Hayley's Life Lessons: Pizza Cutting

Yes my dears, I am binge-blogging again. no posts for ages, then a deluge of insights into the inside of my head. 

So I'm thinking I'm going to start a new mini series of posts on this here humble blog: Hayley's Life Lessons aka Things Most People Have Known Already For Years But I Have Just Learnt Recently Because I Am A Simple Dog. I think it might even need it's own logo or something. I'll do that sometime, honest. 

These sorts of posts will wildly veer between the mundane and useless to the life changing and hugely important. Alternatively, I'll forget that i ever started this mini series after 2 posts and that will be that.

Anyway, this first post is one of the most amazing, life changing tips I have ever come across in my entire life. 

Have you just cooked a pizza? About to use an unwieldy knife or an always disappointing pizza roller thingy? STOP!!! Think again! Get back to the drawer and instead pick up the scissors.

That's right- the subject of today's revelation is cutting pizza with scissors. Much more accurate and ridiculously easy, this concept had never, ever occurred to me before but the part of my life devoted to the cutting of pizzas has become so much better because of it. 

Just in case you were wondering what scissors actually look like.

Of course, you'll note my utter selflessness in telling you this knowledge when I have been banished to the realms of diet food from now on. No gooey, cheesy, doughy goodness for me. Now off you go, good people, and enjoy all of that time you're now going to save.

In which I attempt to lose weight

I am, as a twitter friend put it so poetically "built for comfort not for speed". 

I have zero willpower, am useless at being organised, and lazy. All of which adds together to mean i usually end up eating crap most of the time. This situation isn't particularly helped by my sedentary office job.

I did get down to a nice weight a few years ago. at this time i was working in a really stressful job in community pharmacy- always on my feet and never with any time to eat. I ended up just eating one meal a day (obviously neither healthy nor sustainable), and in addition to that i was going to the gym three times a week. Now, I sit on my ample backside amongst a plentiful supply of biscuits every day.

I've been going to the gym a bit more often, and doing my kettlebells, but i thought it was time to really do something about my useless eating habits.

Ages ago, I went on slimming world. While I really enjoyed the food, I found it really difficult to prepare everything from scratch along with working full time and everything else in my life. This definitely isn't an option for me now as i do so many locum shifts and travelling (not to mention being a social butterfly =D) that i just wouldn't be able to stick to it. 

So I've taken the plunge and gone for Diet Chef. This is a scheme where all of your meals are delivered to you on a monthly basis, so you don't really need to think about preparation. I've gone for the 4 monthly option as it's cheaper and according to their website i need to lose 2 stones, which is likely to take a LONG time. You then need to buy your fresh fruit and veg to have alongside the meals, which are stored at ambient temperature so great for at work or on the go. 

I did do a week's trial of Diet Chef back in January, and i was actually pleasantly surprised by the food,which was tasty and quite filling. I particularly enjoyed the breakfasts, which were yummy porridges or granolas or mueslis. I thought i'd show you a couple of pictures of the evening meals i've been having to prove that you actually do get quite a bit for each meal, once you added the veg.

I'll probably be having most weekends off from Diet Chef as i'll be gallivanting in London or the boyf will be here, and i'm not convinced that Private Pie club or Clandestine Cake Club, or a peanut butter addiction will fit into the new regime particularly brilliantly, but i know that i'm much more likely to be successful if i'm fairly relaxed with the rules.

Diet Chef sausages in gravy, with mash (probably more than the regulation amount but really, who cares) and herby balsamic runner beans

What i'm really enjoying is actually bothering to make vegetables- something that i must admit i was absolutely terrible at before. I'm not bothering to weigh accompaniments or veg that i'm having at this point in the diet- i figure whatever i'm having now is still much better than what i was eating before.

Diet Chef pasta carbonara with chinese leaf lettuce and sesame soy shallots and runner beans

I lost 4lbs in the first week- hardly life-changing, but a tiny win nonetheless. Just in case anyone wants to give it a try (NOT that i am saying that any of you need to, you understand), just type in this discount voucher code:

 MYHCIGIW

And you'll get a tenner off any orders over £190. Better than a kick in the teeth, eh? Wish me luck with my *hopefully* slow but steady weight loss. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes, without being too boring.

