Another wedding cupcakes sneak preview

The wedding was wonderful.  Truly lovely.  Everything was gorgeous.  The cupcakes went down a storm and I have 10 zillion photos to sort through.  But in the meantime, here is another sneaky glimpse of the beauties.

Wedding cupcakes sneak preview

The last few days have been a frenzy of crystallising rose petals, stamping out daisy shaped decorations, baking, icing and decorating- all in a haze of pink purple and burnished gold glitter.  I have a wedding today that I have baked the cupcakes for (and lucky little me gets to go to the wedding too!)

The bride has chosen a selection of 6 different flavours (the wonderful benefit of cupcakes being just this- lots of flavours!)  And so along with these different flavours are different toppings and different decorations.  Marvellous mum has been on hand to help with the decoration stamping, champion washing up and entertaining Little brother who was extremely keen on being chief taster.

I'm so excited for today, I'm quite giddy.  I woke up this morning and looked out of our window at clear blue skies.  Lucky bride and groom.

On the menu today we have:

* Vanilla, with dusty pink vanilla buttercream, with crystallised rose petals
* Chocolate with pink daisies
* Sticky toffee pudding- with a secrete toffee sauce inside and a toffee buttercream, topped with purple daisies
* Lemon cupcakes with lemon daisies
* Carrot cake cupcakes with dusty orange daisies
* Cherry and almond, topped with a good old fashioned cherry.  Quite a combination.

More photos to follow later on, after the big day.  But here is a sneak preview

Pavlova

When Sensible K came for tea, I wanted to make her a lovely pudding, (that just happened to be coeliac friendly)  One step up from Eton Mess, a pavolva is something I hadn't made before.  Its a bit retro, but a total classic at the same time.  It must be the perfect mix of cream, meringue and berries- it's sweet, creamy and fruity all at once- and therefore healthy. ahem.

And the news is...

There is no news...turns out there had been a delay we didn't know about...more information is required by the conservation officer.  Deep breaths and more waiting is needed from us.  Passions are flaring over lime plaster, who knew passions could be raised over such topics?

So, what do girls do when the going gets tough?  girls go shopping of course.  Look! I have a nice new purse.  Well, my old one was broken and now I am mildly and temporarily diverted from the agony of waiting, my cards and whatnot have a pretty new home and Darling boy is as pleased as punch as he gets to play with my old one.

In the meantime, we are still waiting, waiting, waiting...

Adventures in Cake goes Whooppeeeeeee

Handsome husbands cousin is off to China for a whole year to do something terribly clever in design.  So, before she left, she came down to Devon for a visit to keep her 'topped up' on Devon loveliness whilst she was away.

In honour of her exciting trip, I wanted to bake her something very very un-chinese...the thinking being she was about to have a year of missing all her favourite things, so before she goes, she needs to stocked up, to keep her reserves going.

My new Hummingbird Bakery cookbook suggested these cheeky fellows; chocolate and peanut butter whoopee pies.  A few tweaks with the recipe and the method were required...but they turned out pretty well, and were soon gobbled up.  Cups of hot tea were the best accompaniment, with a glass of cold milk a cool second.

These were my first whoopee pies (yes, I know I am late to the party)  and I think they need some further refinement, but not bad for an early try out.

Only 24 hrs from meltdown

Tomorrow we are due to hear from the local council if they have approved our planning application.  It has been a long road, and we haven't even started yet!

We first met with our architect before Christmas and had hoped to be building by March.  As the sharpest amongst you may have noticed, we are in fact, just at the beginning of July and not so much as a spade has been lifted (apart from the holes Handsome husband dug to see if there was any foundations to the barn)

So, we have waited and waited and waited and tomorrow is the day the council have said they will get back to us by.

It's nail biting stuff...

(and by the way, Handsome husband found some foundations, just 'some'...not the words you are wanting to hear when renovating a barn)