19 Nov 2024
October Journal | To The Pumpkin Patch(es)! Plus A Seasonal To-Do List & Things I've Loved Lately
Autumnal/Christmas to-do
This is hands down my favourite time of year and whilst I try not to put too much pressure on it because I don’t want to risk making it stressful, I do like to try and soak it up as much as possible. So I jotted down a few ideas in September of things to do/watch/eat to try and embrace everything cosy season.
Do: Hunt for conkers with Alfie. Visit a pumpkin patch. Make ginger cake and do sparklers in the garden for Bonfire night. Have an autumnal and/or Christmassy weekend away. Add a few Autumn touches around the house. Cosy up under a blanket with a book, candle burning and the Netflix fire in the background. Make a hot chocolate on a rainy Sunday afternoon (okay, every afternoon). Go out for a roast. Read spooky/Autumnal books. Try and see Wicked at the cinema. Get ahead on Christmas shopping, trying to shop local as much as possible. Decorate the house for Christmas as soon as I can persuade my husband it’s not ‘too early’. Buy some Christmas pjs. Go to a Christmas wreath workshop. See the cathedral all decorated for Christmas. Go to a Christmas light display.
Watch: Bake Off, Shetland, Bad Sisters, series 2, The Holiday, Bridget Jones, The Polar Express (hoping to try this one with Alfie for the first time), Arthur Christmas, Love Actually.
Make: Soup, fresh bread, practice Christmas dinners, cosy autumnal recipes; pies, stews etc, Christmas fettucine, camembert and cranberry toasties, milk buns for Boxing Day leftovers sandwiches, Christmas cookies, cinnamon buns.
Twenty things I’ve loved lately
Visting the new Dishoom in Cambridge; so good.
Bridgerton series 3; that show is just joyful, ridiculous escapism and I’m here for it.
A little day trip into London to meet my friend’s new baby.
Alfie’s joy in conker hunting – we varnished all the ones he collected and put them in a big jar with some fairy lights, and it makes a cute autumnal decoration.
An autumnal wreath on the door; yup I’m that person and I don’t even care.
Killing half an hour by letting Alfie run amok in the toy shop. Easy pastime, great way to put together his birthday/Christmas list.
Golden autumn leaves everywhere. Alfie scooping up big handfuls and throwing them above his head.
Baking diary milk and cinnamon cookies.
Misty mornings with dewy spider webs in the trees.
Baby kicks really starting to – excuse the pun – kick in.
Alfie’s sheer joy in drinking hot chocolate.
As sad as it sounds, the absolute satisfaction of cleaning and tidying the house and sitting down with a candle burning, the Netflix fire on the telly and a freshly made hot chocolate.
When your kid and one of your oldest friend’s kids start developing a cute little friendship.
Alfie offering to ‘help’ grate the cheese, turning round to find him nibbling on an entire block of parmesan.
Fenland sky sunsets.
Pumpkins on doorsteps.
Buying all of Alfie’s birthday/Christmas presents and briefly, just for a split second, feeling like I was vaguely on top of something.
Alfie insisting on me putting my coat on because he didn’t want me to be cold.
Buying an air fryer; the trend finally got me.
Baby scan and little one being nice and healthy.
30 Oct 2024
How To Make A Vegan Wedding Cake & Cupcake Tower
When my sister asked me to make her wedding cake, I was honoured she trusted my baking skills enough with such a big task. One of my oldest friends baked our wedding cake for us and every time I look through photos, it always makes me feel warm and fuzzy that she put that amount of effort in for us. It’s such a personal, special touch to the day and I loved the idea of doing the same for my sister. So, of course, I said yes immediately.
It was only later that it dawned on me what I had committed to. I thought about all the weddings I have been to and realised at some point on the wedding day, every guest was going to gather around my creation and take a lot of photos. No pressure.
The brief was: a bit rustic, flavours preferably carrot and/or lemon, and all vegan. Which did mean I spent quite a lot of the first half of this year obsessing over how to make the perfect vegan icing. Still, nice to have hobbies. After a lot of back and forth, I eventually settled on the idea of a smaller wedding cake alongside a cupcake tower.
