Biscuiteering

Have you ever seen the Biscuiteers website? They make these fantastic iced biscuits that you can send through the post, kinda like sending flowers but more tasty. Their designs are pretty cool and even cooler, at the end of last year, they brought out a really nice book. It's called 'The Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits'.

Its got lots of beautiful photos, recipes for biscuit dough and icing, useful tips and templates you can trace if you don't have any cutters!

So I chose it as part of my prize from the video competition.

Now. It turns out these are a little bit more difficult than your average cookie. Piping icing is not hard to do per se, but piping it neatly so you can tell what it is? That's another story! So here are some pictures of my first attempt at iced biscuits. I've got a long way to go before I'm at Biscuiteer level!

Diana Mini giveaway from Dainty Squid

Kaylah at The Dainty Squid is having a giveaway and the prize is this great limited edition Diana Mini camera. The 'Love is in the Air' camera was brought out earlier this year for Valentine's day. Its so cute!


All you have to do to enter is head over there and leave a comment saying which is your favourite item in the Lomography shop. That's it! And this little cutie could be yours.


You'll need to hurry up though as the contest ends today -25th March!


Good luck.

Mango macaron in the wild

shhh. If you're very lucky you might see a macaron in its natural habitat.

My second attempt at the Italian meringue method of macaron creation went a bit better than the first. I wanted to try something a bit different this time, so I went for pink shells with a mango filling. I made my own recipe for the filling so I was pleased it turn out okay. It's not the greatest colour, but it tastes good.

I made them a bit thinner this time and let them dry properly before baking them. I also only cooked one tray at a time. They are so temperamental!

Super moon

Did you see the Super moon at the weekend? Apparently on Saturday night the moon was closer to the earth than it normally is. I had a go at taking some pictures. These are my first attempts at photographing the moon and the top one got 'Explored' on Flickr. Yay!

Happy Spring!

Today is technically the first day of spring. The weather really made the effort and it felt lovely to be outside.

I heart lomography video

We had a video competition at my work and I won a prize! We had a mini awards ceremony and everything. It was only an internal event but we had several different categories and I won the gold award for the 'Now you Know' section. The idea was to either teach people something or share something you are interested in. So I made this little film about Lomography. What do you think?

i heart lomography from Other Amusements on Vimeo

Puzzle Box cake

I've been very busy in the kitchen this last week with it being British Pie Week, Pancake Day and Marc's Birthday (That's Mr Fiancé to you).

Now, traditionally I ask him what kind of cake he would like for his birthday, (like the year he asked for Resident Evil cakes) but this year I surprised him with my choice. The Puzzle Box from Hellraiser. I've not actually seen the film with it being an 18 and my having a rather sensitive disposition ... but he is a big fan.

This was my first attempt at a cake with rolled icing (fondant?) so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. However it seems that all those hours watching Food Network challenge were not wasted and it went fine.

The inside is solid, quite dense chocolate cake with a layer of chocolate fudge covered in chocolate flavoured rolled icing.

I got the patterns* 'printed' onto icing with edible ink. Cool no? I cut them out and applied them to the outside, then painted on some of the details with edible gold lustre powder like this one. It says you need a 'Rejuvenator Spirit' to paint with it, but the lady in the shop told me to just mix it with a little clear alcohol, like vodka or gin. (or you might use Disaronno if you don't have anything else in ... )

I'm pleased with how it turned out and Marc seemed pretty impressed so I'd say that's a win.


* I was going to draw them out but actually I borrowed the panels from this great layout put together by Gonchir. Thank you for saving me -a lot- of time.

Spring is on its way. Maybe.

I'm hoping that spring is on its way. It's still really cold here but this week it's been daylight when I've got up for work. Yay for daylight. I always feel better when I get up and it's light outside; getting up in the dark feels a bit wrong, like it's the middle of the night.

I've battled the cold to take a few pictures. They give me a bit of hope that it won't be winter forever.

  

 These daffodils are already in full bloom in the park!

The very first blossoms are emerging on the tree at the end of our road.

And right outside my house, my herbs are growing again! The sage lasted through the winter but those chives are totally new. Yeah, they are chives not just a clump of grass.