Summer Days

I love my Goddaughters – they are like a tonic for the worst of days and their innocent giggles remind you of how fun the world can be. When their tiny little hands slip into mine as I meet them at the train station (What noise does a train make? Choo choo!!) and they chatter away to me, one in a really adult way to tell me about ballet and her tummy, and the other in the sing song baby of a two year old talking about the cute little chicks (ratty old pigeons), my worries and stresses slip away.

Last weekend was a girls weekend, and we had the most fun on a sunny day in London as I think I could ever have had.

We met and sat for a picnic; cocktail sausages and cool drinks in the sun while the little one chased the pigeons away. They kindly taught me to roly poly and hand stand (although in one uncoordinated case, how to nearly roll into a brick wall) and we played in the park and ate ice cream until we got to the carousel. Their little faces on the brightly coloured horses was the sweetest thing, AND THEN WE FOUND A FOUNTAIN.

It’s hard to put into words how much they enjoyed running in and out of the water and drying off in the sun, so I’ll share some pics instead.

Have a lovely weekend!

To Your Posts… Let The Bake Off Begin!

My sister and I decided, in normal penniless fashion, to spend the Bank Holiday weekend together doing sister activities. Last night we had bruschetta for dinner (messy, don’t choose for restaurant fodder!) and watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and Don’t Mess With The Zohan. The latter was a bit disappointing but the first was hilarious.

So this morning, armed with a weekend at the gym, we decided to have a bake-off, after initially planning to visit my Granddad and then for plans to change. Neither of us bake very often, preferring to cook savoury food, but in total exercise avoidance it seemed like the best idea.

We baked three types: carrot cakes, vanilla and lemon, and mixed up the icing while we waited for them to cook. And they were a success! If you know me at all you will know I cant do puddings, and I am so bad at baking a cake that my hopes were shattered when it came to making GCSE choices, and I was asked kindly to not choose home economics after putting too much baking powder in some cakes and taking out all the muffins in the oven.

(cupcakes with vanilla icing and raspberries)

We impressed ourselves. The kitchen became a production line of icing and piping, of hearts and flowers and icing sugar inhalation. My little sister managed to get carrot cake mix all up the wall and on the white cupboards that my mum keeps so pristine, with her saying “Damn, I knew I shouldn’t have pressed the turbo button on the whisk”.

Yep, I am impressed with what we created. We coloured icing and added sprinkles etc, until my sister, ignoring what I said, decided to try colouring some herself. It resulted in her being covered in red food colouring and looking like the prime suspect in a murder investigation.

(my sister is so creative!)

But she persevered, and created cute little cupcakes, while I went for speed and simplicity. It was so much fun! the grass in the one above is made of icing mixed with desiccated (or defecated as my sister calls it) coconut and lots of food colouring.

The piece de resistance in my opinion has to be the cookie monsters. You can see the one at the back left was my first attempt as his eyes are a bit squiffy (or ‘the one that did drugs’ as my sister calls it) but I gradually improved, although my fingers are now bright blue and stained from food colouring.

(Cookie monster cupcakes. Made with mini Maryland cookies, white chocolate buttons and desiccated coconut. I wanted to make red Elmo ones too but as Danielle pointed out, no one likes coconut except me, and I cant eat them anyway).

(Ginger cupcakes. Vanilla icing mixed with powdered ginger, with crystallised ginger chunks.)

(my creations!!)

Shame my cupcakes are all dressed up with nowhere to go. I’m going to take some round for Lou tonight, and I hope Lilly likes the Cookie Monsters!!!

Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend. I have started a Facebook page for this blog in addition to Twitter (apparently social media is where all the cool kids are!) so if you subscribe or follow anywhere please like it. I hate that its called a fan page but ill post updates there that are too long for Twitter!!
‘Belle xx