ...Then you put a scoop of vanilla ice-cream on top and top it all off with chocolate sauce.

Absolutely wickedly decadent.

As Amanda did, I have found people to give them away to because they must not be in my house! 

Here is the link to the original one by Amanda ... http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/new-recipes/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookie-n-oreo-fudge-brownie-bar.html

After seeing how much everyone enjoyed them yesterday afternoon when we did Sunday afternoon 'Coffee and Cake' at a friend's house I think I need to come up with a white chocolate, breastfeeding friendly version. Check back early next week to see if I managed to come with something over the weekend ... I hope I do.