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Sunday 24 November 2019

Naked cake, and anyone fancy doing Blogmas?

We organised a little afternoon tea baby shower for Joanne at a local cafe, just some family and a couple of Joanne's close friends.  I wanted to make a cake for her, but something simple, so I watched lots of you tube videos about how to decorate a naked cake, I'm a bit heavy handed when it comes to working with icing so I thought this would be perfect for me.


I used the cake recipe that I always use and which turns out perfect every time, it's absolutely fool proof, everything goes in the bowl and is mixed with the hand mixer, you just add flavouring if you want to, I made a lemon flavoured one this time.  
The icing is mascarpone which I would definitely use again, it's so creamy and not at all sweet and sickly like buttercream icing.  
I used full fat mascarpone, double cream and icing sugar, whisked all together until it was thick and creamy, perfect!
It does not set in the same way that buttercream icing sets, but it does hold it's shape perfectly well and personally I thought it was much better to work with when icing the cake.

The afternoon tea was at a local place called Mad Hatters, which is all decked out with an Alice in Wonderland theme





Stevie had a Gentleman's afternoon tea, we were all drooling over it when they bought it out, wishing that we had gone for that option too!


We did enjoy our tea though, sandwiches and cake were all lovely and freshly made.




 When I got up this morning I wasn't sure I would be able to make it, I've been in such pain with my back for the last two days, this morning was even worse than yesterday.  I can only think that I've pulled something, I did clean the windows this week, so perhaps I've over stretched.  I had trouble getting in and out of Stevie's car so have already called to let someone know I won't be in work tomorrow, I just don't think I would be able to drive.  Hopefully it won't be as bad in the morning.
  
Can you believe that It will be advent next Sunday?  I've got my advent calendars all ready and waiting, I'm so excited to open them!  This is the first time I've treated myself to advent calendars, I loved seeing everyone open their yarn advents last year so have treated myself to three :-)

If you are a podcast watcher like me you will know that quite a lot of them do Vlogmas starting on December 1st, I do love to watch the little daily Christmas vlogs and thought wouldn't it be nice if I  could do the same here and have Blogmas :-)

So If you would like to join me in a little daily blogging during advent please let me know and perhaps we could all link up and share a little bit of what we do in those days leading up to Christmas, we might even discover new blogs to read and follow :-)

See you in December :-)

-X-

11 comments:

Purple Pixie Dust said...

I am so glad you had a nice shower. Sorry to hear about your back. I know all too well what that feels like. Hope you feel better. Big hugs Lynda Ruth

Sue in Suffolk said...

Bad Backs are the worst thing, but the food looks delicious
I always blog all through Advent with Christmas themed posts - might be able to work out how to do a link - fingers crossed

Cathy said...

I also suffer from chronic back pain so I can empathize with you. Hopefully you'll feel better soon. The shower looked like fun and I love the decorations.

butterfly said...


Looks like the baby shower was fun, and wow the cake and the food looked lovely .
Sorry about your back I know the feeling .I pulled mine last year in the garden
Enjoy your week.

Tina said...

The cake looks fabulous, as does the place and food for the baby shower.Oh dear hope your back ache heals quickly xx

Jo said...

The baby shower looks like so much fun, what a great place being all decked out in Alice paraphernalia, it looks like it really added to the occasion. I think Stevie made the right choice, her gentleman's afternoon tea looks delicious. The cake looks fabulous, you made a great job of it and I'm sure it went down well with everyone. I'm sorry to hear that you're still struggling with your back, try and take it easy, it's the only thing that works for bad backs, you don't want to aggravate it even more. I love watching all the vlogmas videos, I don't think I'd have enough to write about to do blogmas but I shall enjoy seeing what you're up to. I've bought a yarny advent calendar this year too, it's the first time I'm had one, and I've also done a swap, so I'll have two to open each day. Not long to wait until we get started with them now.

Shelly said...

What a beautiful cake you made! The Alice decorations are so cute! Hope you feel better soon. I have a bad back too and it doesn't take much. Blogmas, hmm, I live a very boring life, haha, and I'm not sure what I do every day is blog-worthy! I'll watch yours though.

Jackie said...

Love the naked cake, it looks marvelous.

God bless.

Barb said...

Looks like a wonderful tea! After breaking my back 4 years ago, I have had to live with constant low level pain but I can manage. It sounds like yours is acute! Hope you are better soon.

Lowcarb team member said...

Lovely photographs of the baby shower, it looks a fun get-together. The cake and the food look delicious.

I'm sorry to read about your bad back, I hope it heals quickly and you feel better soon.

All the best Jan

Carol said...

I do hope your back is feeling better by now, Maggie? The shower is lovely--what a fun venue!