Surprise Baby Shower

My sister is due a baby next month and so I wanted to throw her a surprise baby shower. I've had great help from my mam and sisters organising it all. 

The theme for the party was afternoon tea so lots of cakes, treats and bunting. Since she will only find out the baby's gender once it's born I tried to keep it as natural as possible. It may have turned out a little girlier then I had first thought it would but it's very much my sisters style and pretty so I knew she would like it.

The decorations.

Bunting is from dunnes stores (multicolor) and starbuys (flowery) and cost less than €5 for both.
I also got the 3 paper pompoms in dunnes Stores for about €3 and the bigger white one in Ikea.

The yellow babyshower banner I got in Mr.Price as well as the purple babyshower balloons, paper plates and the guest badges. I headed to ikea again to pick up some fabric for a tablecloth, I wanted something floral and I knew I had seen the fabric there before. I got 2 meters for €12, while I was there I also got some flower napkins and pastel ribbon. 

For the balloons I got a disposable helium tank in Argos for 27.99 which blew up 30 of them. I am not the biggest fan of them so I got my sister to blow them up for me and another to arrange them all. I got the clear balloons in Tescos for about €3 and the coloured ones in starbuys for a couple of euro.

The invitation.

I made these myself at home but printing out my invitation on card from the art and hobby shop and used some patterned cardboard as the surround, I used different colors like pink, blue, yellow and green and mixed and match them with coloured envelopes like a pink invite in a blue envelope.

Prediction cards.

I found a template for the surround online and added in my details on the inside, then changed the size before printing and again used the card that I used for the invites. I also added the date of the shower to the bottom of it. After the shower we had a little peek at these the messages where lovely and we will wait and see if any one got the right predictions. 

The food.

As the theme was a tea party I wanted to keep the food to small bites. 

I made baby shower themed mini cupcakes, macarons, finger sandwiches and a small chocolate and buttercream cake topped with fresh strawberries.

 My sister Siobhán made gluten free rock buns and gorgeous chocolate truffles and my sister clodagh made chocolate covered strawberries. 

Áisling really enjoyed the surprise and couldn't believe we had all kept it from her this whole time. Everyone brought her such lovely gift, I don't think any of us expected so much they ll so great. 

Chocolate biscuit cake tutorial

Filmed this ages ago but have only gotten around to editing it now. I don't have any editing software on my chromebook and can't download any so  used wevideo which I didn't find that great actually. Think I'll be finding myself something else next time. Anyway here it is the easiest cake you will ever make.

All you need fot this is a few ingredients and the most you will do is melt then and mix them. Here is what you need 200g chocolate (50%), 50g unsalted butter, 1 can condensed milk, 175g rich tea biscuits.

I make this a little different somethings adding a spoonful of honey and mix the biscuits up by using different kinds with different flavours you could also add marshmallows too if you would like. 

Chocolate Biscuit Cake Recipe

This is my chocolate biscuit recipe that I have been using for years now. I played around with different flavours until I came up with this. All the biscuit cakes I have made over the last few years are this recipe. I have kept this one close and until now the only person I would share it with was my sister but I have decided  to share it on my blog as I like making these recipes and like to see when someone tries them out. 

This is a really easy recipe and only takes 15 to 20 minutes to make then just stick it in the fridge. I like to make it at night time then leave it overnight in the fridge as I hate waiting around hours for it to set. It's very chocolatey and not something you can eat very much of trust me it's very heavy and a little bit is all you need to feel stuffed. It's the cake I get asked to make the most so it must make an impression lol. 

I suggest you use 50% chocolate and noting lower if you want a strong chocolate flavour, milk chocolate is also fine but make sure you use good quality chocolate otherwise you might not get the results that you want. For something a little different you could also try this out with white chocolate. It's a little different to the biscuit cake we may be used to but it's always fun to try new thing out. 

Happy baking, 

Neads xx

Latest bakes

So recently Iv'e been doing a little bit of baking so I thought I would share what Iv'e made.

