Happy christmas

Happy christmas one and all x

Christmas party cupcakes

It was Darling boy's pre-school christmas party at the local village hall and the guest of honor was to be Father Christmas himself, resplendent in his twinkly grotto, with presents for all.

Christmas parties are a source of undeniable joy and excitement and the kids could barely cram enough sausage rolls and crisps (toddler party food of choice) in their faces, before much chasing around was to be done.  Called back to the table by the promise of cake, I have never seen a group of kids respond so quickly- but thats the magic of sugar.

For the grown- ups, yours truly had baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes.  Too rich (and delicious) for toddlers. These sparkly cupcakes disappeared pretty quickly.

Oh, and for the record, Little brother was dressed as a christmas elf, complete with stripy leggings and a droopy christmas hat.  Beyond cute.  Happy days.

Where did you get that hat?

 Little brother took a fancy to Handsome husbands hat, adjusting it just so, and then checking it for tastiness.  Yum.

Snowy weather? chocolate needed

Our Dear friends came to stay, just before the snow really hit and it was- as ever- great to see them.  Darling boy had a great time playing with Cute as a button and the Tiny cowgirl.  Almost all of the photos I took prove that it is almost impossible to get a photo of 2 or more children without at least one of them being blurred from wiggling.

We finally ventured out into the cold to make an inspection of the chickens, turkeys and cows, but must admit didnt last long, as the draw of the aga and a warm kitchen proved too much for our freezing toes.  The promise of a slab of Rocky Road to Mars certainly played a role in bringing us back inside.

As we walked back along the lane, we spotted two tiny fairy trampolines (dewdrops on cobwebs to us mere mortals)  This was enough to lift our spirits as we scampered back to hot chocolate, cups of tea and snack time.

Chasing chickens

Happiness is Darling boy, chasing chickens on a cold winters day.

www.adventuresincake.co.uk

Dear Lovely Adventures in Cake Followers

Exciting news!  I have finished my website...go and have a look and tell me what you think.

I had spent ages trying to find a way to make my website on a tiny budget. Proper website designers and developers are pretty expensive.  Eventually, the Entrepeneur pointed me towards a website where you can build your own websites for free- the joy!  I made it all by my little old self!

So, many hours later- and here it is.  It was my New Years resolution to get my website sorted- and here it is, with 26 days to go...

So, go and have a butchers and a mosey around and tell me what you reckon...Once I know it meets the Adventures in Cake followers approval, I'm going to tell the whole world all about it.

thanks all!

Abi x

The towering inferno

It was Handsome husbands birthday recently.  Of all the cakes in the world, his most favourite is the classic chocolate and vanilla marble cake.  A pleasure to make, and a delight to eat.  Its so simple, it just begs to be eaten with cream, or custard, if you are feeling in the need of a winter warmer.  As it was, we were quite toasty enough with the thousands of candles on top.

Spiced apple cupcakes

Mmmm, perfect for such a cold day, spiced apple cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream.  Yum.  It's -1 out there, therefore cake is essential.

The cupcake X-Factor

Well, the exciting news is that the batch of chocolate and vanilla beauties I recently posted were in actual fact 'audition' cupcakes. 

I have been speaking to the award winning Witheridge farmshop about stocking my cupcakes.  I took a batch in as a sample and they went down well.  So well that we have decided to extend the trial and carry on for a time.  How exciting.

So, for a limited period, Adventures in Cake cupcakes will be available from this absolute gem of a shop.  Everyone should rush there now and stock up in time for Christmas, not only on Adventures in Cake cupcakes, as well as all the other goodies that the totally lovely Ted has on offer.

The chocolate cupcake collection

 And then I did a batch of chocolate ones, rocking the autumn colours.

The girly vanilla cupcake collection

 Here are my most recent cupcakes, I went all girly and did a mix of regular size, and baby cakes. 

Loving the autumn

Autumn, my favourite season, chestnut leather boots, cashmere jumpers, scarves and beautiful leaves on the trees, and needing cake and hot chocolate when you come in from outside.  Its my favourite, right after all my other favourites (I also love winter- as that is means cold deserted beaches, snow, and Christmas, and the summer, as it means flippy skirts, bare feet and my birthday, and spring, with its daffodils and inchingly warmer days)... 

I love this time of year, and since moving to Devon from the greys of London, you really see the seasons change in the colours of the landscapes.

Cupcakes and making cider

 Our Cruwys Morchard Chums had a cider making day and we went along with the apples from our orchard to be added to the mix.  It was a cold, sunny day.  The men folk chopped and squished apples, and us girls sensibly stayed inside mostly (to be fair, I did do a bit of chopping) and chatted and drank tea.  To go along with the party, I baked these chocolate cupcakes.  Everyone likes chocolate after all, and we needed something sweet after the sticky hotdogs and warm cider of lunch.

 

Wedding cupcakes

Here are the photos from the most recent wedding Adventures in Cake baked for.  The bride's colour theme was red and ivory.  They requested a selection of flavours, so a mix of carrot cake, lemon, vanilla and coconut made up the tower of 80 cupcakes.  Hearts and butterflies and glitter topped off each cake.  The large cake was a double layer juicy lemon cake, also topped with butterflies and a liberal sprinkling of red and gold glitter.

The wedding was held in an old church in deepest Devon and the reception was in the Tithe Barn next door. It looked so romantic and cosy, the red and gold beautifully complemented the old wood in the barn.

Great British Weddings

Here is an article about me, on the Great British Wedding website.  Exciting!

Birthday brownies

It was Sensible K's birthday recently, which happily coincided with something of a mini school reunion for me and my girlfriends.  It was like the past 15 years hadn't happened.  We spent the whole afternoon sat around my folks kitchen table chatting, laughing and boozing, to moderation of course, as we did have bambinos to look after, some running around the house like loons, and other still as a bump, as with the lovely looking Sensible K, whose mini-me is due in just a few days time.

After a long lunch, I piled up dark gooey chocolate brownies into a tower and lit a candle on top.  After a badly sung chorus of Happy Birthday we tucked in to the coeliac friendly goodies, covered in double cream with a side helping of raspberries.  Darling boy and his chum, dressed as Buzz Lightyear, rushed in and managed to find a few moments in their busy schedule of whatever it is 2 year olds do, to cram in as many chocolate brownies as they could get away with, before zooming outside for more conker collecting and running about screaming, now powered by chocolate.

Saying it with cupcakes

As a thank you to our Homing Heros, I baked a batch of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, as a sneaky chance to practice the swirly icing, and a new recipe, chocolate marmalade.   The chocolate marmalade features orange zest in the cake and a hefty dose of zingy marmalade in the chocolate buttercream icing.

The Entrepeneur's cupcakes

Sister in law came down last weekend with the Entrepeneur for his birthday.  We headed to North Devon's loveliest beach for the boys to jump in the waves and have a surfing lesson.  Darling boy and Little brother and I joined them for a picnic on the beach.  We were lucky with the sun and spent a lovely morning lying on the beach staring at the sky, whilst Darling happily soaked his entire outfit from the socks up playing in the rock pools.

Later that afternoon, we headed back to the farm with the Entrepeneurs birthday present, 2 dozen cupcakes; 12 gingerbread cupcakes, and 12 a new flavour, mint choc chip cupcakes.  They went down a storm and were eagerly guzzled up by the menfolk, hungry after a day of surfing the waves.