KitchenAid Artisan Cake Mixer

Sep 11, 2011

For my birthday my boyfriend surprised me with the mother of all presents – a cream KitchenAid Artisan Cake Mixer. I had lusted after one in a nearby department store but told him it was way too expensive. He knew I loved it though and so he was really generous and gave it to me as an early birthday present on Wednesday! As you can see, the mixer had quite an entrance, standing between a sea of pink, cream and pearlised balloons.

The mixer is SO sleak and trendy and looks really swish on the kitchen work top. We had Chinese takeaway so I could get to the baking straight away and in no time at all I had whipped up a lemon drizzle cake. I couldn’t believe how quick it was to make in the mixer and I didn’t even read the instructions; the mixer is very easy to use. I took the cake into work as it is tradition to bring in cakes on or near your birthday. My colleagues said the cake was light and fluffy and was a great hit! Apparently, the deal with the mixer is I have to make cakes every week so hopefully I’ll be posting a lot more from now on! Whilst I was out at my birthday afternoon tea yesterday (another post to come!) my boyfriend also used the cake mixer and baked me a lovely red velvet birthday cake from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook with lashings of icing. I couldn’t believe he had made me a cake and I was bowled over!!

Blooming Great Tea Party for Marie Curie

Jul 18, 2010

Last weekend, my friend (who writes this gift ideas blog) and I organised a Blooming Great Tea party as part of the Marie Curie fund raising initiative. The idea is you bake lots of nice cakes and eat them with cups of tea whilst giving a donation! We had perfect weather and our guests enjoyed summer berry muffins, strawberry and buttermilk scones with clotted cream and jam, plus lemon drizzle cake. The berry muffins were amazing, I must try the recipe out for myself sometime. This was all washed down with tea, coffee, iced tea or Pimms! We raised over £100 for Marie Curie and had a lot of fun in the process! I’d recommend getting involved and holding your own tea party.

This is the lemon drizzle cake recipe which I used from Easy Living’s website. It is totally idiot proof, quick to make and is my trusty fall-back recipe if I’m short of time/need to bake a cake with minimal effort. I would definitely recommend this recipe and there’s no need to tweak anything either. Good luck!

Jamie Oliver – Nan’s lemon drizzle cake review

Mar 15, 2010

What could be better? Returning from a great holiday to find your flatmate’s boyfriend in the kitchen rustling up his first ever cake creation. Boys take note – this is how you achieve brownie points. Start storing them up now before the World Cup commences!

Neil (who happens to be an amazing underwater photographer) tried out Jamie Oliver’s Nan’s lemon drizzle cake, but added a few of his own twists.

He skipped the lemon icing and just opted for the lemon syrup with a dusting of icing sugar and some sprinkled lemon zest which I thought worked well. He also cooked it in a ring tin which made for an interesting shape. I enjoyed the cake and went back for a second helping much to Neil’s delight! I liked the poppy seeds for a bit of texture and it was lovely and lemony. This must surely be one of the more healthy cakes out there and with all that lemon juice, you’re well on your way to it counting towards one of your 5 fruit n veg a day.

A resounding success I’d say.