What happened to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday?!

Oh dear. I can't believe it's Thursday (practically Friday as I type) already. It's been a busy week - lots of library/archive visits to get this last chapter finished. Also had a supervision meeting today which went well. It's a small miracle that I haven't burst into tears in front of my supervisor yet...there's nothing like a PhD thesis to break a girl. However, I am trying to keep sane by actually including 'fun' things in my schedule - strictly outside of 'office' hours of course...


As you are all probably aware, my bridesmaid duties have extended to that of the cake provider. So, the week before last, I experimented with cupcake recipes, which I think were a hit. The weekend just gone (or rather last weekend as I have just realised a whole week has passed me by) I spent experimenting with the actual wedding cake. Since there will be millions of cupcakes, the bride and groom thought it was suffice to just have a one-tier cake to slice into - this I can manage. The last attempt was okay, but my novice status meant I had bumpy icing. This I have resolved with a smoother - it looks a bit like a plastering tool, but works a treat. I also learnt the importance of having flat surface to work on - that is free of cake clumps and crumbs. 


This time I made two sandwiches (as before), and used a different recipe (Primrose Bakery Vanilla Cake) as the Nigella madeira cake was a little dry and had a massive peak in the middle resembling Snowdon, or some similar mountain. I also sandwiched the cakes together so that the bottom side became the top - this I thought should solve the 'peak' that often appears in the middle of my cakes. However, there was still a little bump on top of the cake - which I quickly disguised with the rose petals! I think this was because I didn't even out the buttercream in the middle to compensate for the larger gaps towards the edges of the cake. I used boysenberry jam for a change - thought that this was a little but more 'special'! Also - the cake is dairy free, so I substituted butter for sunflower spread (always check the label as some sunflower spreads contain buttermilk). I therefore added one tablespoon of oil to the recipe to replace some of the fat content. The buttercream is also made from the spread - with the addition of  little vanilla essence. 


Here is the result:

I also tried crimping this time - not Boosh stylee unfortunately - but the roll-out icing. I spread the icing onto the board and then crimped the edge. But smoothing it was an absolute mare as I kept denting the side of the cake with the smoother as I was doing it! It was more effort than it was worth so won't be a feature on the proper cake. I piped some royal icing around the cake to make it more decorative - this worked out a lot better than I had anticipated! I literally free-styled the top bit and it worked! I did originally crimp the top edge too - but thought it all looked a bit 'flat' so added the icing. 

Overall, I'm quite proud. Even my dad, whose favourite phrase is 'not bad', said 'wow'. Yeah, this cake kicks ass.

Lookee what arrived...

Thursday morning was a bit of a whirlwind - as are most of my mornings. But what better way to start the day than by having a sexy new Dualit handmixer delivered to you? I gotta say I wasn't so sexy when I answered the door to the postman (image = squintier eyes, grey dressing gown and slippers with hood over bed hair)...Here's my new toy:

I got the mixer in Glacier Blue from the Dualit website - I've never seen this colour in the shops so thought I'd treat myself. I was torn between this and the Kenwood Kmix handmixer that boasted an extra 100 watts, but the Dualit won overall because it also included a balloon whisk. Plus, the colour's a lot nicer. It's on offer at £40 at the moment so grab one whilst they're still in stock!

Trial Wedding Cupcakes

OMG. Three weeks until the wedding (and two weeks until I hand in my next chapter - frick) I have some serious trial baking to do. I handed in the second version of my catalogue on Thursday (after many, many hours of re-ordering the entries = tedious) so what better way to celebrate than to bake my ass off? It was all for a good cause though, since three of my friends were also graduating this week! Perfect opportunity for me to practice my cupcake decorating skills! So, I made a batch of Primrose Bakery's lemon cupcakes, and also a batch of their chocolate. If you want the recipes, reply to this post as unfortunately I am too lazy to type them up. If there's a demand for them though, I will. 

                           

The Primrose Bakery's main philosophy is - beat the hell out of the butter and sugar before you do ANYTHING else. And when I say beat the hell out of it, I mean it seriously, to the point where it no longer resembles that yellow block of fat you put in the bowl at the beginning. This also applies to their buttercream, which you may notice I failed to achieve on the lemon cupcakes...I think I overdid the icing sugar as it went so thick, my beater was about to snap off, thus the grainy texture. The chocolate buttercream was somewhat more successful - again, same 'beat the frick' out of the butter and sugar technique, with the addition of some melted 70% cocoa chocolate. This made it smooth and shiny and easy to pipe. I used a really big star nozzle (general rule: the bigger the cupcake, the bigger the nozzle) to pipe with et voila! 

 

I also ordered some new decorations for the wedding cupcakes:

I do find it difficult to find good supplies in shops so source a lot of the decorations and nicky nacky noos online. Cake Craft Shop are really good, as are the similarly named Cookies Cakes & Crafts Shop. I'd say both are as reliable as each other  - the only difference is the items they stock. 

