Birthday Games
My wonderful friend Ellie hosted a night of food, games, and a surprise birthday cake on Saturday night.
iPhone Summer Vlogs
iPhone vlogs filmed, soundtracked and edited on iPhone in the Summer of 2017.
They say the best camera is the one you have on you. And so, as moments flew by this summer, I tried to capture them using just my iPhone. To me, the moments I was able to record were more personal and more spontaneous as a result.
Lydia's 5th Birthday Party
A trolls themed party for a special fifth birthday celebration!
Video Blog: A Sunny Afternoon in Winchester
Last week seems like a million years ago — it's been a busy first week back at work — but it was so good to spend a lazy, sunny afternoon in Winchester with Alice.
Becky's 30th Birthday
My sister-in-law turns thirty today, and this weekend we threw a little party to celebrate.
Throwing someone a party is way of showing them how special they are. To me, that means that every party has to be unique. As with my sister's party last weekend, all the hours spent making food, or time spent gathering supplies, or money spent on balloons and gifts is all in service of making that person feel loved and appreciated for who they are.
So, with a baby less than two weeks old — whose arrival was more than a little stressful — this weekend's celebrations had to be simple and stress free: step up rent-a-party!
Disposable everything makes for easy, hassle free, clean up. A mix of Tesco's summer range — cute little pineapples, watermelons and cactuses — along with extras from Hobbycraft and little Easter bits Sainsbury's, all create a simple, but cute selection of birthday treats.
Lets not also forget that cake! Becky is our family's expert baker — the one who does the cakes for everybody else. So, it's only fitting that on her special day she has a cake much better than we could ever make for her, courtesy of Hummingbird Bakery!
We're very lucky to have Becky be part of the Brombley family — Happy 30th Birthday Becky!
Brombley Family Celebrations: Free-From Afternoon Tea
We spent last weekend celebrating lots of special Brombley Family events — my sister's birthday, my brother's engagement and Imogen Faith coming home — with a free-from afternoon tea and lots of other treats.
Free-From Afternoon Tea
Complications from endometriosis has meant that my sister has to avoid all kinds of allergens — gluten, eggs, dairy, soya — and as someone who has had to survive on a free-from diet, I wanted to make sure she experienced what is very rare for someone on a free-from diet: to look down on a table full of treats and know you can have anything you want! With some help from my sister, I spent Friday evening baking ready for an afternoon tea on Saturday, made up of...
- Vegan Blueberry Cheesecakes
- Black Bean Brownies
- Cashew Butter Cookies
- Lemon Drizzle Bars
- Free-From Scones
Plus a selection of sandwiches and wraps using gluten-free bread.
I think the stand out for me was the scones. I was genuinely worried that I would be making gluten-free rocks, but, surprisingly, they were really, really good. Also, I'm going to say this: but vegan cheesecake is better than dairy cheesecake.
A Surprise Engagement Party
After getting engaged earlier this year, this weekend was the first chance we had to celebrate my brother and his fiancee getting engaged. Balloons, cake, and prints of a lot of Instagram selfies all helped to create a surprise celebration.
Welcome Home Imogen Faith (and an Easter Egg Hunt)
What a joy it was to have Imogen Faith home and able to come join us for our celebrations. There was a never ending queue for cuddles from Aunties, Uncles and Grandparents. And as a well done to big sister and brother for dealing with a tough week, two huge Easter eggs!
Vlogmas (Part 2): Finishing the Ultimate Christmas Cake
After weeks of patient waiting, feeding my ultimate Christmas cake with rum, the time has come to enjoy the rewards of my hard work.
After much debate, I decided that I would ice my Christmas cake this year. Although, breaking with my usual shortcut of buying ready-rolled sheets to throw over the cake, I decided to just ice the top of the cake. Where too much icing can be too rich — yes, such a thing is possible, yes, even at Christmas — I could not resist the marzipan sweetness and bright white shell of an iced cake, and so icing the top seemed like a good compromise. I was going to leave the icing plain, but with lots of spare icing, I couldn't resist a little decoration: a few flat white shapes to create a simple winter scene.
Taking the first cut from the cake is always a nervous moment — even more so when a camera is pointing straight at it — so many mistakes can stay hidden until that first slice is taken — undercooked, overcooked, fruit all fallen to the bottom — but I'm pretty happy with how this year's cake turned out! And the taste, is, well, frankly, incredible!
The Ultimate Christmas Cake
Mid-November is the time of year to bake the annual christmas cake: leaving just enough time over advent for it to be fed and mature. With a mix of alternative Christmas songs playing, it is time to bake.
I must confess, despite the title of this post, I don't subscribe to the idea that there is any one ultimate version of a food. As someone who love to cook and bake, I do have countless personal preferences on ingredients and techniques, but I also love to try new things.
If you're looking for a tried and tested fail-safe christmas cake bake, then I suggest you use the Delia Smith recipe that forms the basis of my own and read no further. However, if you're interested in some of my own personal and opinionated takes on a classic, then read on at your own risk.
1. Say No To Currents
Currents — and candy peel whilst we're at it — are evil and wrong and have no place in a cake, let alone one of the most important cakes of the year. Currents, or "dead flies" as I prefer to call them, are a far lesser dried fruit than so many other great options. My personal preference is for raisins, dried cranberries and dried apricots. I also prefer a dried cherry (preferably sour) over a glacé cherry too. And totally avoid the deplorable ingredient that is candy peel.
But honestly, you do you: stick to 900g in total and you'll be fine. I've never once used the same combination of fruits, and I've not had a disaster yet.
2. Rum Not Brandy
It might seem like sacrilege, but honestly, swapping dark rum in place of brandy is one of the best ideas I've ever had. Sailor Jerry's works — the old recipe even more so — and Bacardi Oakheart is this years choice, and I've every faith it will be just as good. Delia says to soak the fruit in 100ml over night. I find that to be far to stingy. I soak my fruit in lots of rum and that works for me.
3. No Nuts
No nuts.
4. Maple Syrup Not Treacle
Honestly, I just go fed up of having a sticky red tin sat in the cupboard that only gets on tablespoon taken out once a year. So I've given up on treacle and, in danger of becoming someone who puts avocado in a cake and calls it "healthy", replaced it with maple syrup.
5. To Ice Or Not To Ice?
Whenever I do Ice, it is always ready rolled. I have no time for rolling my own icing, let alone making it. I've not decided on whether to ice or not this year, as sometimes even the minimal effort of unrolling single sheets of marzipan and icing seems like too large a barrier to place between the choice to take the cake's first slice and actually being allowed to cut it open. However, I always appreciate the seasonal joy that comes from the look — and additional sugar — of an iced cake, so I expect I will endeavour to do so again this year.
With the cooled cake fed with rum, wrapped in baking parchment and foil, and stored away in an airtight container, it will come out every two weeks to again be splashed in rum up until Christmas arrives.
So, what makes your ultimate christmas cake? What you would put in or leave out?
Birthday (Part 1)
Today I got to spend my birthday afternoon with some of my favourite people.
There was cake. There was pizza. There were party rings. What more could you ask for on your birthday?
Nibbles from M&S. Pizzas from Asda (seriously, their own brand stuffed crust pizzas are insaney great). Disposable party plates/cups/cutlery were from Flying Tiger and the cake was from a local bakery.