Baking bonanza day!

This week is a week of big occasions. On Wednesday it is my sister's birthday and Friday is my last day at the newspaper.

I am finally moving over to the world of magazines! Same company but after two years at newspapers I am moving to their magazine and I cannot wait. I am sorry to leave the team at the paper but really looking forward to the new challenge and the next step of my career.

Today I was home alone with not much on so I decided to bake! 

I wanted to make cupcakes for the people at work so did it today. I made chocolate cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery book and then made a simple vanilla icing. I just hope the guys at work like them.

As I was baking my sister asked if I would make her a banana loaf. I didn't have any chocolate chips so decided to risk it and make the loaf without the chocolate. I was a bit worried as the mixture didn't look like a lot but in the oven it expanded quite a bit.

My sister tried it and loved it! So all good.

Below are the cakes and then in a bit I am making chilli from scratch! Get me....turning into a domestic goddess....slowly.

Regaining my cupcake crown with lemons

It has been a while but after some experimenting I have made my way back to cupcakes, mainly because it is boyfriend's mum's birthday and she loved the lemon cakes last time so I dusted off the Hummingbird Bakery book and set about grating some lemon zest.

When the cakes were done and cooled a took out the middle of some and filled the centre with lemon curd and on others I did a layer of lemon curd so not sure how lemony they will be.

I also made the lemon icing with a suggestion from my mum I used proper butter in the icing and it definitely worked and made them a lot stiffer.

All that is left now is to see what my boyfriend's mum thinks about them...the true test.







More Cupcake Lady-in-Waiting than Queen

To celebrate my lovely mum's birthday she picked what cupcakes she wanted and me and the boyfriend set about making them.

We made marshmellow ones, vanilla cakes with the middle out with melted marshmellow in. That part was my boyfriends job and it was hilarious seeing him with marshmellow all over his fingers, as well as a teaspoon which was stuck to the mellow. He worked out how to do it in the end though, and they were delicious.

I do love making cupcakes and I am kind of good at it, but only made a few batches but they have been pretty good. So my quest is still ongoing. I'm back to work next week but me and my sister have a bake date so I will let you know how we get on.

Here are some photos of my marshmellow cupcakes and hazelnut and chocolate cupcakes....

Now I'm 25

So... 25, the big two five, quarter of a century! WHOA!

I'm not going to lie, little bit freaked out by turning 25. When you are younger you think by the time I'm 25 I'll have a house, be married with kids. Now I'm here I'm still at home and I have just figured out my career path and maybe on my way to the house, marriage and kids.

I still feel quite young at 25 to be a mother, I have friends who have babies, houses and husbands, and although I do feel ready at the same time I don't mind that I don't have it. I'm not going to lie sometimes I would like my own place and my own space.

My age.... I don't know you think of all these goals but then when you get there you can't understand why you haven't got there yet, but then when you plan your future you just assume everything will go well, I have been with my boyfriend for five years and although there were points we could have moved in together we have both had dead end jobs, been made redundant from career jobs and embarked on new education courses or training so the opportunity to do so, or more the money has never been there.

I think you can plan as much as you want but at the end of the day you can't plan everything.
So I suppose at the end of the day I should embrace being 25 as you  know age is only a number.... now to enjoy my kids tea party birthday dinner... what?