Birthday baking

A quick post about a cake I made at the beginning of July for my Dad's birthday. It was one of the few rare hot days we've had this summer, so anything chocolately was out of the question (boo). After rummaging in my parent's cupboards I decided to make a Lemon and Coconut cream cake.

I usually don't follow a recipe for my namesake Victoria Sponge cakes as I've been making them since I was little, but decided to try out Mary Berry's 'Perfect Victoria Sandwich' recipe from the Great British Bake Off book, which by the way is an excellent book that I've made quite a few things from so far. It also has a recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made!

So, I just adapted the recipe a little bit by adding lemon extract to the sponge mixture and coconut into the buttercream filling. I finished it by drizzling normal icing on top and a few edible jelly decorations. Delish!

Fabric shopping

A quick picture of the backing fabric I bought yesterday for the quilt (the floral one!). I spent forever in the shop trying to work out what would go with the multitude of colours in the quilt, but finally found this which seems to work by tying in the the pinks and greens. Binding also purchased so when that arrives I can start putting it all together!

Home-making

Jimmy and I have found ourselves an exciting, much bigger new flat to move into! I can't wait to have more space!

I've also finally gotten round to attempting to finish a patchwork quilt I started last year, which is made up of all the pretty little scraps of fabric I have been hoarding since beginning my Costume course at uni.
It's not yet complete, as it needs batting and backing, and I'm planning to bind the edges with something like this.

The white squares are all going to be machine/hand embroidered with something relating to us. This square is, well obviously, a trip to Paris!



Hopefully it will be complete in the next couple of weeks and ready to cosy up our new flat!

Stockholm in pictures

It's actually been so long since we went to Geneva, that we've been on another holiday since! This time Jimmy's parents very kindly took us and his brother to Stockholm. We were there for 5 days, and had rather a rainy time but still found lots to do!

We had an excellent trip to the Vasa museum, which houses the largest and oldest wooden boat from Sweden. It's huge and has some fantastic carvings all over it....but unfortunately sank a mile into its voyage....

My favourite place in Stockholm, this was the highest point on a tiny island a short walk from where we were staying on Gamla Stan. Lovely views over the water and very peaceful.

The long windy journey to the top of City Hall tower which had about 365 steps but fantastic views. 

It was Euro 2012 while we were away and Reginald still found time to watch a bit of football, though was as disappointed with the results as us.

Stockholm is made up of lots of islands surrounded by very clean water, and Jimmy decided he wanted to hunt down the spot on Langholmen which was home to two city beaches, and go for a swim!

Whereas I preferred seeing the bears, among other animals, at Skansen Zoo.


 We're both big fans of stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series, and found the address where the character Mikael Blomkvist apparently lives. No sign of him currently!

On our last night in Stockholm we went to see Dropkick Murphys in a theme park, which was good fun! Jimmy also went on some horrible rides including the massive freefall drop to the left, while I was more interested in what flavour of ice cream I should get!

The owners of the apartment we stayed in had some family connection to Leo Tolstoy, although we never found out quite what it was.

 And I'll end this post with Nyan-Cat in Sweden and a rather unusual flower bed we found!

Geneva in Pictures

This feels like so along ago now, but now that I have 8 weeks off (yessss!) I finally have time to do a little post about our weekend trip to Geneva.

Probably Geneva's biggest tourist attraction, the Jet d'eau pumps out half a tonne of water every second. They actually turn it off when the wind gets so strong, and you can get right up close to it...which we did....





Jimmy walked all the way to the end..but the picture I took of him he looks like a small blurry blob!

We ate some very authentic Swiss cheese fondue, outside with a little gas burner underneath the pot. The weather was amazing the while weekend and you can see we're just starting to get sunburnt.

The famous Flower Clock in the main city.

And finally, Reginald enjoying the view from Saint Peter's Cathedral