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.

Foodie Penpals

This is such a fab idea from The Lean Green Bean  and the uk version is Rock Salt
, Every month you get partnered up with a foodie pen pal that you send a parcel of food goodies to the value of £10 and some  lovely foodie sends you  a parcel too ! It's so exciting! This was my first month and I got a lovely parcel from the very generous Christine in Germany!
These are the items that I received

• Chocolate Granola biscuits
• Marzipan Beer chocolate
• Herbal Tea
• Chocolate spoon to go in hot milk for instant chocolate
• Orange Sauce
• Vegetable Green Rice
• Homemade white chocolate with pistachios and violets
• Lindt Chocolate
• Spice for Pumpkin Soup and a recipe to make it

Overall a fantastic parcel to receive!! The White chocolate went within minutes of me opening it! It was my turn to host coffee today for the mummies and babies so we ate the biscuits which were yummy. I am going to make the pumpkin soup this weekend ( I love Soup!) and I am very excited to try beer marzipan ! I have never heard of that before. Such a lovely treat to get in the post instead of miserable old bills!
I had great fun picking out items for my foodie penpal and I am looking forward to doing it all again next month....

Melting Snowmen

I found these whilst deleting a load of photos from my phone - Melting snowmen biscuits that I made for Christmas!

. They were place settings for everyone. I cheated a little and used chocolate chip cookies and then decoarated them ( well I have a new excuse of a then 3 month old ) with melted chocolate and Rolos for a hat. I like the finished effect.

Any excuse to make a cake..! Mum invited us over for Easter so I decided to make a passionfruit and white chocolate cake. I havem't used passionfruits before but saw a recipe in Nigellas 'How to Bake' for Passion fruit curd and as I absolutely LOVE lemon curd thought this would be yummy and then decided to make a sort of victoria sponge with white chocolate just to add more calories to the cake!! It was delicious and you could feel the calories hitting you as you ate! Fortunately I left it with my mum otherwise I would have eaten it all...

Bonfire cupcakes

Bonfire night is always a good time for me as this is when my Boyfriend and I went on our first date and now look where we are ! We celebrated with our 2 month old daughter and other family and I made these cupcakes.. do they look like Bonfires???