It Finally Occurred

We baked together.

Even though we've shared a blog for almost 7 months, and known each other much much longer, this seemingly rather obvious event has never actually occurred.

So, before Rosaline leaves for Bristol (sob) we decided that enough was enough, and finally, after many empty promises and cancelled dates, we did it.

And it was so much fun!

This momentous event occurred in Rosaline's lovely kitchen (interrupted by the arrival of the new toaster which was very exciting) and after much indecision (obviously, it's us) we decided to go with trusty BBC Good Food and make...

 'The Ultimate Chocolate Cake'

Even for the BBC, that's quite a large claim. In fact, considering the variety of chocolate cake we have both consumed in our lives, it's an enormous claim. 

But OMG did it live up to it's name.

We decided we were officially ADDICTED. It was so gooey and moist (ew ew ew) and delicious that once we'd started we just couldn't stop. (True Fact: Chocolate is marginally addictive. So, err, that's our excuse for glutenous behaviour)

We made this for our Say Goodbye To Our-Only-Follower Polly Party which was, as you can imagine very emotional, (she went to Manchester yesterday; we're sad) and so this seemed an appropriate cake to make. As in, one you're unlikely to forget in a hurry.

And Ultimate Chocolate anything is an appropriate send off really.

Polly seemed appropriately blown away by the whole thing. The champagne candles are optional (but really quite a necessity, we would say)

First Day of Spring

 Guys!! It’s officially the first day of Spring and, while we do concede that we might be being slightly overoptimistic, today does have a certain Spring-like air about it. We are thrilled!

The sun is shining, blossom is on the trees, there is a vase of daffodils on my table, I’m imagining rabbits with white tails cheerfully hopping somewhere and I for one am wearing my favourite flowery dress.

(One should always be suitably dressed for the occasion, I feel)

Yes, Spring may, might, possibly finallyyy (and temporarily I’m sure) have sprung. And so on this jolly day we welcome all the great things that come with the entrance of Spring. I’m envisaging lamb for lazy Sunday lunches, hotcross buns with melted butter in the morning sun, wearing my new pastel pink blazer, going for premature picnics and eating Easter eggs. Woo!!

So, to celebrate this long awaited day, I thought I’d make something suitably cheerful; Sweet and Simple Strawberry Cupcakes. These are very quick and easy to make, and bring a little extra bit of (sweet) Spring Cheer to today.

This is the first recipe I’ve tried from my newly bought ‘Saved by Cake’, and am so far loving it

Did you think I'd Crumble?

So, I would like to say, before I continue, that I am a sociable and fun loving girl. I really am. Just to prove this to you I’ve drawn up a list of some of my Favourite Activities which include, but are not limited to, drinking cocktails with ‘the gals’, eating sushi with said quotation- ringed gals (in fact, add ‘with the gals’ to the end of most of these),  being the first one to start dancing at a party and the last one to stop, singing very loudly to One Direction while driving with all the windows down, spending unnecessary amounts of time drawing up a list of top five men we’d marry (and ditto for women we’d turn for), trying on sunglasses, pretending to be in ‘Sex and The City’, drinking cider at concerts, going out for breakfast, attending absurdly themed fancy dress parties, having baking days with my best friend when it rains, going mental in the perfume section of Duty Free, riding my brilliant blue bike and painting my nails in the bath before a party.

SEE?!

I’m good fun and I generally go about my business thinking that life should be enjoyed.

But sometimes things can get a bit crap, and when they do, all this pretending to be Carrie Bradshaw can be a bit of an effort, or even, just veryyy occasionally, make things worse.

It was because of this that, a couple of week ends ago, drowning in coursework, suffering a rejection and unable to drink owing to a course of antibiotics for an infected wisdom tooth (don’t even ask. Seriously. My actual life) I spent Saturday night watching the best of 1970s disco on BBC 4 with my mother. It was literally one of the most enjoyable ways to spend a Friday night!! Seriously, no word of a lie, I LOVED IT. (And this is why you needed to be reminded that I am normally a little bit cool and sociable and vaguely 18 year old-ish). We got so into the whole 70s disco thing. So clearly, just that first twang of Gloria Gaynor had us singing along. (Maybe shrieking/howling/caterwauling if you’re asking the neighbour. Whichever.) By the time we’d reached the chorus fists were in the air.

It was all most enjoyable, and a reminder that shit happens; you will occasionally feel utterly depressed; you will, from time to time, get the impression that some higher being is conspiring against you to make it all as difficult as possible; you will every so often feel completely powerless and you will sometimes feel like giving up and going to hide under your duvet with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s and the Downton Abbey boxset as your only companion. But – without wishing to sound overly Disney – life goes on. Gloria was on the money; yeah, you will survive. Totally. Girl Power!! Woo. Ahem. Anyway.

We went to bed wholly empowered.

Life was still looking a little bit grey when I woke up the next morning. It was raining and spring still had not bloody sprung.

Meh.

Even Muffin (my old and normally very much cheerful Border Terrier) looked miserable.

So I decided that what the Williams household needed was something yummy and homely, which fills the soul with a little spoonful of warmth and that reminds me of childhood and baking with my mum in the holidays.

There was clearly nothing more fitting/worthy for this role than the humble Apple and Blackberry Crumble.

This lovely little pud is simple and cheerful and rather like a cup of tea in the way that it never fails to make me feel that little bit more human.

(Especially with custard. Yum.)

I used Sophie Dahl’s Voluptuous Delight (which, is AMAZE. I love her. I want to BE her. Total girl crush. It might be getting out of hand. She’s so great and jolly) but I took out the oats from the topping. Does a Classic Crumble have oats in the topping? Errm, no, I think not. (No offence Soph. I love you in every other respect. Sorry).

Insanity is just another word for interesting...

We totally believe that being insane is great. If we only did sane things, we’d have nothing of any interest to tell our grandchildren, and so it’s for this reason (and maybe a tiny bit to do with the fact that Lady Gaga exists) that we think that surrounding ourselves with insanity is definitely the way to go. We’ve got so good at this whole insanity thing that we’re beginning to forget what sanity actually is…(I’ve just raised a perplexing philosophical dilemma when I’m meant to be talking about cake. That right there is the power of baking.)

So when my Most Insane Friend celebrated the fact that she had managed to reach the age of 18 without any major mishaps (chipping her tooth on a toilet, nearly getting run over on the M25 to save the battered pair of Converse she’d left on the roof of her dads car and falling in love twice merely counting as minor incidents) by throwing a party with a ‘My Favourite Thing’ theme, I for one was one hundred percent behind the idea.

Her list of favourite things was diverse and extensive and, some complained, slightly difficult to pull off in fancy dress, but, the Australian Accent, the platypus, the semi-colon and puns (yes, I genuinely quote) being some of her favourite things is probably why I love her. She did concede that maybe her theme was slightly ego-centric, but, really, who cares? All the best people are. (Oscar Wilde wouldn’t have been half as great if he hadn’t thought he was the literal bees’ knees).

So, once I had examined the list and decided that I would be attending as a seventies protester (burnt bra and all) I turned my attention to The Cake. I show my love for people by baking; we one hundred percent believe that homemade cake is literally love on a plate. I therefore wanted to show my Most Insane Friend that I love her… I needed a cake which put her insanity, and my love for aforementioned insanity, into cake form. I went through various options before settling on a four layer rainbow cake. It seemed appropriate.