Two (or Three) Can Play At That Game!

I've just had to check my diary to reassure myself that I haven't mysteriously and rather carelessly 'lost' several days of December. The reason? It seems that the amazing sons' advent calendars are rather inept at telling me the correct date, or rather that the amazing sons are rather adept at trying to eat the chocolates ahead of schedule. I know most children have probably done this but you have to admire their audacity.  I truly believe the amazing sons are continuing to properly make progress in their attempts to stay one step ahead of me with their SHENANIGANS. You see, this year, they have had the genius idea of putting the wrappers back in the little pockets so it appears they have not been eaten. Except I know. I always now! And now I have done the same with the rest of the chocolates in their advent calendars. Oh yes, I have removed them (for safe-keeping!) and replaced the wrappers so all appears well. I wonder if either of them will come to me when they are next expecting an uneaten chocolate bar to complain! We'll have to wait and see. Funny, so very funny.

Birthday Treats

It is the gorgeous husband's birthday tomorrow and he requested some espresso cupcakes to celebrate. To be honest, I think he would rather have had a pork pie, scotch egg or sausage roll as he has a very savoury tooth. But he IS the gorgeous husband and knows how much I like to bake cakes, so cupcakes it is. I used the Hummingbird Bakery recipe from their Cake Days book but also added an espresso syrup to soak into the sponge before I iced them with the coffee buttercream. No chocolate covered coffee beans for decoration, but a slice of flake on the top instead does the trick I think.

To appease his savoury taste buds I am currently slow roasting a tastily marinated leg of pork for 24 hours for lunch tomorrow. The plan is to eat it with some garlic and chive mash and some steamed cabbage. We have also been enjoying champagne cocktails using some fizz, The King's Ginger and my beautiful vintage glasses. I cannot begin to describe how good these drinkies are. I might have another shortly......

SHENANIGANS (or - Not So Whiter Than White)

I have just attempted to start washing the amazing sons' uniform from this week. I'm not sure there is much I am going to be able to do about 3 of amazing son number 2's polo shirts.

I kid you not - they really are as bad as the photos suggest. Except you can't see the holes that have mysteriously and inexplicably appeared on them in addition to the stains. He has only had these polo shirts since mid-September. 

And I am not even going to start thinking about the 3 pairs of trousers and tracksuit bottoms that I have had to sew holes up in. Holes that (again) mysteriously and inexplicably seemed to reappear the day after I had sewn them up. 

In other news I have also discovered that one of my secret hiding places for stocking presents for the amazing sons has been found. I had bought some unusual chocolate bars to wrap up to help Father Christmas. There were originally 6. There are now 4. Hmm........no prizes for guessing who is responsible.

My Cat Likes Cupcakes

Well, the cream cheese frosting on cupcakes to be more precise. Thankfully I didn't find this out as a result of him licking the frosting off my recent batch of baking. No. The gorgeous husband has been found out feeding it to the cat. I have hidden the bowl of frosting that is in the fridge for fear of it 'disappearing'. I have plans for that frosting. For once the amazing sons are not to blame for the SHENANIGANS in our house. It also explains why the cat is so keen on the gorgeous husband. 

Cake Crawl

We are not long back from a couple of days in London staying with the gorgeous husband's parents. They very kindly looked after the amazing sons on Saturday so that the gorgeous husband and I could spend the day in London.

My Our plan for the day mainly  involved eating cake. So we started in The Hummingbird Bakery in South Kensington. I LOVE their cookbooks but this is this the first time that I have visited and oh my, I am so glad we did. We shared a single black bottom cupcake -so restrained and so delicious! Definitely a recipe I will be trying at home.

From there we (predictably) made our way to Harrods to enable me to drool at the macarons in Laduree. I couldn't help it, I bought 3 of the little lovelies, but I did share them. Black Forest, Madagascan Chocolate and Salted Caramel. Please note the use of capital letters in writing their flavours, they are worthy of such deference.

Our final stop was for the gorgeous husband to find his favourite - Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Sadly the hotlight store seems to have disappeared from Harrods. This was not altogether a bad thing as it enabled us to burn a few calories walking to the nearest alternative. Apple cinnamon was the flavour of choice and certainly didn't disappoint. It was deemed "nearly as good as the original glazed". High praise indeed.

Bad Muffin Good Cake

It's been a baking week of lows and highs. With too many over-ripe bananas in the house I started by making banana and cinnamon muffins. They were simply dreadful. I don't know what I did wrong, but the tops were overcooked, the bottoms undercooked and they totally failed to rise.

Not one to be easily defeated I set my sights on some of the challenges on the recent Great British Bake Off. I think I managed 3 in one day - the brandy snaps, the tarte au citron, and the sachertorte. The brandy snaps and tarte have already been devoured and were pretty delicious. The sachertorte is to take with us when we go out for dinner tonight. I only hope it tastes as good as it looks.

The focacia and the iced fingers are next on my list, and possibly my old nemesis - macaroons.

SHENANIGANS (again)

Quite uncharacteristically I found myself actually doing some housework today. I can't even begin to explain quite how that happened but it did. Big mistake. I even decided to tackle the amazing sons' bedroom. Even bigger mistake. In the process I stumbled upon more SHENANIGANS.

If it hadn't been such a gloriously sunny autumnal day I might never have found out. Except NOTHING gets past me, even the weather seems to work in my favour. Due to the sun shining in their bedroom it became apparent that there were clear, shiny hand prints around the walls. Hand prints that were undoubtedly deliberately printed on the paint using Diprobase (think E45 mixed with Vaseline and you have an idea of what we're dealing with here). I think 'words' are needed with the amazing sons.

Their bedroom already bears permanent testimony to past SHENANIGANS - writing on the skirting boards and walls, paint picked off the walls, indescribable things wiped on the walls that for some reason can't be removed........

There were more SHENANIGANS involving the cat's litter tray today too. You really do NOT want to know the unsavoury details of this incident. It rendered me speechless. And in need of a glass of wine before 8.00am. I wonder what the weekend has in store......I've stocked up on vino just in case it's needed.

Hmmm, as you can see from this recent holiday photo - 'butter wouldn't melt in their mouths'. Neither would ice cream it seems. You have to laugh, you really do.