Hayley's Little Helper

No, for once I don't mean gin.

I adore baking, I really do. It's calming, relaxing and very satisfying. There is one aspect to baking though that I really can't be bothered with.

Lining The Cake Tins.

This dreaded task, which requires geometry, patience, and construction skill, really does my head in. I recently ran out of my supply of My Little Helper, but now i can breathe a sigh of relief that i have more in my possession:

And so, with only a few pounds whisked out of my bank account, my life has just become easier. You can buy these great little cake tin liners from Lakeland and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

NB: Lakeland!!! Look at meeee!!! See how i am recommending your products to my lovely followers! Give me free stuff! Pretty PLEASE!!!!

In Which The Gateshead Mutant Spider Puts In An Appearance

So, following my recent move to my new flat, I decided that a civilised gathering of a few friends was in order. Stop laughing, it’s not a typo, I really did mean civilised, not “completely drunken and debauched”.

Two of my bestest friends came round. There was nibbles, cupcakes (to be discussed in a future post), lovely lemon shortbread (made by my friend Joanne), and most importantly, Pom-Bear crisps. I am telling you, if anyone knows how to do civilised entertaining, it is I.

As my outdoor space is still a novelty, I had thrown the doors wide to invite in the invigorating outdoor air into my homely little apartment during the day. Mmmm, fresh air, with only a small hint of gas scent from the nearby gasworks.

So, after a lengthy conversation about tactics for surviving zombie attacks, it got a bit chilly, so i thought i’d better close the patio doors.

What followed was a large amount of panic when said doors appeared obstinately opposed to the idea of locking. After about an hour of huffing, puffing, as much brute force as we could muster, and a panicked text to the landlord, we decided to have a rest.

My friend Adriana was sat on a pouffe (yes darlings, I do have a pouffe) which was pushed up against a wall. As we sat merrily sipping our tea, all of a sudden she jumped and declared “something just brushed against my back!” Well now, when it comes to ghosties and other paranormal sorts of things, I am a total wimp, so I was all “Don’t even TRY to suggest that there are ghosties in here”.

Moments later, I happened to glance down to see a sight resembling something like this:

Artists Impression of the Gateshead Mutant Spider.  Not actual size. The spider was MUCH bigger than this.

  

Allow me to introduce you to the Gateshead Mutant Spider. Forged in the local gasworks, this spider grew to be enormous, with a special superspider ability to prevent the locking of patio doors to gain entry into people’s new flats. Clearly, this was what brushed past Adriana’s back. Honestly, I would rather have had ghosties. What followed went thus:

-I totally freeze

-Joanne takes action to cover the Spider with a wine glass (a Jamie Oliver one no less!)

- The reality of the terrifying mutant then registers with Joanne, who quickly retreats to the safety of the kitchen bench.

-We proceed to watch the spider crawling about within its glass enclosure, then decide to cover it all with a tea towel so it can’t see us whilst we plan our next move (?!)

-We then worry that the spider is so big it’s going to be able to knock over the wine glass and attack us all by sucking our brains out of our jugular arteries, or something similar.

-Adriana takes control, and armed only with a Ritz cracker box, manages to manoeuvre the spider into a trap.

-under my watchful eye, Adriana is then made to take Gateshead Mutant Spider as far down the street as possible, before ensuring that she runs like a bat out of hell back into my flat before the evil creature can scuttle back in before her.

Needless to say, Joanne had nightmares about having to try and lock my patio doors in the event of a zombie invasion, whilst i lay wide awake in my bedroom, imagining the spider tapping on my window and trying to break the glass. Since then, Gatehead Mutant Spider hasn’t put in another indoor appearance, but i am constantly looking over my shoulder, just in case.

April 2012? What? Where? Who? What do you mean it's gone already?!

As you may have noticed, I am exceptionally behind with my little blog, leaving you, my lovely bloggie friends severely neglected. My humblest of humble apologies to you all.

