Out of town

On a recent trip to Amsterdam I found myself having the confidence to walk up to someone and ask if i could take a picture of their feet. Never have I seen anyone wear some wonders like these and especially not walking around a train station in Amsterdam. I watched this lady walk across the platform and I couldn't keep my eye of her confidence at wearing what could be described as a pair of cut out jelly shoes. I smiled when I heard they were designed by Vivienne Westwood.

On a visit to anywhere I always make it into a little adventure enticing everyone with cake at the end of the treasure hunt. Googling "amsterdam cake" is actually not appropriate bringing up the kind of coffee shops that simply dont sell cake and coffee! After searching "taart amsterdam" I stumbled on de Taart van m'n tante. A cafe filled with ecclectic table cloths and elaborate dummy cakes.

Causing my 5 year old trouble just to choose which table to sit at and which flavour to choose.

Rose choose Annemarie a vanilla cake sprinkled with strawberry puree and raspberry mouse and I choose carrot cake a different style to the American version but just as good. Definately a wonderful place to take a little girl with a lot of imagination.

What a wonderful day out with our eldest daughter. Am planning my next trip to check out more cake shops. Heres a momento of our day. This picture was taken by Rose. Not bad for a 5 year old. That's me and the hubbie on the far left.

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Location:A hi speed train on my way home from Amsterdam

Rule Britannia

Today a very nice neighbour gave me a gift. A plate from Queen Elizabeth II silver jubilee. It got me very excited as it's coming up to the diamond jubilee and even though I am a Brit abroad am hoping to be able to celebrate with a tea party and a good chin wag with my fellow patriots.

Which brings me to what cake makes a good tea party... And a royal one at that.

This one from The Cake Store might get a few heads turning so to speak! I think I will be sticking to something more simple such as lemon and raspberry cupcake with a lemon meringue topping.

So I wonder what Kate Middleton will be wearing on her feet for the occassion.

Recently a fashion student Becka Hunt won a competition to design shoes for the Duchess of Cambridge. Very fitting for Kate I think.


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Flat shoes

Too much cake eating this week and if only this picture was true mine would be enormous!!

Am not old but tonight we are going out for the fourth weekend in a row. Tonight I want flat shoes and a cuddle on the sofa but we have a babysitter so the other half is dragging me out. But for the first time I just want to wear my slippers!




As the t-shirt says "I will keep calm and walk on"!!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:The Netherlands

Birthdays

I love a good birthday and the last three weekends have seen six celebrations of birthdays. I never used to celebrate as I was happy to celebrate other people's. What changed my mind, I am not sure but I do know that I feel I have been missing out!! Which also brings me to the amount of cake eaten in the last three weekends and how it doesn't matter if the celebration is big or small it must be celebrated with a cake. For my celebration I choose three different flavours all inspired by the girls from Georgetown cupcakes. Flavours were white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream, vanilla with a super delicious chocolate buttercream, and a red velvet (actually they were pink) cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

I think that cakes and flavours are very personal. Maybe like handbags and shoes. For me am still searching for the ultimate cake flavour. When I want to play safe I always make chocolate.

For me celebrations mean dressing up and feeling great. And an opportunity to wear another pair of shoes. That's me in the neon pink shoes.

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Location:Birthday birthdays birthdays

New job

This week I officially became my own boss. No longer anyone's payrole, no more sick days, vacation days or apraisals. Scarey but am embracing it through the power of blogging. Inspired by other blogger mummy friends, friends who have just started their own businesses and also watching Julie and Julia one too many times. So here it is my life through a blog mainly about me, myself, cake and my obsession with shoes, building my confidence one cake at a time through the power of writing.

Yes that's me. A very cheesy one. Shame you can't see my shoes.
Since I remember I always wore high heels. I have a problem shopping for flat shoes and if I could would wear them all the time I would even to bed. My latest obsession are my gold miss piggy shoes and my pink patent 5 inch shoes. Hubba hubba! Well at least the hubbie loves them.

Pop pop poptastic

I made my first official cake pops this week. My first attempt ended in a big puddle of chocolate and a lot of sticky fingers. The problem when you start big is sometimes you do fail.

She looks happy though!

So i decided to start at the beginning with basic cake pops. Simple is sometimes better.
I started out making big sized cake pops which I realised on later inspection were too big. I rolled up the balls and put them in the freezer then dunked them in candy melts. Does that sound easy well it was!! And were super yummy.

Even the cake that i used for the cake balls had its own story. Made to be decorated for a birthday cake but midway through we had a power cut and the cake was left in the oven baking slowly without heat for an hour. When the power restored I just left it baking. After 2 days i went to trial the cake and tasted one of the most yummy cakes I have ever baked. So does this mean i lower my oven even lower and bake like a casserole!

My heels have been popped in the cupboard this week and i do miss them but sometimes its a necessity. An old war wound of childbirth reared its head this week after an outing to the gym. So much for trying to be healthy. It didn't matter as my new cowboy boots recently acquired in Texas still need broken in.