I'd also like to add that the bride and groom like the cakes, but I have promised them no lumpy lemon buttercream!

Woolacombe

So I have returned, unscathed apart from two lumps on my left leg - one on the shin and one on the knee courtesy of the fins on my board...

The beach was really sunny and hot on the Sunday:

Although the Saturday was a little overcast, we were still all baking in our wetsuits! A perfect weekend I say. The waves were good too - although a little strong for my feeble (stumpy) stature - Sunday was definitely a lot more productive for me than Saturday was. However, I really must learn to paddle out further as surfing the 'soup' is a little tiresome now - especially with the amount of irresponsible parents who let their toddlers paddle between the chequered flags. It's like they're oblivious to the fact that people on massive boards are aiming straight for them. 


In addition to the surfing, we also got up to the random mischief...well, I say mischief, I really mean experimenting with foodstuffs. Here was our attempt at vodka-soaked haribo. Can't remember who made the idea up now but it sounded fun at the time. I recommend the fizzy cherries myself as the golden bears seemed to absorb a little too much vodka...Serve with jelly (we had strawberry flavoured) and friends - I defo do not recommend eating these alone...!

Je suis le surf

Okay, so my French isn't exactly great these days but I am slightly excited about our surfing trip this weekend! Me and the girlies (and one boy) are off to Woolacombe for a weekend of sea, sand and sunshine hopefully! I've even bought this in preparation:

It's quite retro to say the least, and designed for people surfing actual waves (like, American ones), not the pathetic little 5 footers we get over here. Anyway, I hope I don't return with any major injuries - have a lovely weekend yourselves my lovelies...

It's been a while...

Apologies for disappearing off the face of the earth - have had to finish researching for my catalogue and also organise a hen do! I think I speak for all post-grad students out there when I say it's rather easy to get distracted from work (guess why I'm writing this entry now...?) so I often find it easier to just lock myself away from civilisation for a few days in hope that progress will be made. Well, progress was made and now I have just a few more entries to correct which I aim to complete today and then further revisions tomorrow in the library...next week will be spent rearranging the order (after major discussions with supervisor) and then in goes my second draft. Sorry, this probably sounds like complete waffle to you all - as well as my thesis, I am also required to write an academic catalogue on a set of 56 nineteenth-century drawings by the sons of a nineteenth-century artist and drawing master, Samuel Lines (1778-1863). The family are the focus of my PhD as well and I am particularly interested in art tuition and  art societies and institutions from the period. I am available for talks and lectures too! Look at me pimping myself out! 


Anyway, let's talk about fun things...I am making my debut as bridesmaid to my friend in August and had to co-organise the hen do. Spas and such have been done so I decided upon...horseriding. Turns out the bride had a hidden past as potential showjumper so I thought 'perfect!'. We went to Wellow Trekking Centre in Bath and it was well worth the drive through the country lanes! Everyone at the centre was lovely and accommodated us even though we were a good 15 minutes late (we started driving into a housing estate instead of the countryside). After getting kitted out, we were introduced to our horses (I had Winston). Sitting on a horse made me realise that I had no core muscles whatsoever and probably resembled something like a jelly on a plate...Anyways, we went for an hour's worth of trekking into the countryside (you can do 2) which did involve some hilarious trotting! I was crying so much with laughter, the girl who was leading my horse thought I was actually in pain. Don't get me wrong, I WAS in pain, but the sight of me and the other girlies being thrown about on the backs of a horses was more ridiculous. I am still a little sore now! Next time I demand a padded saddle! After the riding session, we had a gorgeous picnic at the centre too (which was also equipped with a v. good children's playground):

For the picnic, I had made some sexilicious lemon meringue tartlets (there were also strawberry ones for those who detest lemon curd):

Some advice though - they are not good stored in airtight containers on hot days! The meringue went squidgy (not necessarily in a bad way...) and the sugar beaded on top like little sweet droplets of syrupy sweat...mmmm. Anyway, they were yum either way, but best eaten fresh! 

The rest of the hen day was spent in Bath where we did a spot of shopping, then debaucherous cocktails at Goldbrick House and also Hyde & Co. I would recommend the Amaretto Sours from the former and the Elder Sours from the latter! Hyde & Co. was especially chic and not like the other bars you find in the centre of Bristol. It's located just off the Clifton Triangle - up some steps next to The Magic Roll. In fact, I have no idea how we managed to find it (we were a little tipsy by this point). It's worth the adventure though, located in a basement, the bar is cosy, intimate and very cool indeed. The decor was quite boudior-ish - think dark wood, velvet curtains, animal skulls on the wall (it looks better than it sounds) and had a very sophisticated feel to it. The barmen were rather nice and helpful (one heard me drop my glass on the table - which inevitably caused spillage - and came over straight away with a cloth! Domesticated or what?), dressed in flatcaps and dickie bowties and so was the bar manager who was very chatty and approachable. Defo recommend for a civilised evening with friends or even a first date!