A little slice of real life.......

What a weekend! 

As I told you on Friday I was off to Skibbereen, West Cork with G for a taste of cottage life. G had given me this weekend away as a Christmas gift and let me tell you the boy done well. I actually did not want to leave!

I never really saw myself as a 'cottage-y kinda gal' but oh my! I actually heard myself saying the words "look at these beams". I often watch TV shows where people are searching for their dream cottage and they are all about the beams. I never really 'got' it but now I am well and truly converted!

I mean seriously look at those beams, don't ya just love?!

It's a good thing I loved it so much too as the weather was beyond atrocious. All the walks and exploring our surroundings were put by the way side. Our fab little cottage had an outside jacuzzi which was never even opened. G attempted it once but the wind was beyond crazy. I felt like we were actually in a hurricane at one stage.

We did venture into the town for a bite to eat a few times and what I saw (through the car window lol!) looked like a nice town. It would have been great to have been able to walk around and have a look but sure, next time.

I love the people of west Cork in general, they are so friendly and welcoming. It's like you've known them your whole life.

Of course when it was time to leave, the storm let up and the sun came out to say hello.

I didn't really mind to be honest, I was quiet happy pottering around the cottage, drinking tea in my pj's :)

If cottages are your thing, you should check them out at Cottages for couples.ie. They have these amazing treehouses that were closed for the winter but G and I are definately going back to check them out in the summer. They looked so cool and if our cottage was anything to go by I'm sure it will be amazing!

Shirley x

Princess Castle Cake

Happy Fondant Friday folks!

I was asked to make this cake for a little princess who was turning 3!

But this cake ended up being the disaster I was talking about in Tuesday's post. And what annoys me the most is I still can't figure out what went wrong. You see those lovely towers? Well the one on the left decided to snap whilst being transported.

The storm did not help in any way, shape or form. It was fine until I was taking it from my house, shielded under an umbrella from the wind. I was in the car about two minutes when I noticed a tear in the fondant and it just went all down hill from there!

When I arrived with the cake I did my best to repair the damage but the tower didn't exactly have the same height or structure it had previously. I was absolutely gutted, like extremely close to tears. It is my first ever disaster and I must admit it knocked my confidence a bit.

Hmmmmm.......Who knows, maybe it was just one of those days.

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What is everyone up to for the weekend?

G and I are headed off to a cottage in 'wesht' Cork for the weekend which should be interesting with the forthcoming storm.......

Wish us luck :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Shirley x

Two Tone Valentine Cupcakes

Awhile back I dabbled in this two toned cupcake craze that I'm sure you've all spotted on pinterest. It's pretty simple really and I absolutely love the effect it gives. With Valentines coming up I thought I'd try a red and white contrast. But actually when I look at the photos it reminds me more of an ice-cream and syrup topped cupcake, which I reckon wouldn't taste too bad either :)

I tried it out for some Christmas cupcakes and said I'd be back when I had the technique down. Well here I am folks and here's the technique I use...

They say a picture says a thousand words but seriously....That's it! Simple right?!

But just incase here's the breakdown...

How to make two toned buttercream?

 

What you need

• piping bag
• piping tip of choice
• gel food colouring of choice
• fine tipped paint brush
• buttercream

Instructions

1. Put tip in icing bag, I used my Wilton 1M tip. With an artists brush, paint two thin lines of gel food colouring on opposite sides inside the bag. 
2. Fill your piping bag with vanilla buttercream (recipe is below). 
3. Twist your piping bag at the top and push from the top of the bag to get rid of any air bubbles. You do not want to squeeze from the sides. It will smudge your colour and you could lose the clean two toned look. And that's it...ready for piping!

Recipe for Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

 

Ingredients

• 225g unsalted butter,softened
• 400g icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp full fat milk, room temperature

Instructions

 

1. In a large bowl, beat butter until extremely softened and almost fluffy.
2. Add icing sugar and slowly beat working up to full speed. If you go full speed straight away you will end up with an icing sugar cloud and it goes everywhere......been there!
3. Add milk and vanilla extract and beat mixture until light and fluffy.
4. Scoop into your prepared icing bag and pipe!

Isn't this such a great and easy technique? I'm sure you could dabble around with all different colours. Maybe two or three different colours in the icing bag. A rainbow of colours topping your cupcakes..how fab!

I topped mine with small heart shaped iced sugar cookies. With it being Valentines around the corner it seemed only fitting :)

Happy Thursday!

Shirley x

White Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake

This past weekend was quiet a whirlwind in the cakey bakey department. I had a disaster on delivery of one of my cakes, I nearly cried (seriously!). I had a truimph over my Lemon Poppy seed Loaf (Soo happy....Stay tuned) and the festivities had to be tended to.....

It was my Mothers birthday this weekend and she requested a cheesecake. Yay No Bake....I did a little happy dance inside. But when she told me she wanted a white chocolate one, I nearly went into full blown rave mode :)

I think my love of white chocolate is pretty well documented by now. And get this, I have NEVER tried a white chocolate cheesecake....I almost shocked myself!

I was pretty knackered after all the baking so I went in search of a fabulous no bake cheesecake recipe. I stumbled across Nigellas recipe and adapted it from there. First thing I did was make the base chunkier. I love the base as much I love the filling. I always aim for 1/3 biscuit and 2/3 filling. I just think it's a much nicer balance. I added more white chocolate and I layered the biscuit base with strawberries that I had chopped in half.

The strawberries were an absolute winner to compliment the filling. But to be honest it wasnt the greatest cheesecake I've ever tasted. Simple yes! but it lacked the creamy sweet flavour of the white chocolate. I would, however, recommend any novice cheesecake bakers out there to try it, it really is very easy to make and it sets perfectly.

It has set the wheels in motion, for this white chocolate lover, to come up with the ultimate white chocolate cheesecake. I have a few really good ideas :)


I hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday!

Shirley x