Learning to Say No...

“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.” ~Josh Billings

merk

verb

1. To kill someone

2. To beat someone at something

3. To insult someone

4. To do something to someone that causes them to feel merked

adj. (merked)

1. A mix of feelings including a combination of at least two of the following emotions; embarrassment, frustration, annoyance, confusion, irritation and powerlessness. Examples include; being lost and having no reception on your phone to check google maps, locking yourself out of your house and having to pay a locksmith over a £100 to get your locks changed, or transporting a wedding cake to a venue only to find that it collapsed in the box along the way & you only have 30 minutes before the guests arrive to fix it!

Merkage is always avoidable, always, but that is what makes the feelings worse. 

So now that I've clarified (to an extent) what I'm talking about, let me tell you about the last time that I was merked. I am having some work done to my garden and have been inviting gardeners to give quotes. One lady arrived on Saturday morning, moments after the window cleaner had finished their work. The front of my house was very wet even though it wasn't raining outside. Anyways, I opened the door and the lady walked into the house barely drying her feet on the two mats outside my front door. Her first step left a massive muddy shoe print on my wooden floor and she proceeded to take two more steps leaving two more muddy wet footprints. 

I was merked, fully & completely, and did what all conscious human beings do; I stopped time - well dramatically slowed it down anyway. As she turned in super slow motion to face me for further instruction as to the way to the garden, I pondered on my options. 

Option 1 - I bite my tongue and let her walk through my house leaving horrible muddy puddles and just clean up when she's gone. I had visions of her doing the running man in her dirty shoes on my kilim rug & moonwalking through my clean kitchen to the garden.

or

Option 2 - I tell her go back and wipe her feet before coming any further, making everyone feel super awkward.

I chose option 2. 

It was very awkward as I sent her (politely) back outside to wipe her feet (as any civilised human being would do). It was really awkward, but 100% necessary for me and the happiness of my kilim rug. I mean really! Who does that anyway?!

It was a victory for me and the shape of things to come. As I alluded to in my last post, 2014 could have been called "The Year of Merkage". I didn't say no enough and instead allowed people to rob me of my energy, time, love, happiness, creativity and money. By not saying no, go and wipe your feet before you come in my house, I let people trample all over me with their muddy shoes! No more I say!

Excited by my new found strength, I decided to celebrate by making one of my favourite cakes - the naked vanilla cake. I am a big fan of "less icing is more" when it comes to cakes. I also love berries, meringues & edible flowers so threw everything together in one cake because that's how I'm rolling these days!

The cake is a vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream, sugared berries, meringue kisses and pansies (edible flowers). Click below for links for all of the recipes (for the cake, double the recipe and cook in an 8" inch tin and double the buttercream recipe);

Vanilla cake

Vanilla buttercream

Sugared berries

Meringue kisses

All that's left to say is that I have green highlights in my hair. I wanted turquoise tresses but instead it's green and yes, I am a little merked.

Peace & love

xx

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Make A Wish Cupcakes!

So I've been away for a while! Over the last month I have been working, playing, travelling and baking! There is so much to update you on, but first things first, take a look at these 'Make a Wish Cupcakes.

The birthday girl had a special banquet and requested individual cupcakes for the guests. The theme was 'Make a Wish'. I've been thinking about edible flowers for a while and this felt like the perfect opportunity to try it out. I tell you though, it was trickier than I expected to find edible flowers. Unfortunately florists only really know roses to be edible so I came up against a brick wall. After going to a number of stores, it turns out the garden centre is the place to go to find them.

So now you've seen the birthday girl and the cakes, here's how to recreate them;

Vanilla Butter Cupcakes (adapted from Amy Atlas's Sweet Design Book)

makes 

1 stick/ ½ cup (114g) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup caster sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup whole milk

1. Adjust oven to 350oF/ 180oC/ Gas Mark 4. Beat together the butter & sugar until they are light & fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add one egg at a time along with the vanilla until they are thoroughly combined. 

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. With the mixer on a slow speed add the flour mixture alternatively with the milk. Beat for about 3 minutes until the cake batter is smooth.

3. Divide the cupcake mixture between the cupcake cases and bake for about 17-20 minutes minutes until the a skewer entered into the centre comes out clean.

4. Leave to cool fully before topping with a generous amount of buttercream.

Vanilla Buttercream

250g unsalted softened butter

500g icing sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons whole milk

1. Mix together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Once they are all mixed, add the milk and whisk for at least 5 more minutes to get a deliciously fluffy buttercream.

Edible Flowers (the fun bit!)

Selection of edible flowers; pansies & viola

1 egg white

½ cup golden caster sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1. Separate the flowers from the stems, then wash and dry them.

2. Lightly cover the flowers in egg white and carefully dip or sprinkle both the sugars over the petals.

3. Leave to dry on greaseproof paper, or if you don't have time (which I didn't), put the oven on the coolest setting with the door open and leave to dry.

