Royal Wedding Fun!

I've been waiting to do this post for ages, (1) because it's the first time I've written about something I've actually made myself, (2) because I've been planning these little things for about a month and a half, and (3) because...well... it's the royal wedding - only the most exciting day of the year - well my year anyway! (Oh and (4) coz it just so happened to be my birthday as well! so Yay for me!)

Fresh out of the oven

On the 29th April 2011, Royal Wedding day, we had a Tea Party, with flags and finger sandwiches - very refined and very English, I know - and my contribution was a cupcake celebration, so on Wednesday morning I started with baking the cakes, ready for decoration on Friday.
Now, you probably think it was a little premature to bake the cakes three days in advance, and that they might dry out, but oddly enough I always find that if cakes are left to stand for a few days, then they become a lot denser and nicer to eat!

For the occasion, I bought some special little Union Jack cases and flags from The Works, for 99p, so that my cakes had a 'British' feel!
I must admit that I was a little worried about using coloured cake cases, because last time I did the dye somehow managed to leak into the cake and ruin the entire batch, which wasn't good at all! However this time, I threw caution to the wind and used them again - I'm glad I did, because they added a really great feel to the cakes, that no other cases would have given.

Crowns

My other decorations came from a few places... I got the crowns from John Lewis, for about £3 for five, and the Will and Kate toppers came from a company called Simply Topps on Amazon, who sold me a pack of 24 for the brilliant price of around £2 including P&P! (Not bad eh?)

These decorations were brillaint and, as you can see, hid a multitude of sins on my unpiped icing beneath!

Totes Rah! (as Heat Magazine would say - God I'm so classy with my reading materials aren't I?)

The Wedding itself was beautiful (don't you think?)and the tea party a complete success - So I think that all in all it was one of those days which can be classed as pretty damn perfect!

Congratulations Will & Kate!!!

Happy Baking
X

Easter Nests

Corn Flake Cakes

I promised a Corn Flake Cake, so here's a Corn Flake Cake... Unfortunately, I didn't make it. It was made by the lovely people at Costa Coffee about a month ago :)

Being the dedicated baker I am, I had intend to make some on Sunday - I bought the mini eggs, cornflakes and everything (even some cute chicks to sit next to the eggs)
But alas, in my eagerness to make the cakes look nice I overlooked a crucial ingredient - CHOCOLATE!

A Million different kinds of Chocolate

'But it's Easter,' I hear you say, 'surely you must be over run with Chocolate?'
That's true, but not the right kind of chocolate... Mini Eggs? Yes; Cream eggs? Yes; Caramel eggs? Yes; Celebrations? Yes; Soft Centred Chocolate eggs? Yes; Plain block of Chocolate perfect for melting? No.
FAIL.
Of course the shops didn't open properly until yesterday, by which time Easter was pretty much over so unfortunately I don't have any Easter cakes to show you and I have a massive bag of mini eggs with no nests to sit in... I'm sure I'll find something to do with them though!

Look at the cuteness! aww

Happy Baking! :)

X

What Happened When I Went Away

Last week I went on a little Holiday to the beautiful Lake District, and boy did I indulge while I was there (It's okay though because I did a mass of walking and rambling across fields to make up for it!)
Okay so a couple of highlights:

Apple Pie and Cream in Windermere: This pie was cheap and cheerful and incredibly delicious, and as I've said before - I love little jugs of cream on the side, so it was an instant winner for me! The tastes were perfectly balanced and the slight crunchyness of apple was perfectly complimented by the soft pastry.


Sticky Toffee Pudding at Heidi's in Grassmere: This was actually Cartmel sticky toffee pudding. A complete must if you ever see it in a shop. As you can see, I was a little too eager to get stuck in, and ate half of it before I'd had chance to take a photo. I always go to Heidi's when I'm in the area, because it has such a great atmosphere but this dessert just makes the whole experience perfect (and they serve ice cream with it!)

So that's all I took photo's of, but I must add a comment about some fabulous Chocolate cake I had in Hawkshead, it was perfection on a plate. For shame, I can't remember the name of the place I bought it from, but it was a cute little black and white building (which I'm thinking was maybe Elizabethan) which has been converted into tea rooms. It only has three tables inside so you have to get in there quickly at lunch times, but it's lovely.

There were other things too but these were the highlights, which have convinced me that on to the list must go; Apple Pie, Sticky Toffee Pudding, and Chocolate Cake!

Happy Baking!

X

Inspired: Carrot Cake

Thought I'd just share with you a picture of the AMAZING carrot cake, I had yesterday at The Swan with Two Nicks in Cheshire - it was absolutely delicious and even came with it's own minature jug of pouring cream! Yummy (I also love the little carrot that came on the top and even bought some of my own over the weekend!)
Seriously, go there if you're ever in the area - The food is brilliant!
I'm now thinking that I might just add carrot cake to the list of To Do's, and try a different recipe to last time!

Hopefully I'll get round to posting the completed Baking Challenge list in the next couple of weeks, but in the mean time I have a few idea's up my sleeve which I'm going to try out, as a way of preparation and also as a little bit of indulgence over the Easter break!
(Probably time to root out the Cornflakes!)

Happy Baking!

X