Pink and white girly cake

Here's the communion cake I made for a little girl called Natasha. She asked for a white and pink decorated 2 tier cake. The inside was chocolate sponge with chocolate fudge icing. The house also smelled like chocolate all day. 

Very chocolate cake

Another communion cake this time for a little boy called Josh. He asked for a very chocolatey cake. So here is what I made. It's chocolate sponge, dark chocolate fudge icing with milk chocolate fudge icing around the top. I was also asked to decorate it with gold letters and a butterfly. The little gold balls on the bottom are painted malteasers. 

Cookies

I seem to be making these cookies a lot recently. There chocolate chip and sprinkle vanilla cookies. There so easy to make and I made it even easier when I made up a big batch divided it up and froze them so all I had to do was defrost and bake. 

Recent Baking

At the start of the month was my youngest sisters 21st. I was in charge of the cake making. I knew I had to do something different for this one so I went with black icing and neon colours. The best part was the inside. I wanted it to look great when it was cut open. This is why I went with multicoloured cake and cut a hole in the middle and filled it with smarties. I also iced it in chocolate fudge before putting the sugarpaste on. The cake didn't last very long with everyone at the party, which I take as a complement. 

This is the second cake I made which was for my Aunty's 40th Birthday last weekend. I wanted to do something different but girly at the same time. I have been dying to give a sprinkles cake a go for so long. I was afraid that it might go all wrong but in the end it turned out great and I found it really fun to make. I did however get sprinkles everywhere in the kitchen including under the dryer and even found some in my hair later on lol. It seems to be like glitter it gets everywhere. I bought the big bag of sprinkles in Decobake on Bachelors Walk a couple of weeks ago thinking I would need it all but surprisingly I didn't actually need loads. I may have over estimated it aswell and bought a 1kg bag of sprinkles. I have since bought a jar to store them all in and I'm already working out ideas to use them up.

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Visa, Shopping and Baking.

So this I week had a few exciting moment like applying for my 1 year working holiday visa for Australia. I applied and paid on-line through a company as I was interested in a package they had, not so happy with the package now though as including bank account and tax file number sounds like they arrange things with you or for you not email you a pdf with some information about how to do it all yourself and why you should. Felt a bit ripped off to be fair definitely not work the extra  money. I filled in the application for the visa and dropped it in to town and the next day was told it was approved. That part at least was easy and quick. 

I also done a little shopping on ebay for things that I need for my trip. I will do a post on them all when they arrive. I also got a couple of bits in Penny's (Primark) and Euro General shop which I may like a little to much but I do keep finding great things there. 

I got another Osiris CC Cream because I have gone through yet another one but accidentally got it in tanned.  I did a review a while back that you can find here. I tried it a little and it's not that drastically dark or anything so maybe if we keep up with this nice weather it might be ok .I may also be a little to optimistic sometimes. 

I also picked up this Argan Oil Night Repair Serum. I'm not sure if this is any good I haven't used it yet or heard anything about it but I have used the shampoo, conditioner, hair mask, heat defence spray and hair oil and was a fan of all of them even felt nice on my skin so hopefully this will too. I have done a review of the Hair mask that you can find here. I will also do a post on it after I try it out. This night repair serum was only €1.50 and so was the CC Cream.

In Penny's I didn't buy anything overly exciting just some socks two 7 packs one black, one white for €3 each. Then toothbrushes which I'm sure will be fine as I usually get the same type for sensitive gums but these where 5 for €1 and I couldn't leave a good bargain.  I also got a new top its a blue knitted string top which I thought I might like for the summer it was also €3 and my sister bought one to.

I finished The Fault In Our Stars on Friday and it was so sad I don't want to give anything away so I'll keep it short but even though it devastatingly sad it's also one of the best thing I've read in a while so I highly recommend giving it a go if your looking for something to read. It's not a book I would usually read but I was so surprised at how I just couldn't put it down. I didn't know what to do with myself when I finished the last few pages. I am just not sure if my next book I read will be as good. 

