Diamond Jubilee Cakes

Our Queen has been on the throne now for 60 years!!! This weekend we have two bank holidays to celebrate and there will be many street parties across the country. I'm not a massive royalist but I do like things like this so will definitely be getting involved.

This Thursday I was asked to go onto BBC London radio to talk about baking for the Diamond Jubilee and to give some basic baking tips. Petrified, I dragged my sister along and we managed to whip up a feast of different cakes and sweet treats that went down really well!

Jubilee Cake Box
Buttermilk scones with clotted cream, jam and strawberries
Lemon drizzle loaf
Blueberry loaf
Fruit cake loaf
Red velvet bites
Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate fudge frosting
Vanilla cupcakes
Jam tarts

We had a lot of fun with Jumoke Fashola who was presenting the show and forbade me from posting any pictures of her eating cake!

Check out our radio debut on BBC London Radio 949 talking all things cakes! Click the link and go to 2:10:15 when we get introduced.


Peace & Love


xx

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Easter Time

This Easter was interesting to say the least in a grow and mature as a human being, life lessons type of way. There are certain moments in your life when you realise you are a grown up, this weekend was one of those times.

Here are some of the insights I gained;

1. Easter egg hunts are fun (see how grown I am though!) I did my first ever egg hunt this year and enjoyed it so much that I did another one the very next day. I have been missing out all my life and I suddenly noticed all of these people walking around carrying baskets of eggs. It appears I am the only one not to have experienced the pleasures of hunting!

2. Tomorrow is never a good time to start anything, especially a healthy eating plan. When your jeans start to cut off the circulation to your legs it's time to take action today (although technically the day is finished so it will have to be tomorrow now but well what I mean is.....)

3. Spontaneous dinners with sisters are worth their weight in gold. A Sunday roast is also officially my second favourite meal.

4. Going out and having fun is good. Staying in, saving money and being productive can be better. Note that I said 'can be', let's not get carried away with any sweeping statements, has Samantha Brick taught us nothing?

5. Whilst the resurrection story gives us hope in life after death, many things die for a good reason. Especially things that are holding us back and causing us pain. It is best accept the truth, grieve and then move on to make way for new life and happy times.

So there you have it.

In amongst major life lessons, I also managed to squeeze in making these Vanilla Mini Cupcakes Easter  style. I topped them with green vanilla buttercream and a mixture of white chocolate Maltesers and mini eggs. Click here for the recipe.

I hope you had a great Easter.

Peace & Love
xx

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Pimp My Cupcake...

A while ago I saw some mini tissue pom-poms being used as cake toppers and I decided that I was going to learn how to make them because they looked soooooo cute. Turns out our good friend Martha Stewart has the simplest ever 'how-to' post on her website. Once I organised myself to get around to  trying one I was really happy with how they turned out. It's amazing how a topper can make a simple vanilla cupcake look a lot more fabulous :)

I got all artsy with it, Andy Warhol stylee :)

“If everyone isn't beautiful, then no one is.” 

― Andy Warhol

Now to pimping my life!

Peace & Love

xx

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Keeping It Real - Skull Cupcakes

This has been a week of ups and downs; Whitney Houston passing (down), two cool birthdays (up), losing all of my photos (major down), finding a forgotten stash of money (up), car making strange 'I'm going to die any minute' noises (down), tea and red velvet cake with a friend (up), I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the picture.

The photos for my planned post have disappeared, so I had to rustle something else up in their place. My plan was to blog about a lovely birthday cake I'd made, covered with strawberries and happiness,  but I was just too sad to bake any more happy cakes. I laid out all of my cheeriest sprinkles on the kitchen counter and even tried to imagine myself making sugar flowers but I couldn't. I think we need to be real with ourselves sometimes, don't ignore how you feel, work through it.

So I got out my skull candy mould & immediately felt better. I bought it just after Halloween but haven't quite found the right time to make anything with it. I then picked out some red foil cupcake cases and the juiciest red glitter I could find & the good vibes started rolling in... It's amazing what glitter can do (that and a cheeky glass of red wine!) I reckon it's pretty impossible to stay down when there is red glitter all over the place :)

I stuck with a vanilla cupcake and cream cheese frosting to keep things nice and simple. Once everything was assembled, my mood was officially lightened. My photos aren't back, but all hope isn't gone!

