gin bar party.

Last Saturday we headed out for two of Alex's friends' birthdays. There was copious amounts of dancing, food, conversation and gin. I helped set up an (already established) gin bar. If I could have had it my way there would have been fairy lights everywhere but we were at a guys house so alas, no fairy lights were found. However, it was decorated to the best of my ability on a very small budget (£2 worth of things is impressive, fate also helped me find a lemon shaped coaster-perfect for gin!). And so the gin bar was a success- my poorly head told me so the next day.

sonic.

I'm so pleased with this cake and even more so when I saw Alex's reaction.

I may have ended up with a kitchen full of blue icing and I may still be finding hints of blue here and there but it was totally worth it.

the chicken or the egg.

Easter Sunday fell on Alex's birthday so it naturally meant one thing; even more chocolate. 22 in fact! Yep, I woke up early and snuck around our teeny tiny flat trying to hide various types of Easter egg for his birthday Easter egg hunt. I think he was surprised that they just kept appearing out of nowhere. I thought he'd be eating them for awhile, but it turns out they'll be gone sooner than I could've imagined!

The rest of the day included a mega movie marathon, presents, party food and cake. I think that's a pretty great combination for an Easter birthday.

on friday...

# My highest wedges were worn.

# There was an awkward moment regarding the tip (I'm so sorry waitress).

# We got split up for about an hour so me and my friend thought the best plan was to order cocktails and then catch them up.

# I wore a blazer with hearts all over it.

# I danced to Phil Collins.

put down the phone and sing happy birthday.

(image via acompletelife)

I promised myself a whole day away from social media tomorrow. I know it shouldn't be anything special to shy away from it for one day but I get into such a habit of ' I'll just look at this' and 'I'll just post this' that it'll be nice to be away from it. It also means that I'll have time to completely immerse myself into Alex's birthday. Yes, Easter Sunday and his birthday all on one day. It's safe to say a lot of food will be consumed, especially since his one request for the day is 'to do nothing but watch films and eat chocolate!' This I can do (note to self: work extra hard at swimming in the following weeks, work that chocolate off :P). I'll fill you in on the birthday events and, of curse, the cake but for now, goodbye internet and all your distractions and

 Happy Birthday Alex!

put a bow on it.

I love making birthday cakes for people (1, 2, 3, 4) and so with my mum coming up a little bit before her actual birthday and it seemed a perfect excuse to make a mess in the kitchen.

This time it was carrot cake and it was yummy and so very easy to make. I'm no whizz at decorating but I try and make them look presentable (I can still note the flaws when others don't).I like the simplicity of this design and how it still looks (somewhat) elegant.

It went down a treat with the birthday girl (which is always the main thing) and as it's her birthday today it only seems fitting to end this by saying:

Happy Birthday Mum!

birthday snaps.

I'm not very good at taking pictures on my birthday and this year, happened to be no different.

We all turned up to eat food, drink wine and so photos seemed to take a back seat. I had a fabulous time, got some lovely gifts and spent the evening with great friends; it really was a lovely birthday.

Here are a few snaps from my very small collection of my birthday:

home time.

I haven't had a birthday at home for 4 years and although I wasn't there on my actual birthday, it's kind of nice to have a belated birthday/birthday weekend.

As well as my parents I get to see these beauties,

  

and that's pretty fantastic. Now, I should really get back to the thing I hate most- packing. See you soon Devon!

22 before 23.

Last year I wrote a list (here) and I accomplished very little from it. Maybe it was more a fantasy list but this year I've thought a lot harder for it. You wouldn't think of thinking of one more thing would be hard, but it really was. I'm hoping this year will be much more successful (fingers crossed).

a slice of cake.

Another birthday, another cake; this time it was for my dad. I made a Guinness and chocolate cake with a white chocolate ganache filing and then to top it off more ganache! Once it all set, it was like fudge. It was very tasty and a little slice went a long way. Yum.

happy happy birthday!