Life seems to be particularly manic at the moment, what with ridiculous amounts of travel for work, and lovelife purposes. (i write this post en route to London for a mixture of both. I live in fear of East coast wi-fi giving up entirely). In the midst of all this, I've also managed to move. I'll admit that this was a rather unexpected turn of events, as i truly did love my old flat, which was right slap bang in the centre of Newcastle. I find urban living suits me entirely and i was lulled into sleep every night by the sounds of squeaky trains going past my windows mixed with sirens and drunken revellers. 

City centre living is, however, rather expensive, so in an unexpected turn of events i have skipped across the river to Gateshead, to a lovely little flat with a bit of outdoor space all of its own. I have a few friends who live in the area also, all of which seem to have decided that i am now their personal on-call baker. Expect some "i baked this, but alas can't eat any of it as it's for my neighbours grrrr" posts, along with some about my utter ineptitude when it comes to green fingered antics. I would love to do a little bit of planting and growing, but alas it seems even the lonely packet of tomato seeds i got for free is proving too much for my concrete-loving mind, and i have absolutely no idea what to do with them.

Alarmingly, I now wake up to the sound of birds chirping. And that’s it. No squeaky trains, no sirens, no smashing bottles, nothing. I am told i will get used to this, but at the moment it seems very bizarre indeed.

Needless to say, I welcome any hints and tips you may have regarding How To Live Like An Actual Adult, One Who Does Gardening And Stuff.

Ever faithful to you, my blog friends (if rather inattentive at times),

Hayley

Little Louise Cupcakes

Greetings,

Yesterday it was my friend's birthday gathering at her lovely new house. Usually, when there is a house party, particularly if birthday related, I like to bring some cake along. This time i needed to make something quite quickly because i was at work in the morning, and only had a couple of hours turnaround before my lift to the party, including time to go shopping for ingredients.

I did a bit of research at work. Initially i thought of making a chocolate fudge cake, but then i realised this would take too much time to bake the cake, and wait for the topping. Cupcakes are much quicker, so i started having a look at cupcake recipes. When I came across some Little Louise cupcakes, I just new I had to give them a go- my friend whose birthday it was is called Louise :)

Basically, Little Louise cupcakes are plain vanilla sponge cupcakes with a jam filling. The cupcakes turned out pretty good:

Then a meringue topping is applied to the cakes, and they are popped in the oven for 35 minutes or so to bake. If I'd have had more time, I would have put a bit more care and attention into tidying up the topping, but then i suppose they do have a sort of rustic charm about them.

They don't make for the prettiest cakes, but they did taste really quite good, and were happily received by my friends. I sprinkled them with edible gold powder and put them on a nice new pink cake stand to pretty them up a bit. The recipe i used was from the good old BBC Good Food website. I halved the amount of milk in the recipe based on the comments that the jam fell to the bottom of the cakes. The resulting mixture was sturdy but easy enough to transfer into the cupcake cases and spread over the jam. I also left out the dessicated coconut because i wasn't sure if everyone would like it.

These little cakes are definitely worth a try. I would probably recommend eating them with less wine than i did, as I've ended up with an utterly horrendous hangover today.

Good Ol' Potatoes

Many moons ago, (11 years to be exact- urgh) I packed up my little knapsack (several loads of stuff in my Dad's car),  and away i trudged to learn my trade (pharmacy) in the big wide world (Sunderland).

Before they waved me off (jumped for joy), my parents (mum mainly, dad was just pleased to get rid, bless him) wanted to reassure themselves that I would be able to fend for myself in urban jungle of Sunderland. And that would involve feeding myself. They invested in a number of student cookbooks for me (I still remember one which basically said for everything "If you can get it tinned, why bother cooking it?"), along with Delia's How To Cook Book One. Yes, that is the one that tells you how to make toast properly. 

So one of the things it was decided i would do was to Cook A Meal. I agonised over what to make for a long time, then decided on a chicken, bacon and cheese wrap thing, and Delia's Potatoes Boulangere. Because that sounded proper posh. I also made an apple cake

There was a LOT of panicking, particularly to do with timing, and a lot of whining for interventions from my mum, but in the end, I managed to pull together something edible. And imagine my joy, oh joy of joys, when my diners even asked for SECONDS! 

