Girls' Night In Book Launch Party at Hannah's house

Hannah Read-Baldrey is so beautiful in real life I couldn't believe I was in the same room as her, let along her house! She looks amazing in her previous books Everything Oz and Everything Alice, but real life? She lit up the place with her vibrant aura and confidence making me and the other guests feel very welcome at the launch party of her new book Girls' Night In. (GNI)

GNI is filled with 'Crafts, Cakes and Cocktails for The Ultimate Party' and to celebrate it, that's exactly what Hannah did. She invited all sorts of amazing women to attend her do including friends, family, bloggers and crafters; treating us all to a very special evening.

 

On the menu were these two scrumptious cakes...

...and on the guestlist, lots of girls to enjoy them, including Zoe from Craft Candy and colleagues from Hannah's publishers Quadrille. Behind them is the actual art work of the book cover which Hannah collaged from paper.

Decorations included Leggy Bunting, as featured in the book.

And flavoured popcorn: the perfect snack to accompany girlie movie nights.

Cakes were dotted throughout the house. In whichever room you were in, you were never far from a sponge!

My kind of party is one with activities - and despite being the host, Hannah made time to run workshops during the night including showing us how to give each other a flower manicure which she demonstrated.

I had mine done in a rather lovely light blue by a girl who thankfully was very understanding that the nails I did for her in return didn't quite turn into flowers...

...but stars instead. I've never had a problem painting my own nails but painting someone else's is such a different experience, very nerve racking as it requires so much concentration.

Here are my finished nails along with the page in the book from which they were inspired.

Two more designs from the night - I really love the Art Deco coloured French tips on the left.

Pampering is an important part of a girlie get together, but there isn't just ideas for nail decor in the GNI book; you can also try out a recipe for your own face mask.

And get make-up application tips.

There are also party games which are great for breaking the ice. Hannah mentions in the book that GNIs don't just need to be for groups of friends who know eachother, but are an ideal way to make new acquaintances.

Craft activities to keep you occupied are aplenty in the book including knicker-making, hair fascinators, a clutch bag and fabric dolls, but my favourite project is these gorgeous bejewelled tights. I swear by tights and I love bling, plus they are really easy to do so have my name written all over them!

This is one of those photos that really doesn't do the subject any justice as you can't tell the proportions but this is the biggest slice of brie to have ever been baked! 
Or at least it seemed that way! It was gigantic - about the average size of a chair seat. Warm and googey inside it was drizzled with honey and caramlised nuts and was the edible talking point of the evening.

My favourite however was this. I'm not normally a fan of quiche but this flan was so scrumptious I had two slices. The pastry and base were delicious.

And to think the sweet stuff was just as incredible as the savoury dishes! 
Fresh cream filled, soft choux buns...these profiteroles were so heavenly...

All manor of cocktail recipes feature in the book too so at the party there was a whole cocktail tent, filled with drinks so you could make your own tipple, enter the cocktail making competition or create fish bowls to share.

Oh and those cakes I showed at the beginning? I got to taste them both and they were yummazing!

The front cake was peach and cream flavour  - it had several layers, all that were perfectly moist, then your taste buds were treated to surprise mouthfuls of peach which added a fruitiness that balanced out the sweetness of the perfectly piped pink icing.

There's a great line in the press release for the GNI book that says 'in these cash-strapped times, this book offers ideas for the perfect alternative to costly bars and restaurants.' 

I really like this sentiment, that instead of going out, you can stay in and still have fun. Obviously you do need to spend a few pounds to supply food, drink etc but there's always  cheap alternatives and you can ask everyone to contribute or bring donations to share the cost.

I'm not sure if I'll be hosting any GNIs of my own too soon. I'm not the most active of hosts, in fact it's been over two years since I've cooked for anyone at my flat let alone had more than one person over. 'Hosting' and having to tidy up for people freaks me out but I will definately incorporate lots of Hannah's ideas: perhaps I can persuade a friend to host a party around theirs instead and I can help with the planning!

Girls' Night In 

Craft, cakes and cocktails for the ultimate party

by Hannah Read-Baldrey is published by Quadrille Publishing (£16.99) and is available now!
You should also check out the accompanying website.

Winter Wonderland Cake

Cake is a very important part of my life, not a single week goes by without me eating cake and on days I'm not eating it, I'm thinking about it.



 I've been pondering how to describe my wedding in my blog and have finally decided that rather than going into all the details of the year long planning process, just to feature some of the highlights; starting with the cake!

Is it 4'o'clock yet?

Choosing my wedding cake was therefore a very special thing. I'm going to refer to it as 'my wedding cake' because I don't think Matt would have noticed if there had been a wedding cake or not. Some men just do not appreciate cake, it's wasted on them and as such, he didn't get involved in it. And so back to my cake......rather than looking at recipes I googled cake images, that's when you really discover the possibilities (as well as watching various cake reality shows that crop up on my cable channels...and there's at least three set in US bakehouses where they create huge themed masterpieces like zombie graveyards and a stage of male strippers modelled from sugarpaste...just one of the many episodes I witnessed!)
My sister Jolekha, the domestic goddess of the family who bakes all our cakes said early on I should buy one, making one wasn't worth the risk. 