It was the first time I have ever focussed on just one bake over several months, baking, tweaking, baking again, tweaking again until I had a result I was happy with. I was pretty sick of eating carrot cake by the end of it but the baker in me really loved the process. It’s not something I would normally allow myself the time or energy for – it would feel a bit excessive to do it for no reason – but having a reason to do it made me understand how fun it could be to do for a living.
The Wedding Cake
The original recipe for the sponge of this carrot cake was from the cookbook A New Way To Bake by Phillip Khoury, which I tweaked to make it a little more citrussy. The icing was based on a lot of internet research and a lot of trial and error.
This cake is a normal size so could be also used as a nice birthday cake or – hey why not – a just-because-it’s-Tuesday cake. It is 100% vegan.
For the cake:
200g grated carrot
50g raisins
100g walnuts, roughly chopped
120g muscovado sugar
150g caster sugar
350g oat milk
80g olive oil
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
Zest of 1 orange
Pinch of salt
For the icing:
600g vegan butter (I used flora) – at room temperature and then blasted in the microwave for 10 seconds
280g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp aquafaba (the water from a can of chickpeas)
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
To decorate:
Edible flower petals
Pre-heat the oven to 180c and grease & line the base of three 20cm shallow cake tins. Combine the grated carrots, raisins, walnuts, both sugars, milk and olive oil in a bowl and stir well with a silicone spatula. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt. Add to the carrot mixture and mix well to combine. Stir through the orange zest.
Divide between the three tins – I would recommend weighing to ensure all the sponges are as equal as possible: it’s approximately 430g of batter in each tin. Bake for 25 minutes. Swap/rotate tins and bake for another 10 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool the cakes completely in the tins before icing.
I did a lot of trial and error with this icing, and after several attempts, my conclusion is that is it much better to use an electric hand whisk as opposed to the stand mixer. So: whisk butter in a large bowl with hand whisk until just creamy. Add the icing sugar, stir it in a little to avoid a mushroom cloud of sweet snow, and then whisk until just combined.
Add the vanilla extract and aquafaba and whisk for 3-4 minutes. Aquafaba is the magic ingredient here; it transforms a sweet, yellowy butter into a white, silky-smooth buttercream and I find it a little bit magical to watch it come together. You need to keep an eye on this – 3-4 minutes is an approximation. I would say don’t do less than 3 minutes, but you don’t want to over whisk. It’s a bit of judge-by-eye situation and you need to bear in mind that once you’ve done this, you’re going to add the lemon juice and whisk for another minute. The important thing is that it is silky smooth and can hold its shape.
You will have a generous amount of icing here; that’s okay. Nothing worse than running out and I found it reassuring to have some spare to take with me just in case of any hiccups when transporting the cake.
Level off the sponges if needed (I made them on the same day but I am almost certain you could make these the day before and wrap in clingfilm as soon as they are cool, and they would be fine). Put your cake board (think carefully about the colour as it will peek out) on an icing turntable, dollop a splodge of icing on the cake board to hold the cake in place and lay down your first sponge. Spread a generous – you have loads, don’t be stingy – amount of icing on evenly and then put the next sponge on top. Repeat.
Once all the sponges are stacked, start applying the icing to the sides and top using a dough scraper and palette knife. Make this a thin-ish layer and don’t worry too much about presentation at this point. Then put in the fridge for about half an hour. Do not skip this step; it stops any crumbs getting caught in the icing and makes the rest of the icing so much easier.
Once out the fridge, apply the rest of the icing on the cake, using the dough scraper, palette knife and turntable to smooth. Steady as you go, there’s no rush. I just kept going and smoothing until I was happy. Rustic was the vibe so it didn’t need to be perfect and I was going to decorate with the edible flower petals anyway. For the flower petals – I think you absolutely need a pair of bent-tip tweezers to get them on without smudging icing everywhere but you might have more delicate hands than me. I had no set ideas for the flower petals, I just created patterns depending on what arrived.
