27 August 2013

This summers bakes & makes

Wow, it's been what can only be described as a frantic summer here at RBC HQ & here we are at the end of August & I haven't shared a thing!  It's included redundancy (booo!), job hunting (again), birthdays, weddings, hatching plans for shaking off corporate life once & for all, head scratching as to how to extend our vintage terrace without needing a significant lotto win...

Oh & I've gone a bit Kirsty Allsop, embarking on make & do projects that I'm really quite proud of even if I say so myself!  So rather than my usual waffle I thought I'd make this post a bit of a visual summary of my creations of the summer.  Hope you enjoy the pictures & that they might even spur you on to your own Blue Peter moment.

First bake of the summer was this quadruple layer cake filled with blueberry, passion fruit & raspberry butter cream.  It was possibly the hottest day of the year at that point, so there was a fair bit of swearing when it collapsed for the first time.  (Got it to stay upright on attempt 3!)  I have since discovered that a quadruple layer cake isn't actually expected to defy gravity & I should have used sticks to pin it together.  Anyway it was delivered in one piece for my friends birthday & even though it was no oil painting, it tasted good!


Cake two of the summer was for my Mum's birthday, the much revered Hummingbird Bakery carrot cake.  This did not disappoint!  It was a lovely light texture, complemented perfectly by the cream cheese frosting.  I'm not big on sugar craft so I cheated & found these really cute chocolate carrots from Sainsburys.  No candles…mum doesn't do candles!



This was the point I went a bit make do & mend.  In its previous life this was a pine dressing table stool with a pink velour seat pad.  Some paint, fabric, sparkly buttons, a staple gun & voila a new lease of life.  I had quite a bit of fabric left so I've made a matching lampshade.  I bought a kit from NeedCraft, it was only a little fiddly & the finish was pretty professional looking (lets face it when its 8ft in the air hanging from the ceiling how could anyone tell the difference?) There's even a video tutorial on the website featuring Cath Kidston to help you along.



These little cuties were made as a farewell treat for our dear friends who have gone to live on a rock in the South Atlantic for 2 years.  Much debate was had over who got gummy bears & who got smarties!


I made the cat a castle.

Least said about that the better, I had been off work for 2 months & was having a moment.  She quite liked it!


I made my 8th nappy cake for our lovely wedding photographers who were expecting their first baby.  

(orders welcome!)



My final make of the summer was this delicious Blackberry, Lime & Vanilla jam.  There are a lot of blackberry bushes along the river paths where we live, so off I went a foraging!


Came back with almost a kilo of lovely ripe blackberries, although FYI, foraging in a sundress & flip-flops…bad idea!  I came home with purple feet & between the nettles & the brambles, a right arm that looked like I'd been self harming which is not cool!

Into a pan they went with some lime, vanilla & jam sugar, boil for a bit, jar up & leave to set.  I know, I thought it would have been way more complicated too.


Totally yummy on crumpets!


So there you have it, the summer sum up of what I've been making & baking, looking back I realise I've been quite a busy bee!  I start my new job next week, so it's back to the real world for me for now.  Till next time, Rebecca x 


27 August 2013

This summers bakes & makes

Wow, it's been what can only be described as a frantic summer here at RBC HQ & here we are at the end of August & I haven't shared a thing!  It's included redundancy (booo!), job hunting (again), birthdays, weddings, hatching plans for shaking off corporate life once & for all, head scratching as to how to extend our vintage terrace without needing a significant lotto win...

Oh & I've gone a bit Kirsty Allsop, embarking on make & do projects that I'm really quite proud of even if I say so myself!  So rather than my usual waffle I thought I'd make this post a bit of a visual summary of my creations of the summer.  Hope you enjoy the pictures & that they might even spur you on to your own Blue Peter moment.

First bake of the summer was this quadruple layer cake filled with blueberry, passion fruit & raspberry butter cream.  It was possibly the hottest day of the year at that point, so there was a fair bit of swearing when it collapsed for the first time.  (Got it to stay upright on attempt 3!)  I have since discovered that a quadruple layer cake isn't actually expected to defy gravity & I should have used sticks to pin it together.  Anyway it was delivered in one piece for my friends birthday & even though it was no oil painting, it tasted good!


Cake two of the summer was for my Mum's birthday, the much revered Hummingbird Bakery carrot cake.  This did not disappoint!  It was a lovely light texture, complemented perfectly by the cream cheese frosting.  I'm not big on sugar craft so I cheated & found these really cute chocolate carrots from Sainsburys.  No candles…mum doesn't do candles!



This was the point I went a bit make do & mend.  In its previous life this was a pine dressing table stool with a pink velour seat pad.  Some paint, fabric, sparkly buttons, a staple gun & voila a new lease of life.  I had quite a bit of fabric left so I've made a matching lampshade.  I bought a kit from NeedCraft, it was only a little fiddly & the finish was pretty professional looking (lets face it when its 8ft in the air hanging from the ceiling how could anyone tell the difference?) There's even a video tutorial on the website featuring Cath Kidston to help you along.



These little cuties were made as a farewell treat for our dear friends who have gone to live on a rock in the South Atlantic for 2 years.  Much debate was had over who got gummy bears & who got smarties!


I made the cat a castle.

Least said about that the better, I had been off work for 2 months & was having a moment.  She quite liked it!


I made my 8th nappy cake for our lovely wedding photographers who were expecting their first baby.  

(orders welcome!)



My final make of the summer was this delicious Blackberry, Lime & Vanilla jam.  There are a lot of blackberry bushes along the river paths where we live, so off I went a foraging!


Came back with almost a kilo of lovely ripe blackberries, although FYI, foraging in a sundress & flip-flops…bad idea!  I came home with purple feet & between the nettles & the brambles, a right arm that looked like I'd been self harming which is not cool!

Into a pan they went with some lime, vanilla & jam sugar, boil for a bit, jar up & leave to set.  I know, I thought it would have been way more complicated too.


Totally yummy on crumpets!


So there you have it, the summer sum up of what I've been making & baking, looking back I realise I've been quite a busy bee!  I start my new job next week, so it's back to the real world for me for now.  Till next time, Rebecca x