Since then, potatoes boulangere has become a firm favourite of mine which never really fails to disappoint it's eaters. It's really, very simple, and i'm not sure quite what it is about this dish, but it does always seem to win people over. It's rather easy to make, but can take a long time to cook, so may take a little bit of organisation to fit in with whatever else you're making with it. I think it's very deliciously comforting, because it is so simple. 

Because there's no use in reinventing the wheel, especially where Delia is involved, here is the recipe. I do have a few small adjustments to make to it though. I tend to sprinkle a bit of garlic over the top layer, and will apply a small (rather large, actually) sprinkling of cheese onto the top a few minutes before it's due to come out of the oven. Because what recipe is not improved by liberal amounts of cheese?

Why am I telling you all about this? Well, because I sort of recreated this historical meal at the weekend, except for the apple cake. And the potatoes were appreciated as much as they usually are.

So far, this dish has a 100% success rate!

Firewalk With Me.

Hi folks,

So as you may know, on March 8th, I did a firewalk. Well, in actual fact, I did three firewalks. I thought I would tell you all about how fantastic it was.

Firstly, why did i decide to sign up for such an event? Well, I have developed an obsession with the TV programme Coach Trip, and on one of the episodes I saw, the coach trippers went firewalking. It looked very easy, but rather fun, and without thinking about it too much, I thought "oh, it's obviously just a trick and not that hot, but it looks fun and i'd like to try it sometime"

Fast forward a few months and a spam fax arrives at work: it's an advert for a firewalking event in aid of The Stroke Association, and it's being held just 20 mins or so away. Well, before I knew it i had signed myself up and paid the entry fee.

Of course everyone at work thought I was crazy. And then they looked firewalking up on the internet. It's only then that I realised that actually it's NOT a trick, and the coals really are rather warm ridiculously hot at between 400 and 500 degrees celsius.

I raised loads of money from all of my wonderful friends, colleagues, and family. In total to date I've raised about £296, which is really, really brilliant. I think people were so stunned by my stupidity at signing up that they just threw money at me hoping that i would actually use it to get my head seen to. Or for a nice shiny wheelchair after my feet were burned to stumps. If you would like to, you can still donate to my cause here. It would be REALLY awesome, in an OCD sort of way, to hit £300.

In  the days leading up to the firewalk, I started having weird dreams, many of which involved fire of some description. One notable dream included a rather horrific fiery death for a colleague at work, involving some fireworks :-S So I think it's safe to say that i was actually rather worried about the whole affair.

On the day, I finished work early and headed to my parents house. They wanted to come along and see me perform this wonderful feat. Actually, my Dad did seem generally rather worried about the whole thing. In order to distract myself, I straightened my hair. Whilst doing this, I almost burnt myself on my hot hair, then thought "oh Christ, this is only 220 degrees." So then the next most logical thing for me to do was to paint my toenails.

It was only after i had a set of beautifully, carefully painted lilac sparkly toenails that my Dad decided to remind me about how flammable nail polish is. Eek.

Then off we went to the venue. And lo, in the corner of the car park, we saw this sight:

Ummmm.... reassuring... ahem.

Too late to back out now though, so off I went to register, leaving a trail of panicking parents in my wake. The man who registered me seemed really very impressed and touched about the amount I had raised, and even gave me a hug to say thank you.

Then it was time for a firewalking seminar by UK Firewalk. All during the seminar I tried to be calm but felt more and more panicked. I thought it would all be about technique, and meditation, but it was actually very relaxed. We learned about a few key points which are absolute musts for successful firewalking:

1. Fire connection- you have to know that it is a real-life fire, not a trick, and that it is going to be really, very hot. We were encouraged to go and hold our hands above the coals so that we knew that it was hot before walking. Apparently, if you tell yourself it's not hot, it just doesn't work.

2. A belief in a theory. You need to have some faith that it works, and that you're not going to end up with charred stumps. The instructor went though a number of reasons why, from physics to auras, we are able to walk on fire. It doesn't matter which you believe, as long as you believe in one. I went for good old physics, where the conductivity of the coal is less than your feet, so there is a delay in transfer of heat to your feet.

