Early Easter Spirit

I have been preparing for Easter for weeks now, by that I mean taste testing Cadbury's mini eggs on a daily basis just to make sure they are worthy to use on my cakes!  Yesterday they were put to the test as my students held their end of term event ‘A Charity Easter Fun Day’ where all proceeds went to Devere’s sponsored children’s charity The Variety Club.

The day started with a charity bag pack at Sainsbury’s. To show willing I joined in too.  It made a nice change chatting to all the friendly shoppers as I had a nosey at what they had in their shopping trolleys! I realised that there is a significant amount of diligence required when it comes to bag packing, I thought I was particular! Clearly, throwing in items willy nilly is a no no.  After two hours of turning on my best hospitality charm (trying not to be offended when shoppers refused my meticulous bag packing service) I came away with a whole new insight into to art of bag packing! Oh almost forgot the students did well too….£137 not bad for a couple of hours work.

There was no rest for the wicked, we returned to the Academy to start setting up the event.  Taking advantage of the glorious weather we were able to spill outside into the courtyard area.  The students did a great job at setting up the stands and organising the activities, I provided the cakes (of course!) Here are a few pics of the day. 

Well done Emma on the face painting, great job for your first attempt I’ll be booking you for my children’s parties!! 

Sponge Bob Square Pants

Ahh school holidays, the bliss of not doing the school runs; the challenge of demonstrating diplomacy when my children see me making cake pops and want to help!  Although to be fair to Tamsin and Jude, they are always willing little helpers and what better way to entertain them? By getting them to sort out 50+ green spots for Sponge Bob Square Pants cake pops.

     

Sorry ‘Grandma Dee’ the position of chief sprinkle sorter has officially been filled.  I know how disappointed you must be!

So Sponge Bob has made it into my character cake pop hall of fame

I had a lovely day today visiting a place that was introduced to me by my friend and ex next door neighbour Fee.  When I first moved to Manchester and was unable to drive (after having Tamsin) Fee kindly took me on little outings every Tuesday!  I have not visited Willow Pool in Lymn since Tamsin was a baby and it was great to re-visit it today.  It classes itself as a garden centre, but really it's an interesting mish mash haven of nick nacks, antiques and junk treasure.  Nestled in the middle is a tea room where they have these interesting gazebos (bamboo heated huts) We met up with my friend Helen and her gorgeous 3 children. Although, still a little chilly the kids loved it and I got some great shots!

Happy Half Term Kids x

Happy Valentines Day

Can’t believe we are half way through February already, where has that time gone?  Apologies for the inexcusable lack of blogging, mostly because I have been snowed under with uni work and partly because I couldn’t trust myself to make too many yummy treats as I’m still fighting my hideous sweet cravings after letting my guard down at Christmas!!

December was a busy month with Christmas cake pop orders and a 60^th Birthday with a musical theme.  Unfortunately I made the mistake of not taking my camera to the function so only managed to get one half decent shot of the cake with a borrowed camera!

Speaking of Cameras…Father Christmas came up trumps, I got my wish; a beautiful Canon DSLR 1100D.  We had a wonderful Christmas just the 4 of us at home which we have not done before.  These are a couple of my favourite pics taken with my new camera on Christmas morning!

I am really looking forward to experimenting and being brave enough to venture away from the automatic setting!  On Boxing Day, we went to visit some good friends of ours Seamus and Lisa and their beautiful daughter Orla; who live in Northumberland.  I was keen to show off my new camera only to find that Lisa’s Brother Ray (also visiting) just happens to be a Photographic Journalist!  Thanks for the impromptu training session and advice Ray.  I think it will be a while before I can get a shot like the one he casually took of Tamsin playing the piano.

Another busy weekend with a Sponge Bob Square Pant party (blog to follow) and of course I couldn’t let Valentines pass me by! (Even though it doesn’t seem to feature on the Bradford Calendar!) If you’re reading this my Valentine "Happy Valentines Day to you ‘Mal Hopping’ somewhere!!"

