Last Thursday Bec, Kim & I headed off to our long-awaited cupcake decorating class! We bought the class as a Groupon offer and it was only £35 for a half-day (12.30-4.30) class. It was run by a company called Create and was held in Liverpool.

We had a teensy bit of trouble trying to find the venue haha but everyone else was the same, so we didn’t turn up late as we feared! The class was held in an industrial type area, but as soon as we walked into the room, it was all cupcakes, pink & girlyness – fab!

The instructor, Gill and her helper Rachael were super friendly. Here is Gill beside some of her lovely cupcakes:

Gill explained all the basics of cupcake making, giving us tips on the best ingredients to use. She then moved on to the fun demos!

We were shown how to make butterflies, flowers etc from sugarpaste and then we had a go doing it ourselves. It was lots of fun, and I enjoyed this part the most – it was strangely relaxing trying to make all the little decorations. Of course we were encouraged to use lots of glitter!

We then had a break for tea & one of Gill’s homemade cupcakes – sooo yummy!

The next demo involved buttercream (my nemesis!). We were shown 4 different styles of using buttercream to decorate the cupcakes which was really interesting – I always just thought there was the swirly ice-cream way!

Bec & I coloured our buttercream blue & yellow and then shared them so we could use some of each colour. Kim kept hers nice & simple with white buttercream. Here we are working away!

I wasn’t too good at piping and my cupcakes did look slightly child-like lol… but hey, it was my first proper attempt! When making cupcakes at home I normally just plonk the buttercream on and smooth it with a knife!

So here we are with our finished articles:

Here are some pics of my cupcakes:

A fab day was had by all – a big thank you to Gill & Create! Check out their classes if you are in the Liverpool area!

Haha… not me (for once) but certain necessary household appliances.

Firstly our oven is pretty much knackered, it can barely cook a pizza anymore. Never mind all my lovely baking… I want to make cupcakes, and brownies and other lovely stuff but I can’t…. *wail*.

Next the TV has conked out. I could live with this as I don’t watch a lot of TV, but Gary really misses it. And new TV’s are bloomin expensive. We still haven’t watched The Apprentice final (DON’T TELL ME WHO WON!) so will have to watch it on the computer when we have a spare 2 hours lol..

Do bad things come in 3′s…? If so, I’m dreading what’s going to break down next. Yikes.

But as I’m trying to be more positive, I won’t let myself think like that (ahem!).

On another note, we had a good weekend doing dog displays in Mottram, Cheshire and Malton, North Yorkshire.  Plus we only got caught in one heavy rain shower which was a bonus.

Here we are BBQ’ing in the drizzle haha:

Sorry for the sporadic posting of late but I’ve been feeling a bit “unhinged” recently. Last week was just a wipe-out for me, I was completely exhausted & I have no idea why. I was getting up early to feed the animals, and then feeling so weak & tired I had to go back to bed most days until the early afternoon. I have always needed a lot of sleep but that was ridiculous!

This week hasn’t been so bad, mainly cos we’ve been so busy trying to get a new rental house sorted out – buying tiles, new bathroom suite etc…!

I had my first CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) session today after being on the waiting list for over a year. It made me feel really low & negative again, I just wanted to come home to bed.

But instead, I had a cuddle with Jinx cat & did some training with the puppies. My animals always make me feel a million times better.

How could these 2 loonies not make you smile?! Can you spot Holly peeping up in the background?!

Last week Kim & I headed off to a cake decorating course held by Seasoned Courses. Our tutor was to be none other than Ruth, runner up of The Great British Bake Off and author of The Pink Whisk.

Kim & I were both excited but nervous. We even had some Rescue Remedy to calm our nerves before we went in haha! I was dreading the class being full of experienced cake decorators but pretty much everyone was in the same boat – ready and willing to learn.

I had a cake dilemma the day before the course. We were told to bring a fruit cake with us to decorate. However, Gary & I hate fruit cakes so I asked if I could bring a plain sponge cake instead. No problem, so I set about baking my Madeira cake. The first attempt came out way too thin, and with a big dome in the middle. The second attempt was in the oven for 3 and a half hours and still hadn’t cooked through. Poor Gary had to stay up and supervise it as I was too tired and took myself off to bed at around midnight!

So, I arrived cake-less which was a tad embarrassing but I was supplied with a cake “dummy” to use instead. And once the marzipan layer was complete – mine looked just like everyone else’s cake!

We learnt how to cover our cake in marzipan and sugar-paste (not as easy as it sounds) and we practised piping icing in different patterns.

The best bit was trying to colour the icing without getting dye all over our hands and learning how to make lovely little flower decorations – it’s not as hard as I thought it would be, but just needs lots of practice to get them looking 100%!

Here is my attempt. Of course it’s very girly looking with sparkly butterflies lol..

And here is Kim with hers:

Some more piccies: