ABC...

....it's as easy as 1 2 3*. Apparently not as this post has been lurking around the drafts folder since June.

 

 

Back in June, Gem of Cupcake Crazy Gem nominated me for an ABC (Awesome Blog Content) award and in August Susie of Fold in the Flour nominated me for one as well. Thank you ladies! It's fantastic to know that others enjoy my little blog filled with baking and pretty things, especially coming from blogs I enjoy following. It's a nice feeling :)

I found filling in 26 alphabet related facts surprisingly difficult but here we go!

A is for Acne. I was finally put Accutane for my skin last August for 6 months. It caused all sorts of nasty side effects, but I do have completely clear skin now for the first time since I was 11. The novelty of waking up in the morning with clear skin still hasn't worn off.

B is for Bill Bailey. When I met him earlier this year I asked if he could write "from Manny" (his Black Books character) on the autograph to which he replied "you do know that's not my real name?"

C is for cake stands. I would be very sad without them.

 

D is for dinosaurs. In my final year at uni I dressed up as a stegosaurus for Hallowe'en and my friend, Alice, was a pterodactyl. On our way home a couple gave us £1 as they said we had the best costumes they'd seen that night! My friend Kirsty captured us on polariod.

E is for Edinburgh, where I went to university and lived above a bakery.

F is for flossing. I don't mind flossing my own teeth but the "clicking" sound of someone else flossing their teeth is like fingernails on a chalk board to me. It's horrible.

G is for grumpy. I am not a morning person.

H is for hot chocolate. I may have spent a lot of money in Whittards recently....

I is for impatient. I wish I had more patience (and the camera lenses actually) to take really beautiful cake photographs, but I always want to eat the cake immediately and I can't be bothered to iron the tablecloth.

J is for Jive Talkin'. I won't have any of you bad mouthing this Bee Gees track. It's a fantastic dance number.

K is for kitchen. I cannot wait to have my own! I spend a lot of time dreaming about my future kitchen.

L is for licking the baking bowl clean. I've been doing it since I was a toddler and I'm unlikely to change.

M is for Milkolait. Does anybody remember it? It was basically a white chocolate version of Nutella and tasted absolutely AMAZING. I haven't seen it stocked anywhere since about 1997. Gutted.

N is for nerd. I was one of those sad people at school who loved learning grammar in language classes. I also enjoyed doing music theory which most people seem to hate.

O is for Orchestra. I play the violin in my local (amateur) orchestra. We only play during the winter months and we're certainly not anything to rave about, but it's good fun.

P is for Princess Bride, my favourite film.

Q is for Quavers, the name of my Primary 6 netball team. Yes, we named ourselves after a packet of crisps, I don't know why. I was Goal Attack.

R is for Royal Winton Grimwades. My favourite brand of fine bone china.

 

S is for socks. Spots, stripes, hippos, ducks, dinosaurs, hedgehogs, elephants, firemen, policemen, piano keys, hearts, teacups, party rings, flowers, campervans. You name it, I have it.

 

T is for toe! I broke my little toe on my right foot during an unfortunate trampolining incident in P.E. at secondary school. It somehow got stuck in the criss-cross weave of the trampoline when I was sitting down and when my friend jumped my body bounced but my toe stayed caught. I hobbled around the rest of the school day in agony and by the time I got home my foot was black down one side. It took about a year to fully heal and to wear footwear other than trainers.

U is for.....you guessed it, Utility China! I can't get enough of those pastel, mix and match colours.When I was little I had a plastic teaset in green, pink and yellow which I loved to mix and match. I'm assuming this is where the obsession began.

V is for Volkswagen Beetle. I love Betty my Nissan Micra, but I've always loved old beetles. My Dad had an orange one in his late teens!

W is for white chocolate. There used to be a place in Edinburgh called Chocolate Soup where you could drink espresso sized shots of molten chocolate. I miss their white chocolate shots :(

X is for X-Men. God I love those films, even X-Men 3 which wasn't great.

Y is for yes please! Always the answer I give if someone offers me a cup of tea. It became a running joke at work last year.

Z is for zip. Is it just me or does anyone else dislike obvious zips on dresses? I hate it when I think I've found a pretty (usually floral) dress but then look at the back and there is a massive, exposed zip. Uggghh.

Phew! Congratulations if you managed to read all of that! I'm passing the ABC award on to the following people:

Emine of MBakes
Gem of Little Gem's Diary
Kim of Cakes From Kim
Louise of Tea at Weasels
Paula of Sweetharts Cakes and Bakes

I thought it would be nice to pass it along to a mix of bakers/china lovers/crafters. Remember to check out Gem and Susie's blogs as well as my nominees as they're lovely bakers (unless you're on a diet, then enter with caution!)

*gotta love a Jackson 5 reference :)

Awards, facts and muffins.

A big thank you to Gem from Cupcake Crazy Gem who nominated me for two awards last week. Two awards? Lucky me!

Rules for both the awards are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award and link back to them.

