They look mouth-wateringly stunning, Maddy (as usual!)

.... looking forward to your verdict Lellyj.

I think it would be hard to challenge this forum for companionship, content and support (except perhaps at the Berlei counter! - I can't remember who came up with that little gem, but I thought it was well worth repeating).  No matter how long you have been a member or how many questions you have asked, there is always something new to learn or to pass on to someone else (even when you are in a cranky mood and venting about subjects that have nothing to do with the TMX).  This is such a wonderful forum and each one of you have contributed to make it the place it is, I honestly think the "official" forum will have a hard time emulating this forum family.

Sorry Hally, when I first read this post I couldn't help but wonder why you were wanting to ice a cake tin (has she cracked up after her holiday, I asked myself?) - a moment's thought put my mind at rest.

Hi Julie and welcome to the forum.  Good to see that everything is going so well for you so quickly.  It's a great machine to use, isn't it.  Happy experimenting.

Please forgive me, but I would like to put a word in here on the subject of shopping locally vs. shopping on line as it is a subject close to my wallet (sorry, my heart).

Firstly, when I refer to our business below I am referring mainly to small retail businesses in general, similarly, the hardware example is simply being used for convenience and is not meant to reflect on any one business model in particular.

We run two small retail shops, in a very specialised field, and are feeling the pinch of more and more of our customers shopping on line.  Now, I can’t really blame them, I also shop on line at times and it can certainly be much cheaper, after all, the on-line shops don’t have the same overheads as High Street shops have and if you are shopping from an overseas site, you don’t have to pay GST in many cases either, so, on the surface, it seems a wonderful idea to shop online.  Also, the choice MAY be greater, online, we also are aware of that aspect.  I'm not knocking online shopping per se, just wanting people to realise the possible consequences.

However, there is a down side to this in that small shops, such as ours, simply cannot compete and, in five or so years, we will have no choice but to close down due to lack of support from our customer base.  You may have noticed this happening fairly recently, for example some of the larger book stores are feeling the impact of ebooks.  Similarly the advent of the big multi-national hardware stores starting to trade on the town edges over the past ten or so years enables them to keep their prices lower, thus the smaller neighbourhood hardware shops have had to back out of the market.  

An example of this could be (using the hardware shop scenario), how many times have you needed one small, specific item that you always got at the local hardware shop but, because they have closed, only the larger ‘general’ hardware supermarket is available to you and they generally only handle high turnover items – in many cases that means that that specific item you are looking for is now off the market completely or else you can only buy it in bulk.  Similarly, the knowledge base of some of their staff may not be as comprehensive as that found in staff employed in a smaller outlet.

Small businesses cannot command the same prices as the big organisations can and, if their customers are shopping elsewhere because it is cheaper, well, the outcome is obvious.  We work at a mark up of approx. 50%, so there is no room to move on pricing.  We’re stuck precisely where we are.  Some other retailers probably have higher mark ups so can make allowances for competition, but that is not always possible.  We are often asked for our “best price”- would you go to your doctor for a consultation and ask him / her for their “best price”?  Why do that to small retailers.

I could go on and on as it is a very sore subject for small traders and, even though many, like us, are developing their own online presence, we simply can’t go face to face against the ‘big guys’ and it will be a great loss to Australian retail on the whole when the small, independent retailers are forced to close.  

Hope the chocolate / fruit / nut balls work, Nicky; good luck with them.

I think you've got the right idea just now, though, sit back, relax and do something that takes you away from the glitch then tackle it again when you are fresh and not so stressed.  The cake will turn out great and we would love to see photos of the end product if you get a chance.

I don't know anything about the Dukan diet - most diets will work for some people at some stage, but if it is high protein I think that is like the Atkins Diet and my instincts tell me that that just isn't a good diet.  I struggle with weight and try to control my food intake, sometimes I am better than other times, but I don't think you can go wrong if you eat a good, nutritiously balanced diet and try not to eat too much.  I am also assured by just about EVERYONE that exercise is really good for you.  Sadly, I am not at all good at the exercise part of my daily routine.