Tribute to Mum

I took these photos last year to pay tribute to and honour my mum. I hadn't ventured into Blogland yet at that time, so I'll show a few of them here this year seeing that Mother's Day is only a few days away.
Roses, lace, dresses, hats, pearls, fragrant soaps, ......... these are some of women's favourite things.My mum is like a friend who understands, who prays for us, who taught me Godly values and many practical things in life. Her tenacity and hard working qualities are an example to me.

Mum was the one who taught me "Ice cream is not for breakfast", she taught me how to type, sew, smock(not smoke) and do cross-stitch embroidery. Mum was always the fastest typist in the world when I was little, she used to type all dad's business letters and it was such a familiar sound and scene when mum would just tap tap tapping typing away on the typewriter some time during the day. Mum is a great orchid gardener, she used to grow these amazing and exotic looking orchids. I also remember doing some cushion embroidery projects with mum and she would be the one to finish off projects for me which I'd started but never finished.
Mum believes in prayers, she's a prayer warrior and she prays without ceasing for all of us. Once I had pre-term painless labour which was rather worrying as it was intense and continued for quite some time, then as sudden as it came, it stopped and everything was fine again. I found out later that mum was woken up out of her sleep that night and felt the intense need to pray for me, so she did, she prayed and prayed until she felt that she could go back to bed again. We compared notes and I asked her the time and date, it was exactly the same time when I had the preterm labour attack that she was praying for me. She's encouraged me to believe God and contend in prayers and we've seen God work miracles in ours and many others' lives.I learnt a lot of things just by watching mum do it. I learnt how to cook by standing next to mum while she was cooking. I learnt how to clean by watching mum clean. Her philosophy still resounds clearly in my ears, "If you clean your kitchen every time after a meal, you won't have to do a big clean up". She's also a great believer of cleaning while you cook, so you don't end up with a big mess. I have to say mum was and is right. I do that too today. People often ask me if I cook around here, as they don't see dirt on my stovetop.The best part of all is I've got a friend in mum. She's one of my best friends. My mum comforts me when I don't feel great. She's always encouraging and she lifts my spirit up with words spoken in faith and love. I'm now striving to be that kind of a mum to my kids. I'd love my kids to call me their best friends when they have grown up.Also I baked and decorated this gateau(which is cake in French) the other day. It's for all of you mums. It looks like a lady's hat when served on this cake stand. I think it looks very feminine, it's oh-so-berry-rosy too! I want to take this opportunity to wish all of you sweet lovely mums a truly blessed and happy Mother's Day. May your lives shine and may God smile on you! Have a sweet sweet day on Sunday.

Edit Thanks to all of you sweet ladies who left your lovely comments here. Some of you have requested the recipe to the above gateau which I'm more than happy to share, here it is:

First, you bake this "Floating on Air" Sponge, you can get store-bought unfilled round sponge, but this recipe is so easy and homemade sponge definitely tastes better. It doesn't even ask you to seperate an egg and it's fail-proof. It's also very good for all your other desserts which call for a sponge, or some which don't necesarily need one. For example, we have this sponge with stewed pears (peeled, cored and sliced) and hot custard for a simple after dinner winter dessert.

Ingredients for Sponge:

4 eggs
3/4 cup Caster Sugar
1 cup self-raising flour
1 tablespoon cornflour
4 tablespoons boiling water
2 teaspoons butter

(1) Beat eggs with an electric beater in a medium-sized bowl until frothy.

(2) Gradually beat in sugar.

(3) Beat until sugar has dissolved and mixture is very thick and creamy-- about 10 minutes

(4) Sift flour and cornflour together. Gradually fold into creamed mixture. Do this lightly, making sure it's not added all at once.

(5) Combine water and butter. When butter melts, blend lightly into mixture.

(6) Pour mixture into 2 greased, floured and baking-paper-lined 20cm round cake tins. Bake in a moderate oven (180C) for 10 to 12 minutes or until cakes begin to shrink from the sides of the tin and is springy to touch.

Ingredients for cream:

250g punnet strawberries, hulled and diced
1/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (or any other berries)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
300ml tub thickened cream
2 x 250g tubs mascarpone cheese
3 x Flake chocolate bars, crumbled (I got a 100g box of readily crumbled Flake from the cake mix and home baking goods section, cheaper than 3 Flake bars)

(1) Whip the cream in a large bowl with an electric beater until soft peaks form. Add the mascarpone, vanilla and sugar, then beat on low speed till thickened slightly. (This part only takes seconds)

(2) Add the diced strawberries to cream mixture.

(3) Sandwich about 1/3 of cream and strawberry mixture between the two sponges. Spread evenly. Top and cover sides of sponges with more mixture.

(4) Sprinkle top of the gateau with Flake and icing sugar(if desired).

(5) Garnish with raspberries or any other berries of your choice.

You can of course garnish with frosted rose petals if you like. Simply dip your washed and cleaned rose petals into some lightly beaten egg white, then into caster sugar and you'll have Frosted Rose Petals. Have lots of rosy fun, ladies!