Fancy.

I am not a fancy person.

I very rarely wear dresses, and even rarer than that - heels. I don't usually wear make up (though every time I do, I say to myself "I should do this more often"), and to even consider assembling my hair into anything other than a pony tail or bun is exhausting.

The fanciest I get is a flower in my hair, a little stroke of eyeliner/lip gloss, and maybe, maybe, I will shave my legs. And when I do all of that (because it happens so rarely) I most certainly feel quite fancy!

Melbourne Cup is Australia's premier thoroughbred horse race event, known as "the race that stops a nation". It is a day that could quite possibly be the fanciest day of the year. Fascinators that can catch the eye of anyone in a room, stunning shoes in every colour, and beautiful dresses that range from delightfully dainty to unbelievably freaking gorgeous.

I've never really been involved in the day. The most Melbourne Cup experience I've had included my mum coming home from work to tell us that we had won a sweep my grandfather had entered us [grandkids] all in - a tradition my mother has carried on to her own grandchildren (my children).

The staff at my kids' school all came to work looking very fancy for the day. My first thought was "Wow, everyone looks so handsome and lovely!" which was followed very closely by "I wonder how playground duty will go in those heels."

After seeing all the delightful dresses, suits and ties, and my son's teacher dressed as a "bookie", I went back home feeling quite un-fancy with my thongs, jeans, and comparatively plain top, and did the fanciest thing I know how to do.

I baked.

Using a similar idea I'd had with these horse cupcakes, and the same cutter for the saddle that I used making this Minecraft cake, I managed to find a use for many of those little bits of leftover coloured fondant I had no idea what I was going to do with (because another tradition that has continued in my family includes never throwing anything out), and made some Melbourne Cup biscuits :)

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The stakes are low, and the bets are non-existent,

but I backed the green horse to be eaten first ;)