I recently had the pleasure of baking up a cupcake buffet and cutting cake for my Cousin Tom's wedding! It was great fun as they pretty much gave me free reign as long as they fit in with the chabby chic theme.

I loved picking out all the decorations to top them with and typing out the sweet little bunting topped flavour cards. I think my favourite decoration was the adorable rainbow coloured sugar buttons you can see on the red velvet cakes above.

The wedding was about an hour north in a lovely little village called Harthill in South Yorkshire - I must admit it was stressful travelling so far with the cakes. I feel sorry for poor Pete having to put up with me freaking out every time we hit a bump or went round a tight corner!

It was such a lovely day - the church where the service was held was gorgeous with really unusual stained glass windows and the giant marquee for the reception was amazing. My Aunty Anne had made metres and metres of fabric bunting that was so darling - it must have taken her hours! You can see it in the first photo above.

Tom and Anna had thought of so many sweet little touches for the day including an old fashioned sports day set up next to the marquee that included egg and spoon races and welly wanging  - for those that don't know this involves putting on a wellington boot and kicking it off as hard as you can, the ones who kicked their welly the furthest wins. There were also little jars of homemade apple jam as favours on the tables and and a wonderful sweety table.

The band that played at the reception were fab too, a swing style group with an double bass player. They did some great covers of Johnny Be Good, Ring Of Fire, King of The Swingers and more. We met them outside tucking into some of my cakes which they loved - one of the best parts of the day was people telling me they loved the cuppies!

It was a fabulous day and I'm so happy I was part of making it. Congratulations Tom and Anna!!!

So they may not be everyone's cup of tea, but Pete and I adore pickled gherkins. On burgers, in sandwiches, mixed into potato salad or eaten right out of the jar (don't judge me) gherkins really are my pickle of choice.

I've wanted to make my own for such a long time, but had never seen the itty bitty little cucumbers needed - until now! I think I got a little too excited when I was walking through my local Tesco and saw these adorable 'Cute Cues' by Fresh & Naked. I immediately grabbed three bags and ran back to the cookware section to find a glass clip top jar to pickle them in. 

It may seem crazy to some to bother making these yourself as they're so readily available already, but you should definitely give it a go - they are so much crisper and fresher tasting than the store bought version. Next time I won't forget to but dill and add some of that, but these were great even without that.

We ate most of this jar last Saturday night when we visited my Mum and Dad for dinner - it was a bit of a crazy coincidence as my Dad had made some amazing fresh corned beef which of course goes perfectly with gherkins! He also did an amazing brown rice, cauliflower and blue cheese gratin - lordy was that good!

Homemade Pickled Gherkins
Makes 1 x 1 Litre Jar

Ingredients
1 litre clip top jar / 2 x 500ml jars / any airtight jars you can get your hands on
450g Cute Cues or other mini cucumbers
250ml white vinegar
500ml water
big pinch of sea salt
pinch of sugar
2 large garlic cloves thinly sliced
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp fennel seeds
small bunch of fresh dill

Method

The night before you will be jarring the gherkins, wash your little cucumbers and put them into a large bowl. Cover with cold water, throw in some ice cubes and cover with cling film then pop in the fridge overnight until you need to use them the next day.

Sterilise your jar(s) by either running them through a really hot dishwasher or boiling them for 10 minutes on the stovetop. Let them airdry on the draining board - don't dry them with a towel!

When you're ready to do your jarring pour the vinegar, water and sea salt into a big saucepan and bring to the boil before adding the sugar, sliced garlic cloves, mustard seeds and fennel seeds. Continue boiling for 5 minutes and then take off the heat and set aside.

While the liquid is cooling drain your chilled cucumbers then cut off the tops and bottoms and slice into whatever shape you would like - I did spears but you could do long slices, coins, angled slices or whatever you fancy. Flatter shapes go better in a sammich.

Start putting your cucumber slices into the sterilised jar, layering it with the fresh dill fronds if you're using them, then poor over the vinegar water mix. Don't forget to get the seeds and garlic slices into the jar too!

Seal it up well and pop it into the fridge to pickle - it's a good idea to label the jars with the date they can be eaten from (at least a week from jarring) and the date they should be eaten by (a month after jarring).

Enjoy!

All images and items from www.modcloth.com

Has anyone else ever noticed that on those months when your pay packet is already spent up before you even have it in your account you always find the nicest stuff that you would love to rather spend your pennies on? I do...

What a silly girl I was deciding to 'just have a browse' at Modcloth. So many beautiful beautiful things.... can you hear me sighing?

It's my birthday at the start of October, so hopefully some of these pretties will still be available then for me to spend my celebration dough on.

Why not take a browse yourself, hopefully you'll be able to afford some of these lovely things for yourself. The dress section is particularly awe inspiring, and that shoe selection is just perfection!!!!

There are a lot of recipe books on my shelves. Seriously, a lot. I have to try very hard to stop myself buying them and I still have lapses every now and again such as every time I place an order at work with The Book People... and the reason I stop myself now is that I look at so few of them more than once or twice. This book is however an exception to the rule - I find myself longing to flick through and indulge in its comfort and creativity.

I decided that to help me in my not buying books crusade I should start going to the library again, and that I did. On one of my first trips I was looking through the shelves and found The Kitchen Diaries, slid in amongst other titles on the very bottom shelf - I am so so glad I did.

 

Although I have known about Nigel Slater for a long while now and seen lots of his recipes in magazines and papers, I had never actually picked up one of his books and read through it. I know that he was very important in getting Nigella Lawson on to the television (I believe her first telly appearance was actually with him) and for this I will always be indebted to him as Nigella is a great icon of mine. He even mentions in this very book that her first publication How To Eat is his favourite cookery title. I think this connection is what made me pick it up really.

It's amazing how Nigel evokes the senses of excitement that come with each season and celebration just through writing about food. The optimistic feeling of the New Year, the anticipation of Christmas and the underlying stress of cooking the perfect Christmas meal - this was a new one on me having only cooked my first Christmas dinner last year. For some reason I seem to be drawn to the days with very short passages - I guess I'm just nosey about what a famous cook eats when he has bare cupboards or no urge to be infront of the stovetop!

And obviously the most imporant part of any cookery book - the recipes themselves! All wonderfully simple but oh so imaginative - never again will you stand staring into your fridge only to slam the door and order a take away. You will find that the most delicious meals can be conjured up from a few veggies and some store cupboard essentials, but you will also learn that having good quality ingredients makes a lot of difference.

I have a post in my planner about how you can get great produce at great prices, but until then... you should get yourself a copy of this book and get yourself into the kitchen. And please... try the double ginger cake.

And while I'm here and talking about food, you may have noticed the cake lazing around next to my book up there. It was a very moist and flavourful fresh peach and bourbon cake with an italian buttercream frosting flavoured again with fresh peach puree aaaaand a little more bourbon, because a little more is always better than a little less.

The sponge was really fabulous and carried the fruit and booze flavours subtley while retaining a delightful crumb and richness despite the recipe using only oil and no butter - I made up for that downfall in the frosting though believe me. If you want to give it a go yourself I doubled this recipe and split it between three sandwich tins, baked it and then filled it with frosting and sliced fresh peach. Yummmmmmmmmm.