Ombre Cake

I haven't baked in so long, a combination of having our life in storage for a while and then work being so busy meant its been a while. So when I had a cheeky mid week day off and with my friend from work leaving the day after it seemed the perfect time to bake a cake!

I've wanted to try an ombre cake for a while now but its easily the biggest cake I've attempted and boy am I glad I set a whole day aside - I started at mid-day and was still icing at 9pm at night!

I decided given the quantity I was baking to not be adventurous with my flavour (one thing at once) so found a simple vanilla cake recipe and increased the ingredients per extra layer I wanted to make ( x 4 in my case.)

Once the ingredients had been mixed I then divided the batter evenly into 4 small bowls. To create the ombre affect I tinted the layers as follows, then placed each bowl into a greased pan.

• Bottom Layer: 25 drops blue food colour and 3 drops red food colour
• Second to bottom layer: 12 drops of blue food colouring 
• Middle layer: 5 drops blue
• Bottom layer: 1 drop blue. 

Once baked and cooled on a wire rack (I'm always so impatient at this stage!) I then stacked each layer with butter cream and then crumb coated the whole thing so it looked like this. Then left it to chill in the fridge for two hours. (Ignore the lack of food and ridiculous amount of alcohol in our fridge!)

After making the butter cream for the crumb coat, I split the icing into 2 and made a darker and lighter colour and piped in a rounded layer motion.

 The icing didn't go exactly to plan and its an area I want to continue practising but the inside turned out better than expected and most importantly everyone said it tasted nice!

Holiday Diaries: Sunset Gondola Ride

I don't say this lightly the Gondola ride is without a doubt one of the best experience of my life. Top 5 for sure (after wedding, engagement party and honeymoon in case you wondered).

A lot of people we spoke with said not to bother with a gondola ride as they are so expensive and you can get a similar experience on a water taxi or water bus. But after chatting to a colleague who said it was one of her biggest regrets after visiting the city I knew I couldn't take the risk.

I'm a big believer in going all out on a holiday, we had dinner at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, upgraded to our own private pool in the Maldives so in my eyes a Gondola ride was non negotiable and I'm so glad we did.

If you are planning on visiting Venice, the rides do increase in price on an evening and singing is extra, so if your on a budget I'd recommend getting one during the day - theres more than enough to choose from with Gondoliers easy to spot in their black and white striped top & straw hats.

We choose to start our ride at the edge of Sans Marcos so our Gondola passed under Bridge of Sighs, legend says if you kiss while you pass underneath your love will live on forever.

The ride was worth every penny as not only was it romantic but it also took us to quieter areas that we wouldn't of seen otherwise and the Gondolier pointed out key landmarks.

Including Casanova's house - if walls could talk ey!

We choose a half hour ride which was more than enough and meant we saw the sights, the sunset and wet our appetite for dinner when we were back on dry land.

Watching the sunset over Sans Marco's square from our gondola is an experience I'll never forget and one I can't recommend enough!

Out of Office

The work out of office is on and now so is the blog one! It’s been a whole year since I married my best friend, I can't believe how fast its gone! We've decided to mark the occasion with a trip to Venice. I can't wait to see all the sights, sip Bellini's and take a gondola ride. Normal posts will resume when we are back at the end of the month but till then here’s a little peek at our wedding video (I still tear up at certain bits - all the feels!)

Baby Shower

Hello and welcome back to my little space on the internet again - sorry I've been gone for a little while, a mad few weeks at work coupled with a nasty sinus infection meant my blogging game has been off while I rested and generally felt like a granny going to bed at 9pm every night! 

Thankfully I'm feeling better now and wanted to share a little event I planned a few weeks ago and now that the little lady who the Baby shower was celebrating has in fact arrived it seemed perfect timing!

As I work at Mamas & Papas and have been broody since the beginning of time when my boss got pregnant I knew I had to throw my first baby shower - especially with the endless list of goodies I had at my disposal!

As she was expecting a girl I went with a palette of soft grey, pastel pink & cream for decorations, making bunting, a rain cloud out off cream pom poms (inspo here as I forgot to photograph) buying striped straws and cream doilies to make sure everything from the tables to peoples drinks were on theme!

 After the decor was sorted I went about baking yummy cupcakes & marshmallow pops and putting on a buffet spread my mum would be proud of and went down a treat on the day!

Before finally making a huge hamper of presents for the lucky lady to take home - put it this way she won't have to buy clothing for the baby till she’s two!

I'm onto my next project - my friends hen do - my lunge currently looks like a fairy exploded with glitter every where! Always got a project on the go!

The Wedding Diaries: The Gifts, Favours and Last minute dramas!

