Wednesdays are becoming my favourite day of the week. As I mentioned before we have been invading our friends house to watch Mad Men every Wednesday evening since the season began. There’s something nice about a mid week gathering that allows you to pause and relax with friends. Last week I made no contribution to the evening and merely consumed everything I was offered. So this week I thought I would make something special. I didn’t have any thoughts on what this would be until I was in the supermarket and picked up the June issue of Olive Magazine. A recipe for strawberry and pistachio cake caught my eye immediately, mostly due to the gorgeous colour combination. The cake was super simple to make with few steps and clear instructions. The only change I made was to make it in a round tin. I also went a bit overboard arranging strawberries on top. It was somewhat therapeutic. I hardly use pistachio when baking but loved the texture it added to the cake and it was great with the fresh strawberries and frosting.
If you don’t watch Mad Men you definitely should. I can’t recommend it enough. I loved it from the first episode and quickly stormed through the box sets. It has everything I want in a tv show; great scripts, complex characters, intense relationships and an amazing wardrobe. Not to mention, a very attractive leading man. Previously I’ve watched it mostly on my own, glued to the laptop. So when I heard that Season 6 was starting and that my friends, who also watch it, were going to have ‘Mad Men Nights’ I was beyond happy. This week we did a cheese fondue inspired by a scene from last weeks show. Mad Men transitions through the decades and we are roughly in the late 60s so I wanted to bring a retro American dessert. I chose the pineapple upside-down cake but made it party sized. I used this recipe and made them in muffin tins instead. I love mini cakes and this one was really simple to make. 
Yesterday I did a course at the Peggy Porschen Academy in London. I’m a big fan of Peggy Porschen for her amazing designs and how perfectly finished all of her cakes are. I chose to do the ‘Stripy Rose Cakes’ day course as it covered learning how to ice and cover individual cakes, make roses and some piping techniques. It was such a brilliant day and I really did learn so much. It was so nice to be surrounded by people that were equally enthusiastic about cake! The Academy was lovely with a great workspace and atmosphere. My teacher Elyse was great, she was very clear and made every step easy to follow. The part I found the hardest was making the roses, something that I have been wanting to be shown how to do for a while. It was great to learn properly and to be given lots of tips to help make them extra pretty. I think with some practice I will really get the hang of it. In the afternoon we were given a cup of tea and a piece of cake to taste. It was lemon and so delicious. I can’t recommend the Academy enough, I’m really pleased with how my cakes turned out and even happier I now have some new skills.
I like to think that the people I love already know how much I love them. But in my opinion you can never go too wrong with giving people cake to show them just how much.This is a really simple easy cake which combines two Valentines classics, strawberry and chocolate. It’s a marble cake with part chocolate and part pink vanilla sponge, topped with fresh strawberry frosting. To decorate I sprinkled some edible rose petals. It has a lighter feel than your normal Valentine sweet treat and I will definitely be sitting down to a cup of tea and slice of this with loved ones on Thursday.
This week my sister came home with the Bake it in a Cake book for me. It was such a lovely surprise and after one flick through the book, I knew I wanted to make this recipe for my Dad’s birthday cake. My Dad loves cherry pies (I made him one here) so I knew he would love to find one inside his cake. I scaled the recipe up to birthday size and used a cherry pie enough for two people so it would fit in the cake tin. If I had more time I would have made my own, but this one worked well and stayed intact inside the cake. I kind of expected the pie to sink but when he cut it it was perfectly suspended inside. I really didn’t know what to expect when making this cake and watched the oven the whole time it was in there, half waiting for it to explode. The only problems I had were that it slightly sank at the top and the cake was a tiny bit less baked around the pie. However, it tasted delicious and the frosting was amazing. It was vanilla, but flavoured using the pod instead of essence which gave it a lovely taste, almost like custard, and cute black freckles. Wanting to keep the outside simple and not give away the inside I chose to follow this tutorial and create scalloped sides which was simple to do and gave it a neat finish. Dad loved his birthday cake and I loved seeing his face when he saw the hidden pie. Happy Birthday to the best Dad x
I never thought I would like going to Australia as much as I did. Mostly because in my mind it was SO far. And it is. Like, really far. I also really didn’t know what else Australia had to offer. I’ve seen many pictures of the cute animals, heard about the amazing weather and seen hundreds of Facebook friends’ travelling photos but I couldn’t imagine for myself what it would be like. Now I’m home I can say it really was worth the journey. Yes they have adorable animals and incredible weather (and yes, I was happy to be warm in January) but there was more. There were super friendly people, great art, beautiful scenery and most importantly delicious food. Read the rest of this entry »
The run up to Christmas has been hectic, trying to see everyone, do everything and of course bake everything I wanted to. So today it was so nice to relax, sleep in late (accidentally), not rush anything and enjoy the day with my family. I thought I’d share a couple of highlights from my day including the Christmas cake I made decorated with a personalised cake topper, the incredible wrapping from my sister, Christmas cupcakes and nibbles on our new Alice Mara ‘Hanging Santa’ Plate. I hope everyone had a special day whatever you did. I’m off on some Tasty Travels to Australia for a few weeks but you can keep up with my adventures via Twitter and Instagram. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy cake – filled New Year! 
Ok here it is. Part 2 of my eating-fest in New York… Read the rest of this entry »
This weekend my sister, cousin and I went to Vienna. We had so much fun exploring the city and spent a lot of time admiring and tasting Vienna’s sweet treats. This included a cupcake shop, christmas markets, an iconic cake cafe and sipping on hot punches… read more
I’ve been looking forward to the Jubilee weekend for a while now, and it was just as good as I expected it to be. Our house was filled with family and overflowing with food. Alongside other contributions such as the amazing quiches made by my Grandmother, I made a ‘Jubilee Blueberry’ cake and cupcakes. As always my mum made the day extra special by adding touches such as the incredible crown stand, red white and blue flowers, balloons and personalised party bags.
