The Cake and Bake Show Manchester

I clearly don't have enough cake in my life as it seems I'm now resorting to spending my free time searching out cake and attending cake shows like the Cake and Bake Show!

Actually, that's a bit misleading. I attended the Cake and Bake show in Manchester this past weekend to represent my employer, Sweet Success Ltd, and check out the amazing CakeBomb team and see how they had brought some of our cakes, ganache and chocolate sugarpaste to life. And I wasn't disappointed!

Pimpin' my creme eggs

The famous TV campaign asks us "How do you eat yours?" and apart from 'frequently', my answer has always been the same - by scooping out the insides with my index finger and then gobbling up the shell. Is there any other way?

Cadbury's Creme Eggs haven't changed in years. I mean literally, I think they look the same since my childhood which is weird as normally everything you eat as a child seems to shrink when you grow up at least...

White chocolate and mini egg rocky road bars

Rocky road is one of my go to recipes when I need to make lunchbox snacks for the kids. It's delicious, easy to make and more importantly you can make it using any leftover biscuits/sweet/fruit you have leftover in your cupboards! Bonus!

Gooey chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting

A lot of the cakes I make for clients in my bakery tend to be more sturdy madeira style cakes, I mean they have to stand up to doweling/stacking and a whole host of decorations so the style of cake has to be more robust, tasty and have a decent shelf life. This means that when I get to bake for the family, I like to go all out and make the gooey and softest cakes imaginable.

American cakes are very different from English cakes and when it comes to chocolate cake I always stick with my favourite - my Mum's recipe. It is a slight variation on the ever popular Hersheys recipe but with less sugar and more....oomph!

Zesty orange cake with whipped cointreau ganache

I've been suffering from a chocolate orange craving recently that just WON'T QUIT. Now the thing is, I physically can't bring myself to buy a Terry's Chocolate Orange outside of Christmas time so I knew I'd have to bake myself out of this particular craving.


Orange cake isn't a very popular cake flavour is it? Lemon is the real citrus fruit that steals the show.

Frugal fun: simple homemade play dough!

And so the half term begins. It seems like a looooong time since the Christmas holidays, but I can confidently say that the kids and I have been needing this school break for the last few weeks. The pain of an early start is wearing thin after 6 long weeks...

But, we're still feeling the pinch after Christmas so this week I'm trying to keep it frugal and and create as as many homemade activities as possible.

Peanut butter cookies filled with praline centre chocolates

*Sigh* Peanut butter, how I love thee. Let me count the ways... Now, if I could write a poem in honour of my peanut butter addiction then I would do. But, I can't so let's just leave it there and end by saying I bloomin love the stuff.

A few supermarkets in Nottingham now sell the American Skippy peanut butter which is my all time favourite but it's very sweet, so if you're more of an earthy peanut butter fan then just keep moving...

Eggless chocolate cupcakes with cookie dough frosting

You all know the drill; you have an itching to bake, you have time to create something decadent for your family, all the ingredients are in place and then wham! You check the fridge and yep, no eggs. Gaaaah! Of course there are lots of yummy egg substitutes but nothing beats the real thing.

Well this happened to me today. I had *just* enough eggs for our meal that evening but the mood to bake had well and truly stuck and for the first time in ages I found myself craving cupcakes. In recent years I've baked waaay too many for work that it's kind put me off baking them for leisure (hence my cookie obsession).