Photographs from Perfect Circle Photography, apart from product photos from each website - sorry we didn't have photos taken of all the gifts!

I think the gifts are one of the hardest parts of the wedding to get, our parents were so generous with helping us with the wedding, our friends were so generous with their time that I wanted to find the perfect presents to show our thanks for all their effort in helping us plan for the wedding and throwing us both great Hen and Stag do's! Luckily we planned our wedding over two and a half years, so you know... we had time!

Bridesmaids

For my beautiful bridesmaids & my momma I bought these gorgeous floral kimonos, purple for the girlies and then treated myself to a white one. Two years of Pinning meant I had to get these so we could look photo ready at any opportunity on the morning and whenever they wore them the girls would be reminded of getting ready on that day. We all stayed in the same hotel the night before the wedding so I placed the kimono hung in their room along with a hand written note to surprise them when they checked in.

On the morning of the wedding I bought each of the a rose gold "knotted" ring to say thanks for helping us tie the knot, get it.... never mind. I also got each of them a brooch to wear on their dresses to tie the look altogether.

The Groomsmen

The boys - Bretts besties from school and uni and god can these boys drink! So we figured a personalised hip flask filled with their favourite tipple would be a present they would actually want. Needless to say they didn't stay filled for long.

Flower Girls & Page Boy

For the little un's I figured any sentimental presents were aimed more at their parents and they'd prefer more sweet based gifts! So I did the best of both worlds. Each of them got a personalised log slice with their name, the date and a thank you message from us to keep. I then made goody bags up for each of them containing Thornton's chocolate shapes iced with their name on, disney princess toys for the girls and marvels avengers for our page boy along with a wedding themed colouring and puzzle book and pens. These were placed on their chair at the reception and did an amazing job of keeping them all entertained when the grown ups were being "boring".

The Mums

For my mum along with her Kimono I bought her a Jo Malone candle in the same scent I wore on the day and had a special messaged engraved on the lid. Safe to say it went down a treat and numerous tears (happy ones) were spilt when she read it.

Similar tears appeared when we gave his mum a necklace engraved with our initials, the wedding date and the message "Thanks for raising the man of our dreams".

The Dads

My dad is one of the most difficult men to buy for! He has everything and never wants anything; he is however a traditionalist who still carries round a handkerchief in his pocket! So I commissioned a customised handkerchief with the message "Dad, Thank you for walking by my side today and always. You are the first man I ever loved, and I will always be your little girl Love, Ellen". 
His dad is never out of a suit, so we figured he would get a lot of use out of cufflinks engraved with his initials on so he's truly suited and booted.

Each Other 

Organising Brett's present was probably as stressful as organising the whole wedding! The boy is car mad and has always dreamt of driving an Aston Martin my budget didn't stretch quite as far putting one in the garage permanently. I did however rent one for the day which he drove with a huge smile on this face making the stress totally worth it.

Brett surpassed himself with my gifts not only did I get to open a little turquoise box on my wedding day (every girls dream) to see the most beautiful necklace, he also got me a kindle for our honeymoon filled with books as he knows how I get through a book a day on average on holiday!

The Favours

Here in lies the drama, we originally ordered cake pops as the favours, mini brides for all female guests and mini grooms for all male guests. We saw the idea right at the beginning of our planning period and had them ordered for ages to arrive 2 days before the wedding. The problem being when they did, the courier decided to ignore the fragile sticker and they arrived looking like they had been stood on by a herd of elephants. The woman we ordered them from was on holiday meaning that they couldn't be re-made. Que mad panic looking for an alternative - we ended up ordering 100 plain vanilla cupcakes from Sainbury's of all places and decorating them ourselves with rice paper moustaches or bow ties for the men and edible glitter and pearls for the women. Theres always some drama!

The last of the wedding series will be focusing on the entertainment, decor and those extra special touches, stay tuned!

Thoughtful Thursday #3

 Some days it’s a victory in itself you made it through the day, never mind the week and you know what? 

Go you! 

Celebrate that fact, if a friend was upset you wouldn't compound that by being negative you'd show him/her the positives so why wouldn't you do that for yourself? Be your own friend and celebrate every tiny victory.

Life shouldn’t be measured by huge milestones but by moments, when you laughed so hard your stomach hurt, when you wanted to give yourself a high five for nailing that work presentation, for that mini fist pump when the week is over and the weekend is here. Each one is worth celebrating whether it be with a hard earned glass of wine or a secret smile knowing you have the strength to get through tomorrow as well.

Enjoy the tiny victories and if it is with a glass of wine, pour one for me as well!

Only a short one today but as ever my Pinterest board Preach will provide you with more uplifting quotes here