2. Share 5 random facts about yourself

3. Spread the joy by nominating other bloggers

4. Convey the blogger about the nomination.

My facts are:

1. Last week somebody asked if our cat, Jimi, was pregnant. No, he is just incredibly fat!

2. I've discovered that I own 33 dresses. Some wintery, some summery, a couple for special occasions (weddings) and nearly all of them are floral.

3. My current TV obsession is Once Upon A Time (channel 5 on Sundays). It's like a cross between Heroes and Disney fairytales. Anyone else watching it?

4. I'm pretty sure I could win an Olympic event for sleeping. With no alarms or wake up calls, I can easily sleep for 12 hours straight. My personal best is 14-15 hours.

5. I think Jimmy Carr has the best laugh ever, closely followed by David Mitchell.

The people I'm passing the awards onto are:

1. Miss Cakeaholic 

2. Laura Loves Cake

3. The Baking Bee

4. The More Than Occasional Baker

5. The Pursuit of Domestic Goddess-ness

I hope you check them out, they're all great, exciting bakers.

Now onto the muffins! (Phew! This post is getting long!) I actually made these last month but didn't get round to posting them. Better late than never as they say.  I divided my batter so I could make two flavours. The first lot are apple and cinnamon muffins. I wouldn't hail these as a brilliant success, but they certainly weren't bad. I think they would have benefitted from more apples or maybe an extra flavour/texture. Walnuts or pecans perhaps.

My other batch were white chocolate and raspberry. These were the clear winners as there was only one left when I got round to taking photographs. They were much juicier and I loved coming across the half melted chunks of white chocolate, but then again I am a white chocolate fiend.

The recipe came from my first ever cookbook, Children's Quick & Easy Cook Book by Angela Wilkes. Despite no longer being a child I still occasionally use this cookbook!

115g (4oz) butter

285g (10oz) plain flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

85g (3oz) caster sugar

220ml (8 fl oz) milk

225g (8oz) raspberries

85g (3oz) white chocolate, chopped.

Set the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6. Put the muffin cases in a muffin tin. Melt the butter in a pan. Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then add the sugar, milk, and melted butter. Add the flour mixture and fold it in. Fold the raspberries and chocolate into the muffin mixure, then spoon it into the cases (I halved the raspberry and chocolate quantities so that I could add cinnamon and a large apple to one half of the mixture). Bake for 25-30 minutes until they have risen and are firm and brown. Put them on a wire rack to cool.

Versatile Blogger and some cake.

Fallen from Flavour kindly nominated me for a Versatile Blogger award recently. The rules state that once nominated you pass the award along to 15 other bloggers and reveal 7 facts about yourself. As I passed a Liebster Award along not too long ago I felt it would be wrong/annoying to re-nominate the same people or even to not re-nominate them (as they're obviously blogs I enjoy) in favour of other blogs who then may feel second rate as I didn't pass on the first award to them (I'm completely over thinking this aren't I?)

However (if you're still following me after that confusing ramble) I thought it would be fun to do the latter part and reveal 7 random facts about myself. It's always nice to find out more about the face behind the blog isn't it? Even if you discover they're a bit strange.

1. Despite my blog and the china I collect being predominantly pastel coloured I never wear pastel colours. I much prefer mid to darker tones, the colours I wear most being green, turquoise, teal and plum. I rarely wear black.

2. I like heavy rock music, particularly the stoner variety which usually surprises people. Kyuss, Alice in Chains, Dozer, the Hellacopters and Audioslave are on my little ipod shuffle. I blame having two older brothers who play in bands and a Mum who brought us up on Free and Thin Lizzy. Saying that I also love listening to piano music, Chopin's Nocturnes in particular, and will quite happily dance along to 90s boybands like Backstreet Boys (ah wonderful nostalgia.)

3. If there's an empty cardboard box lying around I will try to fit myself in it. If I do fit inside I will sit and wait for somebody to walk past so I can scare the life out of them.

4. I massively dislike the following phrases and descriptions: "EPIC", "WIN", "FAIL", "TOTES", "GOOD TIMES", "BANTER" or even worse "BANTS". It just annoys me when I hear people say "That was a totes epic free sandwich we got from Costa at closing time today. WIN!" .... What?! I've also recently discovered "AMAZEBALLS" although I find that quite funny as it's so ridiculous.

5. Despite being a barista, where I serve coffee and alcohol all day, I drink neither. I keep trying to make myself like coffee but I don't and I can't find a type of alcohol which doesn't make me pull my "disgusting face". I would love to be refined and drink good wine but I'm afraid it pulls the biggest "disgusting face" of them all. Alcohol in food is fine though.

6. I took to collecting and drawing pebbles from beaches at uni (I'm a fine art graduate and they informed my work). It then extended to larger stones, some of which were probably bordering on small boulders. I also had a big box of sand as I liked mixing it in my paint. After three years my uni bedroom resembled a beach. You can imagine how much fun I had moving out of my student flat, on the top floor, especially when I was so attached to practically every stone and owned quite a lot of crockery.....

