It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas - with a Hotel Chocolat giveaway!

Hello all, it's 1st December today, so I can officially start to think about Christmas! Not that I've had time to think about much else over the last month, not wanting to do things by half I've moved both house & office. But now everything is pretty much sorted it's time to focus on the festivities.

I was very excited to have the chance to be part of Hotel Chocolat Christmas campaign. I'm already a big fan of their chocolate, in particular tiddly pots & cherry deluxe....mmm! So when I was asked if I would like to sample one of the products from their 2011 Christmas range, I didn't need to be asked twice.
I chose a selection of Winter Dessert chocolates which included Apple Strudel, Chocolate Souffle, Christmas Mess & Caramel Pecan Pie. They are definitely chocolates to be savoured & utterly delicious. I preferred the souffle & pecan pie choc's, but that's just because I like darker chocolate. My mum, who I shared them with (it was more than my life was worth not to share!) loved them all, but she has a real sweet tooth. They would certainly make a lovely after dinner treat to enjoy with coffee & if you have guests, I'm sure you could entertain yourselves trying to guess the flavours. You may be surprised how like the dessert they actually taste!

Other things that have caught my eye from the range (family & friends take note :-) are tiddly caramel penguins & mulled wine cherries but really there's just too much to choose from.
I did think it a little bit mean just to write a post about me getting to try some delicious chocolate, so I have an early Christmas treat for you! I have another box of the Winter Dessert chocolates to giveaway to one lucky reader. All you have to do is take a look at the full Hotel Chocolat Christmas range & leave a comment telling me which treat you would like to find under the tree this Christmas.

You can also email your entry to rebeccabakescakes@hotmail.co.uk

Entries need to be in by 23:59 on Wednesday 7th December 2011. Winner will be chosen at random with the help of a random number generator!

Good Luck! Rebecca x

If you want to find out more about Hotel Chocolat you can follow them on Facebook & Twitter

All pictures courtesy of Hotel Chocolat

And the winner is....

A couple of weeks back I ran a giveaway for a fab vintage vinyl cake stand hand made by yours truly! Thanks to everyone who entered & for sharing your innermost musical secrets, you certainly gave me a good giggle :-)

The random number generator has spoken & I'm happy to announce the winner is....

Liz of Me and My Shadow!

Liz & her daughter wasted no time in putting it to use & sent me this photo of the cake stand in action, stacked up with rather delicious looking cupcakes.

Hopefully I'll be able to bring you another giveaway soon, just need to wait for crafty inspiration to strike again! In the meantime, I'm open to taking orders for more vinyl cake stands, got to be a market for them somewhere? :-) Rebecca x

Blog Giveaway - Vintage Vinyl Cake Stand!

I've gone all arts & crafts on you this week to bring you...fanfare please....a Rebecca Bakes Cakes blog giveaway! Now I have been known to have an original idea every now & again, however I have to hold my hands up & confess that this idea has been stolen with pride from a good friend of mine. It combines two of my favourite things, music & cake, so when I saw these stands stacked with cupcakes at her daughters' party, I had to have a go at making one myself.

Trawling the charity shops of Windsor looking for vinyl was an experience in itself, turns out the residents of the Royal Borough seem to be quite fond of Howard Jones & Engelbert Humperdinck (way too much Humperdinck) I picked records I knew & loved, so my stand ended up with a rather eclectic mix of the original film soundtrack of Mary Poppins, Tears for Fears - Shout & Love Affair - Everlasting Love. Make of that mix what you will...

I've also made a special 80's edition to give away to one lucky reader! This stand combines, Erasure - Circus, Danny Wilson - The Second Summer of Love & Owen Paul - My Favourite Waste of Time. It's a marvellous medley of 80's pop! To be fair I don't really know the Danny Wilson track, but 10" vinyl is remarkably hard to come by, so had to take what I could find :-)

It's very sturdy & dead easy to dismantle so you can store it flat. I love a traditional chintzy china cake stand, but this vinyl version will definitely make a bold statement on your tea table & is sure to get people talking about the tunes!

To be in with a chance to win my 80's-tastic vintage vinyl cake stand, just leave a comment below or email me at rebeccabakescakes@hotmail.co.uk to say you're in. If you want to share a guilty music secret, then feel free, I won't judge! Quite frankly I have too many to mention, but to get things started I queued on Oxford Street for hours to meet 90's boyband Let Loose, I've been to see Cliff Richard not once but twice (with my Mum!) & I am the proud owner of a CD signed by Shed Seven. You get the idea, it's musical catharsis!

Competition will close at 11.59pm on Sunday 29th May 2011. International entries welcome! Good luck, Rebecca x