My lesson: Keep it real but stay positive!

What do you do to cheer yourself up?

Peace & Love

xx

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Candy Kisses For Sleeping Beauty

A kiss seals two souls for a moment in time ~ Levende Waters

Hello my friends. I find myself in a bit of a Sleeping Beauty mood at the moment, well Sleeping something at least! Do you ever get those times when no matter how much sleep you get you still feel tired? I'm thinking I'm in need of some sunshine or a handsome prince to come and wake me from my slumber! :) Seeing as that's not going to happen anytime soon it's on to plan B; cupcakes and hibernation, oh and easy recipes to make. 

The lip toppers are to give me that boost that I need - one that can only come from loving lips! I bought a lip candy mold a while back and have not had a chance to use it yet so as there's no time like the present I thought let's go! Candy moulds can be bought online or in craft or cake decoration shops. Wilton do an extensive collection so that is always a good place to start. 

Check out this cool link (here) for a vanilla cupcake recipe with a handy how-to video.

Never a lip is curved with pain

That can't be kissed into a smile again ~ Brete Hart

Enjoy

Peace & Love

xx

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Tea and Cupcakes

There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea ~ Bernard-Paul Heroux.

This is a busy week for me with some serious life shaping stuff happening. Major changes mixed in with birthdays, anniversaries and baby showers: in other words cakes, cakes and more cakes! Yes, life changing stuff must be marked with cake.

Cake and Tea. 


Generally we use cake as a mark of celebration and tea for everything and anything! For me, baking has become a solace and a place to channel my love and creative energies. The thing is, you can't be angry or bitter and bake something tasty. Food that is cooked with love just tastes different, you can't put your finger on it or explain it, it just does. I bake to stay sane and to keep my heart soft and filled with love. I drink tea because it's tasty and warm and strangely comforting.

Today, in amongst the many cakes I have this week, I decided to use some of the leftover cake mixture to try out these cute silicon tea cup cupcake moulds. I bought mine online from Amazon and they are just as cute as they look in the pictures! The two cupcake flavours are vanilla and chocolate and both are topped with a cream cheese based frosting. For the vanilla cakes, I coloured the frosting pink and the chocolate cakes have had a touch of Nutella added to the frosting. I just couldn't resist after the fun I had last time.

If you want to make Cream Cheese Frosting use this recipe below adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Book;


Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough to cover 12 cupcakes.

300g icing sugar, sifted at least TWICE

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature

125g cream cheese, cold

Beat all of the ingredients together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on slow speed until the mixture comes together and is smooth and well mixed. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny. If it does get a bit runny then leave in the fridge to firm back up again before you use it.

The actual recipe advises you to mix the butter and sugar first before adding the cream cheese but I always had lumpy or runny icing with that approach. You may have better luck than me though! 

So find yourself a cup of tea, a cake and tell me, what or where is your happy place? 


Peace & Love


xx

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For I Know The Plans I Have For You....

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
Lao Tzu

The reality of not being at work whilst I 'harmonise my life' is starting to set in. On one hand I am having an amazing time exploring my creativity, spending time with my family & friends & generally just getting my life in order. On the other hand the world does not slow down just because I have chosen to. My master financial plan is slowly coming undone and things that I thought were going to be taken care of, began looking less likely.  

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear and panic started to set in and one day I sat looking at my bank balance literally shaking thinking 'What on earth am I going to do?!' I had to check myself: God's plan is to prosper me & not to harm me, to give me a hope & a future. I had to really meditate and pray for peace and stillness until it came. My mantra is; 'It is well, all good things will come to me'. 

You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. 
Buddha

As a devotee of 'The Secret' aka The Law of Attraction, I know that my role is to fill my mind with what I want and to surrender the how - much more fun & infinitely more fruitful. One of my many wishes is to have a wildly successful blog so watch this space (and share it with everyone you know!) 

He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
Psalm 147:4 

These cupcakes are paying homage to God, the Universe and all of Creation. They symbolise how much is out there for us to taste and enjoy. They were also an excuse to eat some old school sweets! Inside each cupcake, is a marshmallow which melted into the sponge during cooking, making it taste AMAZING even though you can't actually see it!

Enjoy

Peace, Love & Surrender
xx

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