Macaroon Mayhem

Recently I've tried making macaroons a number of times and every time I have ended up with one giant macaroon (mainly due to the fact I was piping the mix straight onto a baking tray), so I decided to invest in a silicone macaroon tray from Lakeland. O-M-G, it was the best £7.99 I've ever spent on baking goods (aside from my kitchenaid, which I didn't actually pay for so..). I learnt the hard way that you don't need to grease silicone trays, and my second attempt was a big success! I took the left overs (our new dog is quite partial to a macaroon it seems..) into work the next day and they went down a storm..best macaroons ever tasted apparently! 

I also went back up north for the weekend as I was baking the cakes for a friends mums 50th birthday party. Cue icing cakes in someone else's kitchen - NIGHTMARE. But I got there with the help of my apprentice (ha) Meg. One giant chocolate cupcake and 36 vanilla cupcakes later and we were ready to go! 

I'm baking again this weekend, this time for a work colleagues 60th birthday so I'll fill you all in on that one when it's done.

Peace out cake lovers. 

Dreaming of summer..

After buying the most practical coat of my life today (commuting to work at 6am every morning is not for the faint hearted - it gets flipping cold on that train platform) I got bored, so I baked. The recent monsoon season and my new prescription sunglasses (I can see whilst not being blinded by the sun - genius!) have got me dreaming of a summers afternoon drinking cider in the sunshine. These little beauties have strawberries baked into the vanilla sponge, so they are light, fluffy and super yummy. They also look pretty too :) so yes, I shall be making these again when the sun finally decides to make an appearance. You've got to love a good British strawberry or two :)