Buddleja and roses

 I went Op Shopping last week and was fortunate enough to come across this Stuart crystal vase for only £5.00. 

 I didn't buy it straight away. I actually walked out of the shop and came back and got it on the way back to the car. Don't ask me what I was thinking!

 I only say it is Stuart crystal as it said so on the price sticker. It might not be Stuart but it is definitely crystal. It is in perfect condition, with no chips anywhere.

 I imagine it was very special to someone as it was so well looked after. Unfortunately the vase it cloudy at the bottom. I did a bit of research and I will buy some soft scrub cleanser and mix this with a little bleach. Apparently this will do the trick - I hope.

The buddleja and roses are from my front garden. The buddleja bush is heavy with hundreds of white blooms which are all literally buzzing due to the hive full of bees who visit each day.

The rose is called Deep Secret and it a truly outstanding performer. It produces masses of highly scented blooms with long stems which are perfect for picking. There scent wafts into the house each time the front door is opened. This bunch have filled the kitchen with the most heady aroma.

Onion Harvesting

I don't know if it is the correct time of year to be harvesting onions but the vegetable garden was a disaster zone so Mr Bee gave it a good clear out.

These onions were two different varieties that were supposed to grow over autumn and winter. While they did grow there wasn't really much action until the warmer weather arrived.

We harvested five kilograms of onions but only three sad little garlic :(

We have tried growing garlic before with varied success. I think we will give it one more try and if it doesn't work this time we won't bother again. Does anyone have any tips for growing garlic in the UK?

The onions won't fit in the fridge so they are gracing my benchtop at the moment. I think I will have to come up with a few onion recipes tout de suite!

Sunday Morning Deliveries

There was a knock at the door early Sunday morning and we opened it to be presented with this:

A good friend of ours had been out fishing at 5.00am and caught this beautiful Bass. He said it was a bit small (which I find very hard to believe!) but he thought we might like it. I am glad it was 'small' or it would not have fit in our oven.

I used a Rick Stein recipe and it was delicious!

Thanks Mr DLM :)

PTA BBQ Cakes

It was our annual PTA Summer BBQ this week. A few years ago we sold approximately 140 tickets, now we usually sell nearly 210; that is alot of hungry people to feed.

Last year we were rained out and had to have all the tables and chairs in the school hall. This year the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky so everyone was able to sit outside and soak up the sunshine.

My kids didn't want to go home when the time came which is a good sign. They didn't win any of the competitions or prizes but they did not seem to mind; I suppose they were having such a whale of a time it really didn't matter.

We had lots of games and things to do to keep little people happy; a swim in the school pool, a Fancy Hat competition, chalk drawing, colouring-in competition, Hook-a-Boat, Lucky Lollypop, Name the Toy, sandpit play, football, all the climbing frames in the school grounds and a quiz, meat raffle and a cake raffle for the bigger people present.
All the PTA pitch in; they cook the food, serve the food, run the stalls and clean up afterwards. It was a very long day, lots of hard work but it was great fun and the children all have such a wonderful time. There is something special about a party at school.

I made these two cakes for the dessert table. There was none left so I guess they tasted ok :)

Well done to the PTA for another fabulous BBQ!

Harder than I thought....

I am out of practice with blogging, this is what I keep telling myself. I stopped for a variety of reasons, not just the Chinese porn issue. A few friends have asked me when I am going to start again as they like to read about what we have been up to. I thought about it for a few weeks, or was that months, and then I remembered that the main reason I started in the first place was to keep in contact with family and friends.

So here I am once again feeling just like a newbie, wondering what I am going to blog about. Do not get me wrong just because I stopped blogging didn't mean that we stopped existing :)

I scrolled back through the photos of the last few months and came across this cake. I made it for my girlfriend's birthday. It was a chocolate cake with a chocolate butter cream filling iced in a dark chocolate ganache. I used 1.5kgs of dark chocolate in that icing; that was one heavy cake.

The flowers are from our garden as I am not au fait with fondant flowers, so fresh it was. I do keep meaning to enrol in a professional cake decorating course. I am fine with buttercream but I find fondant a bit of a mystery. I am sure there are plenty of special tricks in respect to producing the perfect fondant bloom.

Well that's all for now. I am going to ease myself back into this and see how it goes. Thanks for popping in.

Pooh Bear Cake

I asked my daughter what cake she would like for her birthday party. She assured me she wanted a Princess cake like her sister had for her birthday as few years ago. It was the type of cake with a Princess doll sticking out of the top of a cake skirt. So I leapt into action and prepared for a Purple (as she HATES pink) Princess Party extravaganza.

Just before sending out the invitations I thought I had better double check that Princesses were still the popular choice.

'No,' I was told. 'I have always wanted a Pooh Bear Party!'

I have to look on the bright side, at least a Pooh Bear cake was easier to do than a Princess cake.

Space Pokemon

For B1's 10th birthday he asked for a sleepover party and a Pokemon cake. I was hopeful that he would choose Pikachu as I was reasonably confident that I could alter B3's Pooh Bear cake design in a Pikachu fairly easily.

No such luck! B1 wanted a 'Legendary Pokemon' for his cake. Originally he choose a very spiky one and asked for the cake to be in the shape of his body - nightmare. He eventually settled on a Space Pokemon, Mew. This gave me a chance to use my edible glitter once more, as a sparkly cake suits a Space Pokemon.

This is what Mew looks like so my free-hand icing drawing turned out OK. The cake is chocolate and the cupcakes are vanilla (as B3 is allergic to cocoa). B1 had three friends to sleep and the last time Mr Bee or I went down it was 2.00am on the clock. They were up again at 5.00am so B1 was not a very happy chappy by 5.00pm that night but he did have a lovely time, even if Mr Bee and I declared NO sleepover parties again (he knows we will give in eventually).