Wednesday's Quote of The Day

"Anything is good if it's made of chocolate."
Jo Brand

(http://www.shirescookeryschool.com/courses/chocolate-heaven-northampton/)

Thought for the day.....

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. ~James Beard

Giant Cupcakes & Cupcake Camp Bournemouth

The sometimes sunny town where I live is soon to be hosting Cupcake Camp Bournemouth, which I am most excited about and also donating 2 dozen cupcakes to....

I’d never heard about a Cupcake Camp before until I stumbled upon a page on Facebook promoting it, I believe it’s an American concept where bakers donate a ridiculous amount of cupcakes and they are then sold to the public and all of the proceeds are donated to charity, there are also stalls, musicians, cupcake competitions and celebrity judges!

Mags Hitchman of Cake Heaven is the organiser for this event and she has done a fabulous job, the charity our event is supporting is Macmillan Cancer Support, a worthwhile charity that you can find more about here:  http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx

All exciting stuff...... so in homage to the upcoming Cupcake Camp I thought I would share my Giant Cupcake creations with you....my dear friend Mrs H gave me the cupcake mould for Xmas with the hint of ‘I'd really like one of these cakes for my birthday’...so that gave me till March to have a practice run.

In February, surrounded by advertisers thrusting hearts, flowers and smitten lovers in my face a subtle sign that Valentine’s day  was looming, once again I was alone *sigh* (short  version –always kissing frogs, never turning into Princes, just into nasty toads) I decided that I would get the mould out and create a giant Valentines Cupcake for myself and all my other singleton acquaintances at work (for some reason in the company where I work there are many of us) and I have to say I was pretty pleased with the outcome.

I made a vanilla chocolate marble cake and it didn’t look that fabulous when it came out of the mould, but I knew it would taste great and hopefully look good inside (and it did) so I just had to make it look ‘pretty’ on the outside.

Little accident with the very top, but nothing a bit of frosting wouldn't fix!

Mmmmmm! The top, the bottom and the lovely crunchy bit that had to be sliced off (and eaten) so the sat together snugly.

And below, you can see the results, not bad if I do say so myself.

So, when March came around it was time for a repeat performance, originally I had wanted to change the colour scheme to a white chocolate base and lilac cream cheese frosting, but the birthday Queen decided that she liked the classic brown and white so, that what we went for and once again it came out beautifully, reassuring myself that the first time wasn’t a fluke.

(Birthday Queen, Mrs H)

A little food for thought.......

Food for thought:

Jonas Salk said, "If all the insects on the planet died today, life as we know it would end in 50 years. If all the people on the planet died today, life as we know it would flourish".

Makes you feel slightly humble..........

Thought For The Day: Thirty-something friendships

After a very stressful few months I've realised how grateful i am for am for my little circle of close friends, gone are the days of needing to surround myself with throngs of people, I'm more than happy with my lot ...some of them are halfway around the world but that seems to make the bonds even stronger that ever.

Thirty-something friendships certainly aren't easy; they come with baggage, they are emotionally demanding, they're tricky to maintain amid the hectic whirl of our lives. But they're keepers. Quality over quantity. I wouldn't have it any other way.....