I love a Love Heart!!

Happy Valentines Day x

Curly Wurly Christmas

Firstly apologies for the blog break; I have had to knuckle down to my studies over the last couple of weeks.  As my first term comes to a close I have found the time to go Christmas cake pop crazy!! 

I knew that I was going to experiment with a reindeer cake pop but couldn’t think of what to use for the antlers….

When I was little, at this time of year; I would stop off at the sweet shop for a Curly Wurly on the way home from school.  I would wait until I got home, sit in front of the fire, and dunk the Curly Wurly into a warm mug of orange squash until all the chocolate melted (the thought of this now is quite strange!)

After half completing the reindeer cake pop I went to bed leaving Rudolf ‘antlerless’ Suddenly out of nowhere I thought of a Curly Wurly! I thought if I cut them up correctly, they would make perfect antlers and here is the result!

I faced a similar stumbling block with the snowman’s hat!

A Rolo and a large chocolate button worked perfectly

So here’s my Christmas line up…

May I take this opportunity to wish a very Merry Christmas to all my family and friends that have supported me in my new venture, especially my husband (who tonight took the time to accompany me to a 60^th birthday and diligently set up the cake pop tower x)

A big thank you to everyone who has placed orders with me over the past 4 months.  It has been a great 2011 and I look forward to taking ‘Make Mine a Cake’ into 2012

   

 

 Merry Christmas x 

Home & Away

Remember remember the 5th of November.....tonight we celebrated 'Bonfire night' at home and it brought back fond childhood memories.  Making a guy fawkes with my brothers (penny for the Guy!) Mum in the kitchen preparing a feast of soup, jacket potatoes and hotdogs! Dad in his old black jacket heading down the garden with the fireworks secured in an old Rover biscuit tin (the tin was all that remained from the previous Christmas where a strict household rule was always enforced of one plain and one 'fancy' biscuit per person!)......miss you Dad x

Home with the Bradfords we celebrated on a smaller scale but it was a good effort!  Hot dogs (cooked on the barbie of course)  Tomato soup, sparklers and fireworks (no metal biscuit tin in sight!) Making memories....

Away from it all (too far away) missing Grandma Dee and Grandpa JB just to let you know we are thinking of you both....some Koala Pops especially for you x

Happy Bonfire Night!

Boden, Baking and Bolton Uni

Busy, busy, busy! I have had a very eventful week.  As usual it has involved baking (when doesn’t it!) This week I played hostess at my first Boden Party.  For those of you that don’t know Boden it is a fabulous mail order/online clothing range which plays a big part in my life! 

You can imagine it was hard to focus on other things when there were rails and rails of clothing crying out to be tried on!  I was very restrained and I didn’t ‘unveil the rails’ until I made sure there were plenty of ‘Make Mine a Cake’ goodies ready to whoo my guests.

I themed my cake pop display around Boden’s 40’s flower design.  The colours are rich, and vibrant but particular warm and seasonal. I love the design and colours and I’m finding it hard not to buy the ‘Silver 40’s flower eBook case’ which is for a Kindle (which I don’t have!) My Christmas list this year (including a Kitchenaid Mixer, a super duper flash new camera, a new laptop and now seemingly a Kindle to go with my must have Boden eBook case!) Is getting a bit out of control me thinks!

I used the colours inspired by the 40’s

flower design to create

                                       these........

Of course I had to throw some cupcakes into the mix so I used love heart sweets to depict the moment.

 

Make Mine a cake aside, my Bolton Uni post grad teaching course is in full swing and I did my first full day of teaching by myself this Thursday.  I think I need to knuckle down to my studies now as the work load is increasing rapidly!

Today was a great way to end the week when my fab husband whisked me off to a day of pampering at The Mere Spa, Cheshire.  We were celebrating our 6^th Wedding anniversary and it couldn’t have come at a better time.  I feel much more human and ready to face another busy week of baking, studying and school runs!!

Happy Anniversary Hun x