3. Intention to walk. You need to stand at the start of the walk, and know and want to walk across the fire.

by this time i was rather terrified. We all went outside and the temperature of the coals was read... 540 degrees. But, as the first few people did their walk, I got more and more excited. So off I went...

The pictures make it look much less hot than it actually is!

Now I'll admit it... I did rather loudly swear half way through the first walk. I actually wasn't intending to walk again but there was a bit of a queue in my way to get back to my shoes, and the longer i waited the more i thought "Again, Again, Again!"

So off I went again...

And.... again....

The best way I can describe the feeling is, that it feels exactly like you would imagine walking over a barbecue would feel like- there is a background rather warm feeling, with little pinpricks of extreme heat. But, by the time you've registered this, you've already carried on walking, so the really hot bits are constantly shifting, so you don't really burn your feet in the end.

When I got home, I washed my feet and they really stung as i was washing them. Then i had a tingly, stinging sensation for a few hours, as if i had sunburnt feet. But, no blisters at all, and no burns.

The verdict? I want to do it AGAIN!

Curry Night In

Hi all,

Expect a glut of posts today... I'm feeling a bit under the weather so am firmly planted on the sofa with a blanket, and catching up with blog posts seems like a nice thing to do to cheer me up on a poorly day.

I tend to binge cook. So, on a night when i'm not doing anything, i'll usually make some large batches of stew or a curry, then portion it off and freeze it all then have it for my lunch at work or as a quick and easy tea when i get in from work.

This is one of my favourite curry recipes that i wanted to share with you. It's actually quite healthy (adapted from a Slimming World Recipe) and whilst it's probably not quite as delicious as a takeaway curry it's very satisfying and best of all, it will make your kitchen smell absolutely wonderful as it's cooking. Because I'm lazy, I love to use Very Lazy products and I always have a stock of their red chilli, garlic, and ginger to hand.

Ingredients:
Fry- Light
1 onion, peeled and chopped as chunky or as small as you like
4 cloves
6 cardamom pods
2 tsp Very Lazy red chilli
1 tsp Very Lazy ginger
2 tsp Very Lazy garlic
2 dried Chipotle chillies
1 tbsp hot curry powder (ideally Madras powder, but normal curry powder will do)
900g beef fillet, cut into chunks, with any fatty bits removed.
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
250ml beef stock

1. Spray a wok liberally with Fry light over a medium heat. Add onion, cloves, and cardamom and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.

2. Add the Very lazy chillies, garlic, and ginger, and the dried chipotle chilli and stir fry for a further couple of minutes.

3. Add the curry powder and beef. Stir fry for 6 minutes or so until the beef is browned and sealed nicely. Add the coriander, cumin, and stock and bring to the boil, Then simmer gently over a low heat for 1-1.5 hours until the meat is tender.

Perfect served with pilau rice and chappatis.

Steak and Mushroom Pie

At the moment, my life appears to revolve around one thing.

Pie.

Pie has become the epicentre of my very being. You can read all about the exciting goings on in team Private Pie here.

Meanwhile, Boyf and I are attempting to plough through the Hairy Biker's Perfect Pies book to get some serious pastry-based experience in.

So, last weekend we made a hearty steak and mushroom pie from their book. Bear in mind that I was rather hung over after drinking an awful lot of wine the night before, and the recipe entails using a fair amount of red wine. Luckily, Boyf was willing to stand in at that point to take over and to limit the amount of alcoholic fumes i inhaled. 

Now, if you ask me, an ideal pie has some sort of decoration which reflects what's inside it. It turns out that all of my bento-ing experience seems to be coming in handy for this purpose. For the pastry  mushroom, I used an idea from Cute Yummy Time, with a punched- out nori happy face. Meanwhile, Boyf had responsibility for  producing the cow. 

Of course, a little bit of basic maths never goes amiss either when considering pie decoration. And who could argue that steak + mushroom = yum?

NOM!

 

Quick catch up

Hi all,

Just to say a quick "I haven't forgotten about you, I promise".

I have a few things that I need to post about at some point. I shall hopefully get round to it tomorrow night, so hang on in there, as I know you are all simply dying to know more about what is going on in HayleyVille :)

Speak (type) soon,

Hayley xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What to do on Boxing Day?

