Birthday Cake for my lovely Boyfriend!

It was my lovely boyfriends birthday this week and how could I not make a cake??? I said that I would make a carrot cake as I haven't done one of these in a while - I normally make the Humming Bird one but that is huge and there are only the two of us and we would eat it and then regret it! So I looked through one of my other ga-zillion cookery books and found an easy carrot cake that is baked in a loaf tin. Its from Rachel Allen Bake! I really like her books , they are always easy to follow and most of the time simple. So whilst little Molly was having a morning sleep I made this...

 It was more delicious than it looks I promise.. I have asked Stephen to make me a cake for my birthday in a few weeks .. could be interesting....

WI Bake off!!!!

In my attempt to make new friends since moving to a new town I have joined the WI! I thought it would be full of women of a certain age drinking tea and eating cake well the tea and cake is true but the age range has changed. They are called the Lighter WI and the women are in their 30's,40's and 50's so I slipped easily into one of these brackets!
Anyway this month they had a Bake off! I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a cake! I meant to look for a new recipe from one of the hundreds of cookery books that I have but I forgot that looking after a 7 month old is time consuming so I made an easy one that I have done before. A white chocolate and raspberry cake recipe from the winner of the TV show the Bake Off John Whaite Bakes .
It wasn't as pretty looking as I wanted it to be but I wasn't going to make another one....

It doesn't look that gorgeous does it?  ! I blame the photo myself! I was in a rush to get out the house and grabbed the camera and took these 2 photos and they were in the tin!

Unfortunately I didn't win, but did have comments to say that the taste was delicious. It was a really good evening as there were some fantastic bakes and we got to try them all !! What could be better? Next time will give myself a bit more time... ha ha who am I kidding , will leave it till the last minute again!

World Book Night 2013

Slighty off the topic of  food ! World Book Night is a fantastic idea that I have had the fortune to be involved in for the past 2 years being a World Book Night giver . The book that I received was Little Face by Sophie Hannah . I hadn't read this one so I was excited to read it and share with other people. I had great fun giving out the 20 copies that I was sent - I took most of them to the baby groups that I go to and gave a few random ones out to the ladies in the local post office and some more went to a friends dinner party. Will definately apply again next year it is such a lovely feeling giving out books for free and everyone I gave them to was pleased to get them.