Move over Nigella, my sister means business!

I disagreed, the last thing I wanted was a tier of three sponges from Waitrose, and quite frankly I couldn't stomach the idea of wasting so much money on something that's on show just for a few photos and hardly gets eaten by going to a wedding cake maker.
Talking to a couple of cake loving friends (one who likes pimping sponge mixes and one who's more of a visual decorator) I fell in love with the concept of having a snowscene cake that looked like a winter wonderland. Neither of us had any idea how it would work or look but once the vision was in my head that was that!
The starting point was a trip to Party Party, an amazing store in Hackney, East London. the downstairs floor is made up of party essentials and fancy dress costumes while upstairs it's a baker's paradise with tins, trays, boards and cake cakes in every shape and size imaginable, edible glitter, sprinkles, toppers, flowers, paints, pens...basically everything you need to make and decorate an amazing cake. I even picked up evergreen trees and plastic holly springs.
These were transported back to Janine's house where we spent a Sunday afternoon experimenting. The sponge was chosen by Laura - Angel Food cake, an amazing, light fat free cake you can only buy in the US! (Luckily she was jetting off there a few weeks before the Big Day where she filled her suitcase with packet mixes and huge edible confetti which when placed inside, gives it a speckled rainbow effect. For our testing day she managed to buy a pack online from an American food store.)
We tested different types of icing for coverage (it needed to be thick and white, but not royal icing.) Sponges were baked in different sizes and cut up to create a bumpy mountain setting.

I also purchased a set of snowflake shaped icing cutters and we tested making snowflakes from blue icing, which were detailed with irridescent glitter and edible marker pens. We over did it a bit with the blue sprinkles:

Overall, it kind of worked, but with so much else for me to get organising I left in in their hands.
On the morning of the wedding as I was getting glammed up, Janine and Laura set to work on creating my dream cake:

Janine applying frosty icing

Laura and Janine sprinkling the bling

Toned down snowflakes!

Positioning the couple

I didn't see the final design until I walked up the aisle where it was waiting to be cut, after the ceremony. It looked absolutely amazing! 

Every single aspect was special from the 'alternative' couple at the top, made from Christmas decorations to all the wonderful animals. 

Coming it at under £100 ingredients and decorations included(for over 150 guests) it was also great value. 
I recommend you consider attempting a homemade wedding cake, it feels really good knowing it's a one off, never ever to be created again! Also you feel the love of the making of it so much more than asking a stranger to do it. You don't need to be good at cake making....the sponges here were made from packet mixes, where you just add water and the decorating, like most crafting has NO RULES! Simply go with the flow. No guest will turn their nose up at your cake because it's homemade and if they did, then they shouldn't be invited...it's your day so make sure you get the cake you want!...........and yes it tasted very good (though a little sweet) too!

Hmmmm, teatime!

When my friend Johnathan invited me around for 'Sunday Lunch on a Saturday' I was determined to keep up with his culinary expertise and produce something equally as stunning for dessert. It gave me a chance to finally try out the recipe in the Hummingbird Cookbook that has been taunting me for a year. The Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie looks amazing in the pictures but the trouble is I hate recipes. I just can't follow them. But I tried my absolute best and something amazing was created - although true to form, I didn't stick to the recipe, there were a few strays....

What you need:

200g melted plain chocolate (1 whole bar)

200g melted unsalted butter

500g icing sugar (1 whole box!)

5 eggs

110g plain flour

400g cream cheese (2 pots)

teaspoon of vanilla extract

300ml whipping cream (2 pots)

2 punnets of raspberries

Start by mixing and whisking up 1/2 box of sugar and the butter until it's lovely and smooth. I found melting the butter in advance which the book didn't suggest a much easier option.

Next beat in 3 eggs, add one at a time. This was my first mishap, I added all 5 eggs at once : (

Then melt the chocolate by breaking into pieces and placing in a heatproof container over a pan of boiling water. Add it to the mixture and stir well. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and then pour the mixture on top.

Next make the cheesecake layer. Beat the cheesecake mixture with 2 eggs (this meant my dessert ended up with 7 eggs in total!!) Mix in 150g sugar, again I didn't notice this and added the remaining 1/2 box by mistake.......

Pour it ontop of the brownie and bake at 150 degrees or gas mark 3 for 40 minutes until set.

Allow to cool and then put in fridge overnight.

In the morning whisk 1 punnet of raspberries into the cream until it's lovely and thick. The recipe suggested adding 100g of sugar here but as i'd already added it to the cheese I left it out, the sharpness of the raspberries went well with the sweeter base. Then place it in fridge until it's needed and top with raspberries to decorate. It produced over 20 slices!

The verdict???????? Well only one person asked for a second slice but then again we also had a lovely lemon drizzle cake and the main was so good there wasn't much space for pud. But I was proud...if you look closely below you can see the coloured layers.

This morning I had some leftovers, they were quite stodgy but still very tasty and I feel less mystified about the whole following a recipe malarky.

On another notes I LOVED the Blacksmiths episode of Mastercrafts, it was my favourite to date, the gates they produced were really impressive, they were all worthy winners : )