My boxing day last year was really rather rubbish, so this year i wanted to do something fun... And so i did a bit of research, only to discover that there is a grand total of three options for Boxing Day Fun in Newcastle:

1. Get up at 4am, then stand in a queue for 2 hours waiting for the Next sale to open. Then get black eyes and numerous other injuries whilst buying clothes you don't need in the wrong size.

2. Buy a half price sofa.

3. Do the Boxing Day Dip.

Of these options, I decided that number 3 would be the most symbolic and impressive activity. I roped in 2 other friends, but we missed the deadline to register for the official dip, so we decided we would just do our own instead.

We wanted to all wear matching outfits, (and were all very frightened of freezing sea-skin contact) so we attempted to buy some christmassy onesies, but there were none to be had anywhere in Newcastle two days before christmas. So instead, we thought we would just go with a pyjama theme. Off we went to the wilds of Northumberland, where we expected there to be no-one about to witness our pyjama-ed hypothermic frolics. However, it turns out that many people want to go walking along the coast on a blustery boxing day... all warmly wrapped in their sensible layers and hiking boots....

Cue three pyjama-clad, hip flask swigging girls appearing on the horizon!

Anyway, we all did a dip, and to be honest it was an amazing feeling. We were dead proud of ourselves, and i think we amused a number of passers-by, who gave us some shouts of encouragement... I think we may have even inspired someone else to get dipping!

Unfortunately though, this is the only picture which shows me entirely submerged... A pesky wave got in the way.

Of course there is only one antidote to the freezing cold North Sea, and that is copious amounts of cheese. I had a lovely Ploughman's lunch at Barter Books in Alnwick, while my friends had soup and a very delicious looking Northumbrian rarebit.

Same time next year, methinks.

Hayley xxx

Severe Reprimands are required

I know, I know dear blog friends, I have been seriously neglecting you and am outrightly flouting the code of Blog Pact.

You know how it is over Christmas.

In the meantime, let me direct you to the Private Pie blog, which has a write-up of our first ever meeting.

Eventually, I'll get round to posting the recipe for my much-loved christmas pie.

I think my New Year's Resolution is obvious- BLOG MORE!

Thanks for being patient

Hayley xxx

Quick Catch-up

Hi my lovelies,

Just a quick post to say that i promise i will be doing a decent post soon. I've been fairly busy lately, ironically mainly baking, to get down to writing any proper posts.

It's the Winter themed Clandestine Cake Club tomorrow though, and it's going to be a busy one! There are so many really exciting cakes on the list, and i'm quite pleased with how mine has turned out this time.

You will hear all about it soon, I promise,

Oceans of love,

Hayley xxx

My Excuse Note

Dear Blog Pact,

Please may i be excused from the Blog Pact bond for about 2 weeks, on account of me being on holiday and not being able to blog.

I promise that i will make up for my absence  and tell you all about my holiday when i return

Many thanks,

Hayley xx

A Very Exciting (and Secret) Development

I'm quite rubbish at keeping daft but exciting secrets, so I'm going to tell you all about this Top Secret and marvellous thing that is happening at the moment..

Inspired by the lovely Lisa, and the Clandestine Cake Club, my friend Nancy and I have decided to make our very own food-based secret society.

A secret pie club! Similar principles to the CCC, (you only find out about the venue 24 hours before, you can bring a non-baking friend, you have to make a pie that will feed 8-12 people), but with a more savoury option, although sweet pies are still very much welcome.

Our website is under construction at the minute, but i've started off a little blog 

Aaaand, we have a twitter account ( @private_pie)

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, we have a Facebook page as well 

So, once i am back from my holidays, we are going to go and have a look for venues. We have somewhere in mind which i think will be perfect, but fingers crossed that it all works out.

I am really, so excited about this!

Hayley xxx

A Very Cool Night Out

Hi all,

Have any of you been to Icebar London? I went there last week and it was FABULOUS! What is it? Well, it's a bar, which is MADE OF ICE! Yay!

It's located just off Regent Street, and it's wonderful. It's very beautiful, with bits of artwork around about, and the ice itself is  harvested from Sweden and the bar is kept permanently at around minus 5. When we went, the designs included some nice quotes in the walls. The decorations are changed once yearly.

