February

The past month has been a super busy one that's gone by in the bit of blur. I found time to make these pretty crochet flowers and I'm working on a few more. I'm mulling over what to do with them - bunting, brooches? What do you think?

There's been a bit of scrapbooking with these cute little stickers and pretty floral papers.

I sorted through my fabric stash. Just look at the pretty colours and patterns! One thing I want to try this year is quilting. Hopefully I'll find some time to get started on that soon.

No blog is complete without pics of some recent treats! Clockwise from top left: my chocolate dipped meringues, salted caramel and chocolate icecream at the pub, a delicious pistachio biscuit at Aromi, pancake with caramelised apples and homemade salted caramel. YUM! I knocked up a banoffee pie with the leftover salted caramel too.

I hope your February has been as tasty as mine!

Bits and bobs (mostly baked goods)

It's been a busy few months. I've not done as much baking and making as I'd have liked, but I did manage a couple of new things.

I've wanted to make battenberg for the longest time. My mum bought me a special tin ages ago and a couple of months back I finally used it. This recipe on bbcgoodfood worked wonderfully. It turned out much bigger than I anticipated, about 10cm tall.

I made heart shaped custard creams for Valentine's Day and hot cross buns at Easter. In amongst all this there was time for the odd coffee at Afternoon Tease. I also gave these bagels a go. And yes, that is a slightly wonky Tardis cake.

In other news the Mr had a big Birthday - 30! There was a video game inspired cake and Ghostbusters-themed presents. I will post some photos very soon!

April and May

This here blog of mine has been rather quiet the past couple of months. I've struggled to find time to blog about my makes and bakes. I know, excuses excuses! Well, this month I will be making time to share some cake and crochet action with you. In the meantime, here's what I've been up to in April and May.

Above, from top:  A horse drawn tram and poster art at the London Transport Museum, the magnolia tree in bloom outside our apartment, Mr Makes' brownie Birthday cake, Singin' in the Rain,  marshmallow cupcakes, cheese scones, brownie ingredients, pretty flowers at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens.

April included two trips to London. The first of these was a girlie weekend with Mrs Norris while the Misters were away chasing zombies (two words: stag do). Singin' in the Rain is my favourite film of all time, and I finally got to see the musical. It was so much fun singing along and drooling over the amazing costumes. Although there is no picture, I went see the Royal Ballet for the very first time with Mrs N. We saw Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, and I was completely blown away. It was magical. I was mesmerised throughout and loved every last second. I cannot wait to go again!

The second London trip was for Mr Makes' Birthday. We went to the London Transport Museum to see the Poster Art 150 exhibition. If you've never been to the museum it is well worth going if you're in Covent Garden. I made the Birthday Boy a chocolate brownie cake filled with chocolate chunks, pecans, sour cherries and jelly bones. The idea was that the cake would be a dinosaur graveyard and you would find bits of bone and mysterious squidgy things, but it didn't really work out that way as you couldn't really distinguish any of it apart from the sour cherries and occasional pecan. Still, it made for tasty brownie!

Above (from top): mouth watering afternoon tea treats at Bettys, flowers in the park, Tyne Bridge, Me thinking something along the lines of 'if only they made real icecreams this big', delicious treacle tart wedding dessert, Mallard at the National Railway Museum in York, Saltburn pier and some y-arrrr-n bombing on the railings.

In May we took a road trip to the beautiful North East of England. We visited our old stomping ground in Newcastle, had a day out at the seaside in Saltburn and did some sightseeing in York. In between all this was the wedding of our good friends, now Mr and Mrs Devonshire! Massive congratulations to a very happy and lovely couple :-)

Finally, I had to share these fantastic posters I spotted at the National Railway Museum. I think they sum up the trip perfectly!

March

Well another month has passed, and boy was it a cold one. As you can see, there was plenty of tea and tasty cake to keep me going. 

From top: snowy Cambridge, lime pie, tea and a cupcake, working on my WI craft swap project (more on that coming soon), a Mother's Day Mexican feast, crochet, amazing maple pecan cake and polish doughnut from Afternoon Tease's pop up cake shop - part of Eat Cambridge, my chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate icing, the kitchen at the wonderful Ickworth House.

Of course we had Easter last month too. I made hot cross muffins and Mr Makes baked an absolutely amazing four layer chocolate cake, smothered in mouthwatering ganache and topped with a cheeky Milkybar cow. Who knew Milkybar cows lay eggs? What baking and making did you get up over Easter?

February

I can't believe another month has flashed by! Although its been a little quiet here on the blog, I got up to a fair bit of making and baking during February.

Bake-wise there were mini red velvet cupcakes, american pancakes, heart shaped meringues, and some delicious vanilla macarons made using a fab recipe by Claireabellemakes. I dived in and purchased a set of double pointed needles and cable needle to attempt to recreate my 'fondant fancie' hat (more details soon). My mum and I had a very creative craft session making some of the flowers in 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet - my mum is now hooked and has since bought herself a copy of the book!

I climbed to the top of the tower of Great St. Mary's Church for a pretty awesome view of Market Square, and Mr Makes surprised me with tickets to see Everything Everything at Cambridge Junction. In summary, a pretty good month! What have you been up to lately?

From top: mini red velvet cupcakes, crochet lichen for the Botanic Gardens crochet project, pancakes, Everything Everything ticket, Cambridge market from above, knitting myself a new hat, Valentine's Day meringues, flowers, vanilla macarons.

January

Well January seemed rather long, didn't it? My month involved a lot of coffee cake, but I'm finally happy with the recipe, so watch out for it in the not to distant future. January was when the snow came. I'm afraid I don't have any pretty photos to share as my interaction with the snow was limited to shuffling to and from the bus stop everyday. 

In other news, I made my very first dress! It's not perfect, and I have definitely learned lots for next time, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. January also saw the start of the University of Cambridge Botanic Gardens crochet project. A lovely Saturday morning was spent practising leaves and drinking tea with fellow Cam City WI members.

Of course, there was another thing that really brightened up the month and that was the return of the Great British Bake Off for Comic Relief - how funny was Claudia Winkleman and her lemon meringue antics!? 

From top: King's College Chapel on a chilly New Year's Day walk around Cambridge, coffee and walnut cupcakes, view from the office window - snow covered bicycle, more coffee and walnut cake, wearing my homemade dress, crochet leaves, cowl knitting, apple and current scones, and yet more coffee cupcakes!

December

I thought it would be nice to share some highlights from December. As you'd expect, a fair bit of baking went on! I also finished off my hot water bottle cover. I made it following this loose pattern by Coco Rose and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Most of the Christmas break was spent up in the North East where we had a great time seeing family and friends. We had a lovely trip to Whitby for some tasty fish and chips. It was bloomin' cold though and Mr Makes said my head looked like a giant fondant fancie with my pink woolly hat on.

From top: sherry, mince pies, sour cherry chocolate brownies, cherry and vanilla cupcakes with more mince pies, me in Whitby, snowmen meringues, more meringues, my finished hot water bottle cover, key lime pie (or lime lime pie as we called it, because I have no idea where to find key limes).