Blue sparkly cupcakes for the boys

A trip to a friends farm for a cuppa and a play called for cupcakes, and since both of us have two boys, blue cupcakes were called for.  Four boys and sugar meant shortly after they were consumed, we were all outside in our wellies for a romp around the farm to see the cows, tractor and hounds.  All good fun.

Darling boy had a marvellous time with his buddy, and Little brother was delightful and delighted as ever.  He loves dogs and my friend's pup was keeping Little brother very amused.  Meanwhile me and my friend had a good old natter and got our boys happy, ready for their tea and tired for bedtime.

Little boys are basically like puppies themselves.  They need tummies full of food and then to romp around with each other in the fresh air.  Being in Devon, there is plenty of that, and it doesn't matter if its drizzling like it was.  The boys don't care and it's what rain covers were invented for.  Now I just need to get myself a stylish outdoorsy hat like my friend has and I will be all set.

Life on the open road

How completely lovely does this look?  I want to have one of these and have little holidays in it.  Beautiful.  I saw this at the Devon County Show (more of which later)  but just wanted to post this up now as it was just so lovely.  Look! its so pretty.

Little brother turns 1 year old!

 We can hardly believe it, but Little brother is 1 year old already. To celebrate we had a lovely party, full of family, friends, kids, sugar, sunshine, musical bumps and more sugar.  It was perfect.  I have made a promise to myself that every kids party I host will always have cake and fizz. I think its a good promise.

The cupcakes were chocolate and lemon.  The lemon ones had a secret centre of homemade lemon curd which went down very well.  I even managed to bag one myself before they all went, and I can vouch for its tastiness too. Just the right balance of sweet and zesty. Yum.

The cake is a two tiered vanilla sponge.  It is about 10 inches across, and shaped like ducks as this is one of Little Brothers most favourite things and I think the 3rd word he said (after dadda and mamma)  We talk about 'ducks' a lot, me and Little Brother (and 'doors' too, as he can also say 'door')   So when it came to deciding what to do for Little Brother's cake, what else could it be?  I must confess this sort of cake it not normally my thing, but for my bambinos, anything goes.  And iced in buttercream and covered in glitter, its just a hop, skip and jump away from my more usual style.

The embroidered tablecloth you can see under the cake was handed down to me by my mother in law.  I think it was either made by her mother in law, or great mother in law.  Anyway, it is beautiful and so perfect it is incredible.  I know childrens parties aren't normally an occasion for getting out your 'best' but I have decided this lovely handmade craft work should see the light of day.  And what better occasion, that celebrating Little brothers first birthday.

Marmalade cupcakes

I made these for Darling boys 3rd birthday party, and whilst I didn't get to try any myself as they all disappeared really quickly, I was told they were delicious...I knew they would be!

These cheeky chappies have an orange flavoured sponge, with a special secret zing of homemade marmalade in the centre, then topped with orange buttercream icing, and of course, burnished toffee coloured stars and matching edible glitter.

Regal in purple

So, for the Royal wedding street party we were invited to, I opted to go for the classic trilogy of vanilla, lemon and chocolate cupcakes.  I iced them with their partner icings of vanilla, lemon and chocolate, and coloured the vanilla icing to match the decorations on the chocolate cupcakes.  I went regal in purple and lilac, keeping the lemon cupcakes suitably girly with sparkly butterflies.

Post family wedding viewing on the telly at the farm, we adjourned to the street party, which was actually in someones barn- with the most gorgeous views.  The weather was warm and hazy.  Outfits were scrutinised, again.  (Bridal= triumph, cousins = pantomime dames) Cake was eaten and lawns were lazed on.  Perfect.


...and as a side note to this story, where the cupcakes were set up was just inside the host's house.  Darling boy, who is a pretty smart cookie, pointed at the ironing board you can just see peeking out in the corner of the picture, and said with real wonder and curiosity 'Whats that mummy?' The poor lad had never seen one before...Just goes to show how much ironing goes on in the Adventures household.  (ie, not much, my iron is currently in storage.Bliss) 

i HEART brownies

When going for dinner with the Girls and one has volunteered to take pudding, what does one take?  Chocolate of course...After I made these brownies, I thought it would be a cute idea to cut them into heart shapes.  Hooray for brownies.  Hooray for my extensive collection of cookie cutters.  These were served up warm from the oven, with raspberries and ice-cream.

These are my double chocolate brownies, that I made into triple chocolate brownies.