4. Once they are dry, add glitter to make them fabulous!

The banquet!

These bad boys are a collaborative effort with my girl, Alexia Lenoir, the talented Event Stylist. Check out her blog post for her version of the day! :) 

If you do make these, please let me know how you get on!

Peace & Love

xx

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Princess Cakies

Baking for little girls is such fun! This was a birthday cake for my beautiful niece Ellie who turned 3 not too long ago. I'd been dying to try out the ruffle buttercream effect and figured that this was as good a time as any :).

The birthday girl

The cake was made using the Amy Atlas vanilla cake recipe as it's currently my favourite. I've been searching the net to find the recipe online but without success so far, and I'm not sure if it would be wrong for me to put it up myself. So for now you will need to get her book, Sweet Designs for the details (it's definitely worth it!)

My son & Ellie

Happy Birthday to yooooooou!

Watching the children around me grow up makes me realise just how much time is flying. I still can't get my head around the fact that I have two of my own! Just the other day I was a little girl running around eating cake and now I'm a mum with responsibilities! I reckon that your brain stops maturing at around 20 and then you spend the rest of your life watching events unfolding, wondering 'How did that happen?!' 

My niece and nephew

I am making it my goal to savour every day and to embrace this thing called 'getting old'. I love it in fact. As I get older, I get wiser and more in control. I also get to relive my childhood and make beautiful Princess cakies :)

Peace & Love

xx

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Cupcake In A Jar... (Take Two)

I'm a romantic at heart and a lover of all things handwritten and handmade. I especially love handwritten post (or mail for my American friends), bills are definitely not included! So from the moment I saw the idea of cupcakes in a jar on one of my favourite blogs, Cakies, I really wanted to try it. It seemed like the perfect combination of all things cool for a gift.

Last year I went for it & sent a friend who lives a long way away, some red velvet cupcakes in a jar as a surprise birthday gift. 

Everything was fine until I posted it, at which point I transformed into a nervous wreck! I started panicking that the jar would break during transit (even though I had bubble wrapped it and covered it in newspaper) and whether it would get there in time for the big day. On the day itself, I was checking my phone every two minutes for word which never came.

It was just my luck that she was out when it arrived and as she wasn't expecting anything (surprise), she didn't rush to the Post Office to collect it. The next day she went on holiday for a week! By the time she eventually got the present, I'd been through all the stages of grief at my failed plan and was just hoping that the cream cheese frosting wouldn't poison her! The whole thing was a little traumatic to be honest and although she appreciated the gesture, I had hoped she'd be able to actually eat the cake!

Undeterred I tried my luck again this year. I still went for the element of surprise (as in I didn't tell her I was sending anything), but this time round, I made a vanilla cupcake with buttercream as I figure it doesn't need to be refrigerated and could cope with an unexpected short holiday. More importantly though, I let go of any stress and pressure because I'm pretty sure my nervous energy followed the gift the last time round!

It was a happily ever after ending and I was really pleased that I didn't let the first experience put me off trying again. It made me think about how important it is to keep trying as a more general life lesson. 

I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature. John D. Rockefeller.

Before I sign off I just wanted to remind you about my photography blog, I've added some pretty cool pictures over the last few weeks that I'd love you to see!

Peace & Love

xx

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Easter Time

This Easter was interesting to say the least in a grow and mature as a human being, life lessons type of way. There are certain moments in your life when you realise you are a grown up, this weekend was one of those times.

Here are some of the insights I gained;

1. Easter egg hunts are fun (see how grown I am though!) I did my first ever egg hunt this year and enjoyed it so much that I did another one the very next day. I have been missing out all my life and I suddenly noticed all of these people walking around carrying baskets of eggs. It appears I am the only one not to have experienced the pleasures of hunting!

2. Tomorrow is never a good time to start anything, especially a healthy eating plan. When your jeans start to cut off the circulation to your legs it's time to take action today (although technically the day is finished so it will have to be tomorrow now but well what I mean is.....)

3. Spontaneous dinners with sisters are worth their weight in gold. A Sunday roast is also officially my second favourite meal.

4. Going out and having fun is good. Staying in, saving money and being productive can be better. Note that I said 'can be', let's not get carried away with any sweeping statements, has Samantha Brick taught us nothing?

5. Whilst the resurrection story gives us hope in life after death, many things die for a good reason. Especially things that are holding us back and causing us pain. It is best accept the truth, grieve and then move on to make way for new life and happy times.

So there you have it.

In amongst major life lessons, I also managed to squeeze in making these Vanilla Mini Cupcakes Easter  style. I topped them with green vanilla buttercream and a mixture of white chocolate Maltesers and mini eggs. Click here for the recipe.

I hope you had a great Easter.

Peace & Love
xx

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