Thursday 31 July 2014

Goodbye Corner Cottage Bakery

Four years is a long time.


2010 was the year Corner Cottage Bakery was started.  There were a lot of exclamation points, terrible photos and a cake made of soup but we carried on. We bought Corner Cottage in 2009 and were still doing that "damn, buying a house is expensive" dance that first time buyers have.  Corner Cottage Bakery turned from being a place where I could store my recipes and photos to a creative outlet and a hobby that wasn't stupidly expensive to fill my time with.  Highlights for me have to be flower pot bread and French Martini truffles.


2011 was full of huge courgettes and my first foray into marshmallow making.  We celebrated a royal wedding with Eton Mess Jack-arons, and Corner Cottage Bakery's first birthday with a big rainbow cake.  Meringue mushrooms and orange curd were also some of my favourites from that year.


2012 was, and can only be described as, one of the best years of my life.  So much happened like French Martini macarons, Han Solo brownies and chai lattes. Going to see the dressage at the Olympics was brilliant.  

Oh. And I got married. And then spent ten days in the Maldives. Both of which were both understandably amazing.


2013 seemed to fly past.  One moment you're making ginger doughnuts and then the next you are making your sister an 8ft giant squid pillow.  Then you are hanging out on the back of the Harry Potter Knight Bus for your birthday and then you are trying not to throw up a lump of fermented shark that you just ate. See. Crazy busy. Green tomato galettes, ice cream tacos and DIY walnut whips interspersed all of this of course. 


2014 has also seemed to carry on with the same appetite of guzzling months from the calendar as 2013.  We celebrated the return of Game of Thrones with hand painted macarons and relived my strange childhood with ice cream oysters. I talked about what blogging means to me when I hit the milestone of four years blogging at Corner Cottage Bakery and I wrestled with some DIY sausages.

The past four and a bit years have been pretty sweet.  I hope you'll come and see me at my new home!

Honey & Dough will be live from 1 August 2014.  



Thursday 24 July 2014

We Should Cocoa: Boozy Ice Cream Floats


This month's We Should Cocoa is hosted by Elizabeth at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary who has gone for the saviour of the summer and challenged us to make ice cream based beauties and topping treats.  You can read all about We Should Cocoa on Choclette's blog by clicking here. 


Say floats to me and I don't think of creamy, fizzy, brain freeze inducing drinks. 

Nope.  I think of carnival floats. 



The highlight of the Brownie and Girl Guide calendar but now rarely seen.  They were themed, I vividly remember wearing a lion costume, with full face paint, for the Wizard of Oz float we did one year.  We'd throw sweets and wave at people. Then we would crash out like tiny rockstars, high on sugar and crepe paper and face paint fumes. 




These boozy ice cream floats will also make you feel like a rock star.  But that kind of depends on how much liquor you put in them.




Ingredients
Full fat coke. No room for diet here. 
Your favourite spirit that will mix with coke. Vodka, amaretto, rum or bourbon welcome at this party. 
Soft scoop ice cream. Vanilla, preferably. You could posh this up with fancy ice cream if you want to.
Melted dark chocolate

Method
The golden rule with a coke float is fizzy first. Half fill a tall glass with cola and one shot (two shots, who are we kidding...) of your preferred tipple. Gently place in a scoop or two or ice cream. Top with a little melted chocolate. 
Drink through a straw or else ice cream float tash. 



I am also, belatedly, entering this into the wonderful Kavey Eats Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream challenge, the theme of which being holiday memories.  You can read all about BSFIC here and how to enter here.  


Sunday 20 July 2014

Seven on Sunday: 20.07.14

Funky flour patterned honey and oat bread, local honey with the cutest paper bag, live bees from the honey stall, Macarons from Sylvia and Terry Fine Kentish Chocolates (probably one of the best Macarons I've put in my mouth to date), local veg and fancy lettuce from the veg stall, my coke float reward for weeding.

You might have noticed that things are slowing down around here. It's because I'm relocating to a new blog home called Honey & Dough (www.honeyanddough.com)
Please bear with me whilst I make the transition, it'll be launched on the 1 August!

Monday 14 July 2014

Dotcomgiftshop's Christmas in July


Man, I love Christmas.



Especially, fun and new things for Christmas.  These Santa Sacks were one of my favourites. 


This cheery chap...


... and this bony bro would make total cute gifts. 




Total ceramic porn. Mainly the simplicity of the blue and white stripy set.



Thank you to Dotcomgiftshop for a lovely afternoon and Jenny Wood for her equally as lovely chat.