7. I grew up thinking I didn't like lemon things. It was only when I set myself a "try things you used to hate" challenge when I was about 18 that I discovered I absolutely LOVE lemons. Lemon cake is quite possibly my favourite cake now. I also discovered that I like cinnamon, broccoli, courgette and pickle.

So there you have it, seven random facts. And just to prove how much I love lemons, I baked a lemon drizzle traybake on Tuesday (recipe blogged here). My nephew requested it and I didn't need persuading.

I also baked my favourite banana bread at the weekend but it disappeared  before I got a chance to photograph it.

Just for fun, write a random fact about yourself if you fancy leaving a comment. In the words of Mrs. Doyle, "go on go on go on go on go on!" And while you're at it, have a nice cup of tea.

The Liebster Award

The lovely Roz over at The More Than Occasional Baker gave me a Liebster Blog Award this week. I then remembered that Alex from Culinary Conquests also nominated me for one last month and I completely forgot to do my duty of passing it along. Thank you ladies! I shall do my good deed and hand over the baton (or rolling pin in our case?) I'll try not to let the fame go to my head, although it shall be hard not to shout "I've got awards you know!" to whoever eats my future bakes.

"The origins of the Liebster Blog award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, Liebster meaning favorite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note."

The rules:

• Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
• Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
• Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
• Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed.
• Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

Now I know you're only meant to nominate five people, but I like to be a little bit controversial so I've nominated six. What a rebel! It was just too hard to only pick five.

1. Cakes from Kim - I always enjoy visiting Kim's blog. I especially enjoyed her post about her Grandma's parkin last month.

2. Cat's Cupcakes - Cat always has the most beautifully presented cupcakes and her oreo brownies from this week look delicious.

3. Fancy Vintage - Everybody knows I love crockery as much as cake. Imagine my delight of finding Becca's blog which is full of lovely china and fun photography!

4. Just a Girl and her Kitchenaid - I have a feeling Rachael was one of the first blogs I started following and I still love visiting. Plus her Kitchenaid is called Kevin. Need I say more?

5. Teen Baker - I love the variety of bakes Lucy has on her blog. Check out her recent brownie post - wow!

6. What Kate Baked - Kate's post never fail to make me laugh, she is incredibly witty. An excellent combination of cake and comedy.

Food Bloggers Unplugged

Haha look at that happy face! I love it.

Susan from A little bit of heaven on a plate came up with this online tagging game to get to know fellow food bloggers. I've been tagged by Baking Addict at The more than occasional baker so here's my entry:

1. What, or who inspired you to start a blog?

I don't particularly know to be honest. After graduating in fine art last year I fancied a fun, stress free project which didn't involve painting (I fell out with paint). A good chunk of my final year work was photographic documentation of landscape and my outdoor work so I suppose I extended the documentation idea into my baking. I've always enjoyed baking but it never occured to me to start a blog until the end of last year when I finally had some free time.

2. Who is your foodie inspiration?

My Granny and her two sisters. All of those ladies really knew how to bake.

3. Your greasiest, batter-splattered food/drink book is?

Probably my mum's little cookbook which is full of tried and tested recipes, mostly from my Granny and her sisters.

4. Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?

To be honest I've only been abroad three times, two of which were when I was quite young. However the best baked good I've ever tasted away from home was when I visited one of my uni friends from Northern Ireland. We went to the tea room she did summer work in and we experienced "The Johnny Depp of baked goods". It was a bit like a white chocolate tiffin but with cranberries on top.

5. Another food blogger's table you'd like to eat at is?

Now that's a hard one, can I not just sample a bit from everybody? I'd certainly like to try one of the Caked Crusader's rocky road cupcakes and the more than occasional baker's banana, pecan and chocolate loaf. Kate's recent Thankgiving mini series has also looked fantastic, the bourbon pecan brownies in particular!

6.What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?

A Kitchenaid! And since money is no object I'll have lots of them, standing in a row on the worktop in a variety of colours please.

7. Who taught you how to cook?

My Mum.

8. I'm coming to you for dinner, what's your signature dish?

I'm not much of a cook to be honest, but I make a fairly tasty lasagne. Ultimately, I'd rather serve cake, cake and more cake.

9. What is your guilty food pleasure?

Nutella straight from the jar, condensed milk straight from the can, eating spoonfuls of left over icing (sweet tooth perhaps?)

10. Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?

I have double jointed fingers which can bend backwards. It either amazes or terrifies people.

Finally... tag 5 other food blogggers with these questions... like a hot baked potato... pass it on!

1. Kim from Cakes from Kim

2. Rachael from Just a girl, her cookbook and her very beautiful kitchenaid

3.The almighty Caked Crusader

4.Laura Elizabeth from Chocolate & Pears

5.Paula from SweetHarts Cakes and Bakes

If you're tagged and fancy taking part, then use the Food Bloggers Unplugged logo and link up your post here and/or tweet #foodbloggersunplugged on Twitter.