The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 28 - 32 The Anniversary special!

(image copyright nofussphotography.com)

Five years ago in January Mr Biscuit and I got wed. You see us above, having a smooch cutting our cake (I had to get the cake in!).  For an anniversary gift this year I offered a bake of his choice for each week representing a year.  He's not called Mr Biscuit for no reason!

The 52MMMC Anniversary Special....

Week 28 

He would have me bake these every other day if he could.  From Nigella's Feast.  Very moreish and I love filling and sandwiching these biscuits.  A kitchen job that soothes the soul.  Like most of this Anniversary Special list, I had to make double batches so there was enough for us all.  Mr Biscuit devours biscuits!

Week 29

You've probably spotted the whacking great error here, no actual bourbons.  The story goes, I made them the day before I had surgery (had to be in my kitchen to settle my nerves) and totally neglected to take any photos of them before they were scoffed.  I was in a lot of pain and medicated up to the eyeballs if you remember so I'm sure you'll forgive me.  I based the recipe loosely on the above custard cream one (Mr Biscuit's idea/wish) obviously omitting the custard powder and adding cocoa and dark chocolate to the mixture.  I can't really remember how they tasted.  I'm sure I dunked them in tea to soften so I could manage them with a sore mouth.  They have been requested again therefore must have been alright.

Week 30

Technically called Anzac biscuits but not in our house.  From a recipe by Mary Berry.  Again Mr Biscuit would have me tied to the cooker constantly supplying him with these biscuits, he adores them. I have been making these for years and years from various recipes.   They are fantastic with a cuppa and a sure way to keep the menfolk of the house happy.

Week 31

I have a wee confession...I persuaded Mr Biscuit to request these by reminding him of one he had at a wee deli coffee shop in Kelso last year whilst holidaying at Easter time. I really fancied making them for the first time and grab an opportunity to use my special tins.  They did not disappoint.  Gorgeous wee things from a Gordon Ramsay recipe in a Good Food magazine.  In fact they were so delicious that for the first time in the 52mmm challenge I repeated myself and they became...

Week 32 (too)

We could not help it.  We were quite overcome by how delightful these little cakes are.  In celebration of a new found love I made this...

I do love brooches so.   

In fact here are some new purchases from the shop where I have already purchased brooches in the shapes of a custard cream, bourbon and jammy dodger.  A fantastic shop at Folksy now called CorBlimey Designs.  A pink shrimp and a white chocolate mouse...

I love them.  I am a huge fan of nostalgic brooches and sweeties and biscuits....

 ***

So that's it for The Anniversary Special.   

Mr Biscuit and I did take our time in getting wed, together nine years before, but if we hadn't then we would have missed the chance of seeing our then four and two year old Biscuits looking adorable in kilts and aran jumpers. 

(image copyright nofussphotography.com)

I'm sure you agree!

X

The Great Reveal!

I am calling this post 'The Great Reveal' out of sheer joy that I have finally finished.  The cake, THE CAKE, I have been working on all week, is done, dusted, cut and scoffed with great delight by family and friends with compliments abound.  I'm sure you are all bursting with excitement, maybe a little wee had already escaped, so here it is........

I am very, very, very pleased with the end result.  Relieved it went well as it was a practice run for a friends wedding this summer.  She wants me to make her cake even though I had never done it before at the time of asking.  Ever the practical I embarked on giving it a bash first with a single tier cake for my Mum's 60th and now with this Ruby Anniversary two-tiered one.  I just wish the light had been better for a better photo but I was too scared to move it nearer more natural light, what if I had dropped it?  I am a dropper, clumsy Mummy remember if you read the earlier post.

Suffice to say I am feeling really good it went well, my beautiful parents-in-law loved it, their guests ate it heartily and I got very drunk and danced the night away with lots of mental, tummies filled with fizzy juice, children running about the dance floor bashing each other with balloons.  So a good family party then.

I have crowned myself Queen Ali today if that's OK with you!!

X

I've got a right bloody cheek.............

......not in a literal sense, just in a "I need to get a grip and cheer up a bit' sense.  I've just had a lovely weekend away in the Highlands with family, food and frolics but still feel down in the dumps and restless.  I've spent the best part of today avoiding housework (avoiding everything if I'm honest), shopping with my mother-in-law for her 40th Anniversary Party this Friday.  Not only did I buy a new outfit, I had a lovely cappuccino with an almond croissant on the side AND lunch, blethering and being girly.  Still feeling moody now I'm at home wondering which chore to deal with, which to prioritise as I really should be baking those eight and ten inch cakes for aforementioned Anniversary Party.  I can't seem to find the time to sew that brooch I'm in the middle of making, OR finish those ipod socks for ickle cousins and get on with those cushions for the sofa that have been in the pipeline for a couple of weeks.  We're in the middle of changing the mortgage and it's my own Anniversary tomorrow and I haven't even thought about it yet.  I feel I am getting nowhere fast.  Forget January Blues, I'm going mental!!! Plain old fashioned let me lay down in the middle of the room and pull my hair out mental. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!

I am doing that thing I said I wouldn't do.  I'm using my blog to rant.....please fellow bloggers tell me it's ok.  Tell me we can't always make up funny rhymes and post lovely photos.  Sometimes we need to have a wee strop-a-rooney, place that rant out into the ether and shout out

"I FEEL LIKE PISHY POOEY PANTS"

because I do, I do and I don't want to anymore!

Actually I feel a little better.......off you go little rant.  Off you go!  That's it off into the ether..........

Just wanted to share...........

............these lovely photos of my boys enjoying sparkler fun.

 

 

My eldest out in the garden in his jimjams unable to go to his Cubs Bonfire Night because of being poorly, we made do.  He's never been ill for such a length of time before and although he's back at school this morn he is still not 100%.

I have no idea how my Hubby took these.  He used some mad setting on the camera.  I don't know what most of them do!

We also celebrated my mum's 60th birthday this weekend with a meal for her..............

I do love a laid table.  Don't you?

 

 

......of Chicken stuffed with Haggis and Black Pudding, wrapped in Bacon, Creamy Pepper Sauce, Roasters, Boilees and lots of Green Veg.  Followed by a Chocolate Lime Cheesecake from Nigella Bites.  It was delicious, if I do say myself!  The napkin rings are a purchase from chachkedesigns at Etsy.  I love them and managed to find the perfect flowers to go with them.

I also baked her a cake which felt like my first 'proper' one.  I have made many a novelty cake for my boys in the shapes of things like a Tardis, the Mystery Machine, a Ben 10 Omnitrix and the like, but that feels like playing with plasticine, this was from a Peggy Porschen recipe and even had marzipan in it for goodness sake.  I am very pleased with how it turned out and it tasted really good.

I have been asked to make a wedding cake for a friend next summer so this was a starter cake and I will be baking a tiered one for my parents-in-law's ruby annniversary in January as another practice run.  I have to say it's not something I would like to do as a living or set up as a business.  It's fun but only, I feel, for friends and family.  I don't think I'd enjoy the pressure of exacting standards required by the public.  I like knowing if it's not perfect my loved ones won't mind.  I have never had a disaster but am a bit of a perfectionist and am never completely satasfied with the end result.  I always think I could have done something better.  I bet I'm not the only person out there like that!!

It's a beautiful, bitterly cold, frosty day here in my part of Scotland today and I took lovely photos to share on my way home from school but my camera batteries died so I will show them tomorrow.

Ali X