On the day, I stood the cake on a pretty stand and added the topper. It stood in front of the cupcake tower; speaking of which…
The Cupcake Tower
The below recipe is for a batch of 24 vegan lemon cupcakes. I made four batches.
For the cupcakes:
100ml rapeseed oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
400ml oat milk
450g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
300g golden caster sugar
3 tsp vanilla paste
Zest of 2 lemons
For the icing:
560g vegan butter at room temperature. Blast in microwave for 10 seconds before starting.
230g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp aquafaba
Zest of 2 lemons
Pre-heat the oven to 160c fan and pop your paper cases into the cupcake tin.
Combine the rapeseed oil, cider vinegar and oat milk in a jug, and then combine the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture, whisking as you go.
Add the vanilla paste and lemon zest and stir to combine.
Divide between the muffin case – it’s approximately 3-4 tablespoons of batter per cup.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
To make the icing, use the adjusted measurements but follow the same instructions as above, only add lemon zest at the end, instead of lemon juice.
To ice, I would recommend buying very big piping bags and a large nozzle. If you’ve not got much experiencing icing cupcakes (like me), here’s what I learnt from practice, and then icing 96 of them in a row:
- Your instinct is to start in the middle of the cupcake but don’t. Start from the edge and twirl your way in. That’s how you get the pretty bit in the middle.
- Have a lot of icing in the bag and a good amount of pressure so you don’t run out halfway through icing a cupcake.
- Be bold and be fast, if you dither or try to be gentle, they don’t look as good or the icing goes everywhere. We had a system going where Gary would have a continuous stream of cupcakes in front of me, so I never really stopped icing, and my mum whisked them away into the carry case and the never-ending motion was what gave me the best results. It was surprising how quickly I managed to ice them all as well.
- The first few won’t be great but don’t worry. You’ll get into your stride, and they can go at the back.
- Your arms and back will ache. Not much you can do about that I’m afraid.
All the cupcakes were baked in paper cases and then we added them into the pretty cases afterwards. The tiered stand was just clear acrylic but that was all we needed; 96 cupcakes piled high was enough of a statement.
On the day, we had the cupcake tower stood tall and then the cake in front of it and we decorated the surrounding table with colourful dried flowers. And, if I do say so myself, I was pretty chuffed with the end results.
All photos by Hannah Mia.
2 Oct 2024
September Journal | Cosy season, my go-to candle brands & things I’ve loved lately
25 Sept 2024
One Minute Book Reviews: Summer Reads
13 Sept 2024
August Journal | Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again
This is my way of telling you I’m pregnant again in case that wasn’t obvious.
I found out when we were on holiday in Devon. I was so incredibly bloated that I turned to Gary one evening and said ‘do you think I’m pregnant or I’ve just eaten a lot of cream teas?’. The answer was both, as it turns out. I would say we didn’t tell anyone straight away, but I’m pretty sure I inadvertently told the woman working in the local chemist when I came in three days in a row, first to buy a pregnancy test, second to buy folic acid, third to buy Gaviscon.
Those first few weeks of pregnancy are just about getting through and that’s what I’ve been doing since the start of July, head down, trying not to throw up, trying not to fall asleep in public, trying not to worry too much about giving birth again or the realities of life with a three-year-old and a newborn. I’ve been more exhausted than my first pregnancy (but I’ve also had an iron deficiency and a toddler so that might explain it), the nausea has come in waves rather than being relentlessly 24/7 like before, but I’ve found myself gagging a lot more; my sense of smell has been so heightened, pretty much anything can set me off. Still, I thought it had been, on the whole, an improvement than with Alfie but the morning I threw up at the smell of the food bin made me wonder if I was clutching at straws and first trimesters are just crap all round.
None of my normal clothes fit, but I’m not really ready for maternity clothes. I think I managed to bypass this period last time because it was summer, and I just wore my usual floaty dresses with a bump peaking through. But we are entering into knitwear season and NONE OF MY JEANS WILL DO UP. As I write this, I’m wearing my roomiest pair of jeans with the hairband trick holding them together. Should I just resign myself to wearing leggings for the next few months?
