Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's has always been one of my favourite films so when I found out that Hampton Court were staging a screening I was beyond excited to have the opportunity to watch it under the stars. The idea is that you enjoy a picnic before the film starts, so I wanted to make something that was easy to take and that everyone could eat easily. I made individual Tiffany boxes which allowed me to use my new cake tin. It also meant that I now have learnt how to make bows. I used this wonderful tutorial from Katiecakes.

Found. Biscuits

It's been a while since I have made anything for Lauren's work. I wanted to have another go at royal icing so figured these biscuits were a good choice, especially for tea time in an office. As you can see here I've attempted their logo. I used Tate & Lyle's Royal Icing Sugar which made the whole process a lot easier. The purple sprinkles were lovingly added by Becki as I find making royal icing a two person job as it dries quickly. My design for transport of the biscuits was pretty basic...I hope they all made it there in one piece!

Carrot Cake

I had a request for Carrot Cake, I'd never made it before and not really eaten a massive amount of it either. I can safely say that I am now a fan. It has just enough cinnamon and ginger and I used this Hummingbird Bakery recipe as I find their recipes stay moist the longest and always turn out pretty right. I excluded the walnuts as my friend is allergic and I'm not that keen either, and it doesn't feel like it's lacking them. Think they would also be great in cupcake form.

Mini Cherry Pies

Ok so they could be a bit neater, but they are pretty cute. Made in cupcake tins, the mini versions are good for dessert portions or maybe picnics.

Cherry Pie

When I was at school it was always a sign that summer holidays had started when we went fruit picking. My friend had never been so I took her last week and as always it was strangely fun. We got lots of strawberries, the raspberries were lame, but found the most amazing cherry trees. After coming home with my own weight in cherries, I knew I wanted to make something special with them. My Dad is a really big cherry pie fan so it was an easy decision. No one I knew had a recipe so I did some research and found this recipe for the filling. I tweaked it as I went along and after what looked like a murder scene I ended up with a sweet and sticky filling.

For the pastry I used Bill Granger's Pie Pastry and used this amazing lattice tool that my mum had to create the pretty top. I brushed the top with milk to make it golden brown in the oven. The pie went down really well, especially with vanilla ice cream. I've got a few adjustments in mind for the next time, but for now I have enough pastry and filling leftover to maybe make some mini pies...

Blueberry Cake

If you had asked me to eat a blueberry a year ago I probably would have refused, but now I'm obsessed. I've even recently bought a blueberry plant! So when wanting to make something new I chose his cake recipe from the Hummingbird book, which can be found here. The cake wasn't too sweet and was balanced out nicely with the sugary cream cheese frosting.

4th July

Yes, I'm only a tiny bit American but any excuse to make cupcakes is good. I made vanilla cupcakes with stars and stripes cases and red, white and blue sprinkles and distributed them to all the Americans I know, including my Granny. Happy 4th of July!

Astrid's Leaving BBQ

So just before the end of exams I decided to have a leaving BBQ for Astrid as she is moving to Manchester to do a new university course. I promised her some cakes before she left (she would have got a bigger whole cake if she had decided to stay). I chose these colours before they remind me of her, I think she had a turquoise cardigan or something at the start of university. I am going to miss her so much! University won't be the same without her.