Notes from my New Year so far

It's nearing the end of February; already this year, so much has happened.  I've experienced heavy snow, wind, rain, gales, a spot or two of sunshine - and that's just the weather.  I've got into Cambridge (and those of you who have been following my blog for a while will know that it's been something I've been working towards for a very long time).  I miss school.  Not something that I thought I'd be missing - but I miss the constant challenge of writing essays, answering questions, and participating in debates; I feel lost on this gap year, but now feel like I've got a road map in the form of a reading list, a packing list and a two day stop-over at my college in March.

January was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster: I've been having the time of my life with Chris, I visited him in the Lake District and watched all 4 showings of the Braithwaite Panto where he played Robin Hood.  We walked most of the way up Grisedale Pike in snow that went up to my waist at some points.  Then he came down to visit me in Torquay twice, once at the end of January when we celebrated our birthdays, and again for Valentines day in February.

At the end of January, I was tasked with designing and making a wedding cake for my friends Paul and Mariella (I used to work with Paul, and Mariella went to my secondary school - though she was a few years ahead of me).  This cake wasn't any old wedding cake - it was a 3 tier monster: 14 inch, 12 inch and 10 inch tiers, with Pokemon themed cake toppers (Evee and Gengar, for those who play pokemon), 6 satellite cakes that looked like pokeballs.  Meanwhile, the cake was to have 2/3 of it as a comic book homage to the couple, and the other 1/3 was to be in a more traditional style.

So, it's been a rather productive 2015 so far, and I can't wait to see where the rest of the year takes me.  In March, I will be heading off to London to visit one of my best friends, Aggie, and then will head off to Cambridge from there for two days.  Following that, it's back to London and onto a coach that will take me straight to the Lake District and into another month walking the fells - I hope to get another 60 or 70 done, though I don't know how realistic I'm being!

Lord of the Rings Birthday Party

A couple of days ago, all of my hard work from the last month cultimated in my 18th birthday party!  I thought I'd share some of the pictures and experience with you :)

Upon arrival, my guests entered through a hobbit size door which I had made out of a huge piece of cardboard and mounted just inside my front door (to keep it dry!)

 

I also made some little wine glass charms out of FIMO clay, each representative of one of my guests dressed up as their assigned character!

 

 

Upon arrival, we all had afternoon tea (the first of our hobbit meals) made up of tea and scones with cream and jam - whilst watching the Fellowship of the Ring (all films were in special extended edition).  After the film ended, at about 7pm, we went into the dining room for dinner.

 

Dinner Menu

 

Starter

A choice of roasted red pepper or leek and potato soup, served with freshly baked lembas bread

Main

Roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings

Dessert

Tarte au citron and summer fruit and apple pie

 

After dinner, we brought through the cake (though we were too full to eat it straight away!)  I had made a checkerboard cake (chocolate and vanilla sponge) and decorated it as a hobbit house, this took in total about 4 hours.  To create the 'wooden' effect, I marbled brown food colouring paste through fondant, and I textured the door using a cocktail stick, using a gold sugar ball for the handle.  I used small ivy leaf cutters for the leaves, and coloured buttercream green and piped using a no. 233 icing nozzle. 

 

 

After dinner, we watched the second film and got really tired, so decided to head downstairs to sleep.  The intention had been to stay up to watch the first half of Return of the King, so that everybody could be in the mood to face Shelob (my paper mache spider) when we got downstairs into my bedroom.  However, this was not before playing the 'ring doughnut game,' tying ring doughnuts from string and hanging them from the curtain rail, and having to eat them without using our hands - my friend Aggie was named 'Lord of the Rings.'

 

 

 

In the morning, we woke up and had first and second breakfast, cereal and tea for first breakfast, and a warm fruit drink and blueberry pancakes for second breakfast.  We then moved back into the living room and watched the final film before everybody left at 11am.

 

And so ends the chronicle of my 18th birthday!  Subscribe, +1 and comment!



Jane Eyre Cake

Last month, I was asked by my English teacher to make a cake for her book club.  She wanted a lemon sponge with a lemon buttercream, to feed 12 people, and she wanted it to look like an open book with pages of a classic book such as Jane Eyre or something by Dickens.

The concept:

The flavour of the cake would be as requested, on a silver board with holly and ivy made out of modelling paste in order to give it a festive feel.  I would have got the pages printed onto icing, but after being quoted £8 per sheet in the shop, and not trusting online sellers, I hand wrote the pages onto rice paper with an edible ink pen.  This took me about 2 hours, but only cost me about £2 total for all of the components!  (Preferable to the £16 that I would have had to pay otherwise).

I made my sponges about a week in advance and froze them.  This had the benefit that they were much easier to carve and buttercream once frozen as crumbs weren't flying everywhere.  I carved it into a book shape, added a liberal amount of buttercream, and then rolled on my ready-to-roll icing sheet (which I had coloured so that it was slightly ivory).

Tada!