The thing I have learned about second pregnancies is that they are more understated than the first. Absolutely no disrespect to this very-much-wanted second child but I’ve done this before, I know what’s coming. It’s still special but there’s less nervous anticipation and more resigned reality. I’m excited for the good bits but lack the naivety of how hard the hard bits will be, and I do kinda miss that blissful ignorance of the first time. There’s also less novelty; it’s less big news for me and others. When I got pregnant with Alfie, I had one friend with a baby. Now I’ve lost count of the amount of lil squish balls knocking about. The main reason this pregnancy will be less dramatic than the first though is because there is absolutely no chance whatsoever of baby making their grand entrance at Christmas. I’ll be able to tell people their birthday without one person saying the words ‘that must have been a lovely Christmas present for you’ and ain’t that a treat.
Sometimes I feel a little guilty that this baby doesn’t have all the hype of the first, but I also know how much they will benefit from having parents who have done this before. I can’t wait to put into practice all I have learnt with them. I can’t wait to hold a newborn again, to see whether they look like their brother. “I’m so broody,” I said to my friend the other day as a family with a newborn walked past. “It’s a good job!” she responded. In a way this pregnancy still feels very abstract, like we can’t quite believe we will be having another little munchkin to bring up.
As you can probably tell, we’re nervous, excited and all the emotions in between.
Little one will be arriving early Springtime.
7 Aug 2024
June/July Journal | Twenty Things I've Loved Lately
2. Speaking of which, this simple lemon pasta hits the spot on a hot day.
3. Douglas is Cancelled, an excellent bit of telly. It starts off being a bit of a so-so comedy and then the third episode hits you like a freight train and you don’t laugh once. And then all rounded up into an excellent finale where you reexamine every word and moment. Just brilliant.
4. Also, the latest series of Trying; I could spend hours with these characters.
5. Fantasising about candles to buy in the Autumn; the Overose ones are very pricey but also by far some of the best candles I’ve come across. Obviously, it’s the ones that smell like baked goods that have me in a chokehold.
6. I am really buzzing for the Wicked film coming out in the Autumn, not going to lie.
7. The Tory government got voted out and I’m not even going to pretend I wasn’t thrilled.
8. I finally got on the Bridgerton trend and it has been an excellent binge watch. I’m just about to dive into series 3… no spoilers please!
9. My sister got married, and it was the loveliest, loveliest day.
10. My baking brain has been consumed by planning and practicing the wedding cake for months now, so it has been nice to open it up to other ideas again. May have been a little overzealous in treating myself to some new cookbooks as a ‘reward’.
11. Alfie finally said ‘mummy’ for the first time and I really can’t see it ever getting old.
12. Also, Alfie getting really into cuddly toys and now having to go to sleep with several, including a bear that is practically the same size as him. It is very cute, if a little disconcerting when he comes into our bed during the night with an entire menagerie.
13. Oh little ones running in and out of paddling pools is so wholesome.
14. A week by the sea in Devon, where the weather was so kind to us.
15. Nothing can quite beat warm scones with jam and cream (IN THAT ORDER) whilst sat by the sea on a British holiday.
16. This year has been a bit weird and overwhelming in many ways and I feel like I haven’t had much opportunity to see friends so trying to pepper the calendar with plans over the next few months.
17. An end-of-summer glamping trip in the diary, booked on a bit of whim.
18. Eating delicious tapas sat by the river.
19. The ‘favourites’ feed on Instagram. It cuts out a lot of the noise and can make social media feel like a much calmer, nicer place. Also setting strict time restrictions on social media usage in general (restricted by a pin code that only my husband knows) is very good for me.
20. My The Simple Things magazine subscription. It’s like a little moment of calm and joy arriving in the post every month.
State of affairs in the UK right now feels pretty grim. Hope you're doing okay dear reader x
Hey there!