You get a furry cape to wear when you go in, with gloves attached, because, and here is the best bit, you glass is made of ice!

They serve some nice cocktails (I had a Singapore Sling and a Mojito, whilst The Boy just had whatever was the brightest pink, as is his way with cocktails), and the main problem with the whole experience is that it's only 40 mins long. And a normal pub seems like a bit of a let down after being in there!

Last weekend we also went to a planetarium, which was wonderful, and I was sent off home with a supply of The Boy's very marvelous apple crumble. A lovely weekend all round.

Hayley xxx

Overdosing on cake part two

Hi all,

Much to report to my little corner of bloggyland at the moment so bear with me while i catch up with you all.

First off, is my report from my second time at the Clandestine Cake Club Newcastle. This meeting's theme? A National Cake (as it was National Cake Week last week, and the cake club meet fell on the Wednesday). I was also very excited to find out that this time, Cake Club would be meeting at the Tyneside Cinema, a place which is very dear to my heart and one of my favourite places in this wonderful city.

So, I thought about my cake that I would make. Well, in actual fact, my friend Nancy and I had many very lengthy conversations, panics, and discussions about the cakes we would make. And I settled on a White Russian cake, mainly because the recipe contained a whole load of alcohol (kahlua and vodka) and there isn't much better in life that a combination of alcohol and cake.

The really interesting about this cake club, was the fact that everyone seemed to have a tale of a cake-based disaster to tell. There were cake cracks, cake disintegrations, cakes dipping in the middle, cakes with saggy frosting, and in my case, slightly burnt cakes and curdled cream due to too much alcohol being added. All these disasters made us all feel a bit better and meant that good conversation flowed freely and made us all feel much better about our cake stresses. My way of dealing with my curdled vodka kahlua cream was to remember that well known old proverb "If your cake goes a bit wrong, put s**t loads of gold dust, cherries, and chocolate on top to hide it".

All that glitters tastes rather nice

Well, this seems to have worked, as there was a journalist and a photographer there that night who were wanting to report on the cake club, and the photographer seemed quite taken with my cake. In fact, he seemed quite taken with the whole idea "What, so you meet up every month, and bring cake and eat cake? Wow!". So, before i knew it, i was whisked off into the alleyway outside the cinema for some photographs with my cake. Despite a minor panic attack about the state of my make-up and hair, and demands for extreme air-brushing, I'm actually not as horrified at the results as I thought i would be. Here it is in situ, in the Sunday Sun:

I know what you're thinking! Hotel Rooms for just £10!!

And you can see the article online here: Secret Cake Making Club Cooking up a Frenzy. I'm so pleased to see it doing so well, and would like to say many congratulations and thanks to Lisa for organising such a great event. Check out her blog The Wonderful World of @loopygirl whenever you get a moment.

The Great Phone Case Conundrum

Hello all of you lovely people.

For the past few days, I would say about 84% of my brain has been devoted to worrying about this big issue in my life.

I now have 2 cases for my beloved blackberry, and I am in a constant state of anxiety about which case to use at any given time. You see my dilemma:

One is sparkly. This is good. However it has no reference to cakes on it. The other is pink and has a cupcake on it, but sadly no sparkly bits.

My simple dog brain is overwhelmed.

P.S. I hear you thinking 'this post seems rather rushed, almost as if it is an emergency post because she doesn't have time to right a big post and she is away for the weekend so wont be able to blog, then she would be in contravention of the laws of Blog Pact.' You may or may not be correct about this.

The Great Blog Pact

And so it is, dear readers, that I am entered into a binding pact of blogging.

Three of us at my workplace are owners of Neglected Blogs. We have decided to Pull Our Socks Up and stay on top of our blogs, and have entered into a pact to post at least one blog post a week.

The forfeit, if this is not done, remains as yet undecided. I am open to suggestions, provided they are suitably gory and terrible.

Please visit and love my fellow pacters' blogs. And make sure to tell on them if they don't post weekly. mwhahahahaha!

Vince's Allotment Year

Nancy's Life, Love and Kettlebells

Anyone who owns a blog and wants to join in, say hello!