On Saturday I made a cake for a 30th Birthday. It was chocolate biscuit with white SugarPaste  icing and decorated with Yellow, Purple and Pink sugar paste including three handmade roses. I like making this cake I was a asked to make it colourful with a white base. That is usually the cakes I love to make. 

On Sunday as it was Father's day we had a family meal of Roast turkey that my Dad marinated and I cooked with baby potatoes, roast potatoes, lots of veg and potatoes that I'm not sure what you would call them but are mashed then piped into swirls and baked again in the oven until crispy and a little browned. Anyway they were lovely I kept seeing them and wanted to make them so thought today I would give them a try. Thankfully they turned out nice. 

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Another week, another cake

After the last cake I made for a book club member I was asked to make a another. I got a phone call from the woman that asked for it and said that she loved the cake and so did her son. As he is making his Confirmation and liked the cake she asked if I could make one similar but in white and blue and instead of books on top could I put a dove on it. A dove is the sign for Confirmation.

The cake I made was chocolate sponge with chocolate fudge icing. I cover it in white and blue sugar paste. The decoration was white and blue beading, Confirmation day on the top and the name Alan in the center on the front. I also made a white sugar paste dove. I had not originally planned on doing this as I have a dove plunger but I couldn't find it so thought I'd give making one go.

So this is how it turned out and they where very happy with it as was I. I was so organised for this as I'm also studying for exams so had to be on top of everything but then just as I was about to decorate it I re tore the muscle in my calf so had to hobble around the kitchen for a few hours. I was exhausted the next morning. hopping around on one leg takes alot of effort. I also burnt my hand while melting the chocolate for the fudge icing. I'm a bit of a disaster if you haven't noticed but I do get the job done in the end. 

This weeks Baking

This week I was asked to make a cake for someones 50th birthday and of course I said yes. I love any excuse to make cakes. They asked for chocolate cake and as it was from the other members of her book club that it had books on it or something along those lines.

When I got home on Thursday and I got stated on making the cake and then icing and decorating. It worked out quite well that one of my favourite movies just happened to be on so ended up watching Saving Private Ryan and decorating a cake. I surprised it didn't turn out army themed.

I made a chocolate sponge and chocolate fudge icing, it smelled so good and the smell of chocolate kind of lingered in the house all evening. I used white sugar paste to cover and decorate it. I had never made sugar paste books before but it wasn't that hard to do.

I wanted to keep the colours bright so I went for pastel type colours in pink and yellow. I'm very happy about how it turned out.

My Week

So my week started off a bit crap having to start a course of antibiotics for an infection. But this week it was also my birthday and got some lovely presents and cake from my sisters and parents. My younger sister made my cake which was so delicious it was chocolate and vanilla butter cream decorated with chocolate and she even put my name on it.

From my sisters I got and e-reader and am so delighted with it because I have been looking at buying one for myself but wasn't really sure which to get but they got me a great one and have already put some Nicholas Sparks books on it and started to read one.

My Mam and Dad got me a drawer unit that I have been looking at in Ikea. I want it to fit under a little desk I have. They asked me what I would like and it's all I could think of haha. Anyway I'm happy to finally be able to sort out some of my things into it and now all I have to do is reorganize the area to put it in.

I also joined slimming world this week. I had been a member before but left when I was losing track of things when I was busy and having some problems with my stomach so decided to give it a break and now that I am back on medication and my stomach is finally feeling a little better I thought it was time to go back. I am trying to stick to the plan as best I can which I find hard when on antibiotics because they give me such bad heartburn and a false hunger. I am eating a lot of fruit and free food to help stay on track. I have sort of set my self a goal for the next 27 weeks. I hope I am not being to ambitious but I know if I put my mind to it I can do it. My hope is to lose 2 pounds a week but I would still be happy to lose 1 as well. I am going to do my best and really try this time and hopefully it works well for me I even got some raspberry today which I'm not sure I even like but I'm determined to start eating more fruits and veg even just one new one at a time. My first weigh in is on Thursday and today I am planning all my meals and am even making some to freeze for the day's that I don't feel like cooking. I always do better when I'm really prepared.