(image via etsy)

It was lovely to have my parents up here to visit but it was especially nice that my dad was still here today as it's his birthday. It was nice to be around and actually wish him a happy birthday and give him his presents in person; I haven't done that in about 3 years! We sprung cake and presents on him early as Alex had to go to work so excuse all pjs and bedhead shots.



halloween in july.

As you've seen from recent posts (here and here), my friend's 21st was a Halloween theme. Alex and I went as Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett; it was fun but as we had an hour and half train ride and then a bus, the journey gave for some interesting looks from passers by. The party was good and I consumed far too many cocktails; it resulted in me coming home the next day, falling asleep in seconds and not waking up for hours. Signs of a good birthday party I think you'll agree.

cats, bats and other such things.

A while ago you might remember me making one of my mum's birthday gifts (here); well I took on the same principle for my good friend Chantelle and catered it around her favourite time of year; Halloween. I'm really pleased with how the bag turned out. There were long hours painting this one but I think it turned out really well.

bloody valentine.

My friend recently had her birthday and I offered to make the cake; I know, huge pressure on myself to produce. Her birthday theme was Halloween and so I went along those lines for the cake. Spiderwebs; blood and then to make it more dramatic, some hand made roses. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It also turned out to be the heaviest cake I have ever made; it weighed in at around 5kg. I do not envy Alex for carrying all through our journey to get to her party on Saturday.

no fruit in sight.

It was my friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago but we only recently got round to celebrating this past weekend. Although she got a cake from her parents she didn't have one on her actual birthday so I decided for our weekend catch up/celebrations I'd make her some cupcakes, as everyone should have birthday cakes, and I don't need any excuses not to bake!! I don't normally do chocolate things but as my friend is allergic to fruit it narrowed down the options. I'm pretty pleased with these beauties; mint choc chip (the green ones, surprise, surprise!) and plain vanilla with chocolate icing.

let them eat cake.

Now I'm sure many of you know that I love to bake and try new things so with Alex's birhtday last Saturday it was the perfect opportunity to try a new kind of cake. Last year here had a rainbow birthday cake but this year I went for two cakes: a burger cake and a pizza cake. I got the idea of the burger cake here but I thought I'd make it on a bigger scale. As it was a last minute decision I didn't have all the resources I wanted but I worked with what I had. The red for the ketchup was hard so it ended up looking more like bacon but the must and lettuce went okay. I even used a brownie centre as the burger. As for the pizza cake, this was very time concuming but worth every minute. I knew I wanted to do a pizza cake but I got a few pointers from here. I'm so pleased that it turned out well and looked realistic. Alex's favourite bit was how the 'crust' looked like it was baked; he also liked eating it!

so many happys!

Happy st patrick's, happy mother's day but today is the most special of all:

Happy Birthday Mum!

I hope she had a fabulous day and was made to feel very special.

we're early, we're early for a very important date.

So last week my parents came up and had a pit stop at our flat before we all carried on to Kent. Luckily I knew, roughly, what time they were coming and was able to put together my mum's early birthday tea party. I made sure it was a complete surprise and I think it paid off! It was a lot of baking the week leading up to it but it was worth it to see my mum's face as she saw the table. I made the colour theme purple and yellow as purple is her favourite colour and yellow as it tied in with the daffodils (another favourite of mums).

I made macaroons for the first time and I think they went pretty well, I'm definitely going to experiment with more colours, flavours and icing the next time I make them. The marshmallows that were made also went down a treat. I got the idea from the ever faithful pinterest and they turned out great. I used normal icing and made it yellow and lilac and then just coated them in sprinkles. It wasn't all sweet things though; I also made southern fried chicken bites, courgette polpettes and paninis.

The cake was my favourite thing to show my mum. I did the sneaky all white (raspberry flavour) icing to cover the cake like I did with Alex's rainbow cake, although this one had iridescent edible glitter sprinkled on top. I also decorated the top with some print out butterflies that I simply attached to garden wire (inspiration from rubyju). Once you opened the cake though it was three layers and a rich purple. My mum was very surprised and hopefully loved the cake. I take it as a good sign that half the cake, the marshmallows and the macaroons were packed up and sent home with them at the end of their stay on the Monday.