A Bit Of A Catch-Up!

Well hello! How nice to see you again.

Yes, it's been a while since my last blog post. Sorry. It's been a bit of a busy week and I've actually been able to do almost no baking whatsoever! Something I intend to make up for in the coming weeks...

So what on Earth have I been doing!? Well, I turned 29 on Sunday (eek!) and I really was thoroughly spoiled. My lovely Gran gave me some great stuff to help with the business, including a nice big cake spatula thingy (and yes, that is it's technical name, so there). It's a large, flat circle of metal with a handle attached, which makes transferring cake and cheesecake from one surface to another a far easier task. Excellent stuff! My husband made me an incredible cake - more on that in a minute - and my twin sister, Nikki, gave me a Buttercup Bakery apron, which she made for me from scratch by herself! She even handstitched the website address!

Pretty nifty, huh!?

Now, back to that cake! It's a rare occasion that someone bakes something for me, since I tend to do so much baking myself. So when my husband said he wanted to bake me a birthday cake, I was quite excited! Well, it turned out beautifully. He made a death by chocolate sponge cake, then filled it with chocolate, caramel AND vanilla buttercreams! Ooooh, it's lovely! Although it's more likely to be death by buttercream than by chocolate!

The day before my birthday, we went out to the New Forest for a picnic with the ponies, then for ice cream, which was all a real treat. On my birthday we had a family picnic, which was great. And then yesterday, we went for a meal with my Nikki and her husband, Jamie, to Carluccio's in Dorchester. Honestly, one of the best meals I've eaten out....veggie antipasti for a starter, and for pudding a chocolate fondant with pistachio ice cream. SO good!

Rich and I at Carluccio's, Dorchester

Jamie and Nikki at Carluccio's, Dorchester, shortly before that poster behind them tried to kill Jamie!

Oh, and I also was given a LOT of tequila! Two great big bottles of tequila blanco (also known as silver tequila) and an enormous bottle of XO Patron, a coffee flavoured tequila.

It was a great birthday weekend, from which I'm still recovering a bit. But I am looking forward to getting back to my baking again this week. Look out for some great new things in upcoming posts!