A good beer and a bit of murder...

Had some very tasty Hogsback Gardener's Tipple last night - i'm not usually a massive ale fan but this was really nice, not too strong at 4%, very fruity and easy to drink. Also it makes a nice change from all the cider i've had recently - as soon as the sun comes out in London cider sales must skyrocket, everyone seems to be drinking it. This beer is made in Surrey too so i am doing my bit to support local brewing!
And alongside my beer i am reading The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders, which is a fantastic book about the Victorian's obsession with grisly murders and how the reporting of them became a huge money spinner for the press, just as it still is today. It's a great book, full of bloody murders and dark humour, and i am thoroughly enjoying it! It feels a bit like i should be reading it in the winter by a roaring fire, but you can't have everything.

Elderflower Champagne - first attempt

Thought i'd make the most of the few remaining weeks of having an Elder tree in the garden by shamelessly stealing the flowers and making them into booze!
I've never tried to bottle anything that turns fizzy before so i'm hoping it won't explode in the airing cupboard. Hopefully not and i'll have lots to drink just in time to help me throught the trauma of moving house... Fingers crossed!
After looking at lots of recipes decided the easiest was from Home Brew, a great book on how to make all sorts of lovely stuff to drink by Doug Rouxel & Sara Paston-Williams.

Back, with changes!

Wow, can't believe it's been over a year since I wrote on here. A few changes - have put the cake business on the back burner as have had a pretty busy year or so - job change, getting hitched, house hunting etc. So instead am just going to be randomly posting on tasty things i'm eating, fantastic books i'm reading, and possibly even the odd piece of amateur allotment news...

and more...

Paris pastries...

Here are some other random photos from patisseries around Paris... if I won the lottery I would live here, and come to one of these places every morning for breakfast, but for the moment I will have to make do with salivating outside the window like a pauper!

Laduree Champs Elysees (outside)

We passed the much larger branch of Laduree late at night so only got photos of the building from outside, still pretty impressive though!

Our Laduree Feast!

Despite enormous temptation I managed to limit myself to buying just one pastry for myself. (Also we were running out of money and they aint cheap!) I plumped for this gorgeous Strawberry and Pistachio St Honore, while Chris went for the Praline Millefeuille, and we also bought a box of 6 macarons for later as I couldn't come to laduree without trying them. MAN ALIVE these were tasty treats!
(Macaron flavours are - fleur de sel, pistachio, raspberry, cassis, chocolate and coffee)

Laduree Boxes!

Laduree Paris!

This week we were on holiday in Paris for my birthday and my first stop was the Laduree around the corner from our hotel near the Place de la Madeleine... Was a bit paranoid about taking pics as I know they are a bit fussy so only managed to get a few of the shop itself - also the queue was moving so fast we were hustled in and out within about 30seconds!

Cheesy nibbly things

Here are some little cheese biscuits I made using the last of what was left in my fridge last week. I can't stand being too poor to buy ingredients so making these and chomping on them with a glass of wine (there's always enough money for wine) was a good way of tricking myself into thinking I was richer than I am. Cheesy nibble, anyone? Made a nice change from bloody baked beans. They are sprinkled with poppy seeds, sea salt, cumin, paprika and black pepper respectively. I say poppy seed was best, Chris says salt.

Bunny rabbits!

I made these to stick on top of the cake I made last weekend - in the end they didn't get eaten as they were too sweet to destroy, and instead are being kept as family pets.

My first wedding cake finished! Hooray!!!

Top tier

Bottom tier

Phew! My first ever wedding cake is finally done and dusted - gave myself wrist cramp piping all the lacy bits so now i've finished i'm celebrating by lying around all day eating maltesers, before I get started on the next cake i've got to make this weekend.