Eat me!

I had a really busy week last week and it seems this week will be no different! I did a Luxury Ladies Evening at a local private school on Thursday and got through about half a box of business cards and loads of samples- hilarious how many of the ladies said 'oh no, really I musn't', then ate about one and a half cakes worth of samples! I made some fabulous contacts and was photographed for Somerset Life magazine, although why they didn't want to take pretty, up close photos of the cakes is beyond me... Note to self, must iron apron next time, oops!



http://somerset.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/luxury-ladies-evening-at-taunton-school-29494/



And I thought my cupcakes would look lost on a 6' table!

I decided at the end of last week that I would offer Rocky Road at little more than cost price to anyone who would be a posting guinea pig. I got a huge response and I've been packaging and posting little packets of yumminess today. So my handmade Monday item for this week (thanks Wendy at 1st Unique Gifts!) is Rocky Road, wrapped in greaseproof paper, tied with string and finished off with handmade labels.

Feeling fruity?!

Today I will be jumping on the 'Handmade Monday' bandwagon. Started by Wendy at 1st Unique Gifts, it's about sharing what we've been up to, on a Monday! Seemples.

I couldn't let Valentine's Day go past without sharing some love, could I? So, here we go...

The brief? A cake with lots of berries and not much sugar or icing...

Valentine's Day Cake. I've no idea how the recipient reacted, but his secretary didn't know what to do with herself!

This isn't actually a Valentine's gift, but it is going to be sent packaged with lots of love from us country folk to my friend of almost twenty years who I don't see often enough.



Oh, and just to update you on the latest installment of the cakes by post saga, the muffins arrived (fanfare please)... IN PERFECT CONDITION! Muffins by post here I come, hooray!

This time, it's definitely a muffin!

Part Three of my 'Cupcakes by Post' experiment is taking a different direction. I'm sending a box of muffins tomorrow. I'm going to let the cupcakes by post project simmer for a while. I'm not happy that I can get icing of any sort through the post intact, and if it doesn't look like something I'd be proud to own up to, I'd rather not do it at all. Muffins on the other hand, being the ugly duckling of the small cake world have no icing and may be perfect for posting! No disrespect to the muffin you understand, ugly they may be, but they are no less delicious than their more beautiful counterpart.

Tonight's concoction is Peanut butter and chocolate chip. Slightly sweet, slightly salty- a few tweaks are needed to get the balance right, and they almost certainly need more choc chips (you can never have too many, right?!) but their purpose is to survive the post, and put a smile on someone's face. Fingers crossed they're up to the challenge.

In case you were wondering what had happened to those cheapy frames, they now have pride of place in the hall. Not bad for less than £4.50!

Stylish Blogger, eh?!

Now, being the truly cynical being that I am, I almost didn't respond to this seeing as it feels a little too chain-letter like for my liking. Then I thought about what I'd done when I received the 'nomination' for a Stylish Blogger Award. I'd clicked on the links to some of the other blogs listed, as well as the one that nominated me. Publicity. Free publicity. So why not?! I'll fill in the details just for your amusement and we'll have a little social experiment to see if I can gain any extra followers!

Apparently, I have to agree to do four things. They are as follows...

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

OK, can do that. Thanks to {Nifty Thrifty Things} for discovering and sharing me :)

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

• There is a tidy person inside me who tries to get out occasionally. I put her back in her place pretty swiftly.

• There's a very skinny person inside me who also tries to get out sometimes. I feed her cake.

• I have a teeny tiny hangover today. I know. A week night. Tsk.

• I'm very good at making 'to do' lists.

• I'm not so good at sticking to them.

• I blame Juliette for my magazine cuttings collection.

• I was born with a missing gene. It's the one that should make me interested in sport. I can live without it.

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.

15?! Really?! Ok, here goes.

• Alis Craft Studio
• An Item Each Day of the Year
• Beadelicious Beads
• Crafts 4 Charity
• Cupcake Castles
• Dearest Jackdaw
• Dreamstar Diary
• Kryshees
• Little Lost Soul
• El Jay
• My Belovedly Life
• Silver Thistle Beads
• 1st Unique Gifts
• Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics
• Sandy and the 1000 Paper Cranes

Phew, got there in the end! Some are fellow crafties I 'know' through the magic of cyberspace, some I have discovered when they have discovered me, and one is one that I discovered through someone who discovered me. Understand?! Enjoy :)

Oops, I nearly forgot, number 4 is to tell the people you've awarded! Done.

The Great 'Cupcakes by Post' Experiment... part two. And some bargains.

Well, the second version of packaging was much more successful than the first, with three out of four cupcakes arriving in perfect condition. Just a slight tweak needed to those going next week and hopefully I'll be able to get them safely to their admirers who live nowhere near!

I've got a bit of a photo frame theme going on at the moment. I bought a pile of various sized super-cheap frames from Wilkinsons the other day which I plan to use on the various stalls I have coming up to display price lists and photos of cakes. I don't like them though, so I'm going to pimp them! I'll blog again once they're done. Here they are in their pre-pimped state!

There were some absolute too-good-to-pass-up bargain frames in Morrisons today too. Three walnut effect 6"x4" frames for £1.48- I bought nine! I have plans for a family photo montage type thing...

My other weekend job is to cover all of these...

...and many more that you can't see, in glitter!

... more than cake

I've been making some teeny tiny gift cards to go with my boxes of Valentine's cupcakes. They're 3"x3" and super cute!



Inside reads '... more than cake.'



And finally for today, this spiky little chap is a banana and choc chip cupcake with chocolate fudge icing. They're phase two of my 'Cupcakes by Post' experiment!

The Great 'Cupcakes by Post' Experiment

Having talked about trying it for ages, I finally got my act together yesterday and posted two boxes of cupcakes from Somerset to Leeds. I was happy with how I'd packaged them... until I arrived at the Post Office and was told (as the lady behind the desk read the 'this way up' instruction on the box), 'Well, they won't stay that way up, I'm going to chuck them in a bag in a minute.' What fabulous customer service, well done Royal Mail! Still, the rougher their journey, the more realistic the results I suppose!

I've just heard that the first box has arrived at it's destination, so that's good. It left here less than 24 hours ago, so at least they'll still be fresh!

They're a little bit bashed about, but really not too bad considering. I've got one more box arriving today, then another box off to London tomorrow which I'll change the packaging of slightly based on todays results- exciting stuff... watch this space far away cake fans!

Photo from the recipient, thanks Ben!