Last Tuesday saw the second Clandestine Cake Club meeting in Warrington. We met in Jasper’s Cafe in Stockton Heath to share our cakes. The theme was “Frolicking Fireworks & Copious Celebration” – ahem, what?! I decided to make a chocolate marshmallow cake cos everyone toasts marshmallows for Bonfire Night, yea?! I have a recipe book with a chocolate marshmallow cupcake recipe so I thought I could easily alter that to make a cake.

Hmmm…. didn’t quite work like that! My first attempt was a disaster. I had put marshmallows in between 2 layers of cake mixture as per the cupcake recipe but after 10 minutes the oven was belching out smoke. The marshmallows had all bubbled up and were spilling over the side of the cake tin, and of course burning on my nice new oven. The top of the cake was also black as it had burnt so much. Hmmm…. I thought it was my fault for trying to adjust the recipe.

Next day = another recipe. This time it was a recipe off the internet. I didn’t read the recipe right through to begin with so I didn’t notice that the method was slightly wrong and didn’t give the correct quantities of butter to use. Bah. Of course I realised half way through and just carried on, hoping it would be OK. Ahem – no. Another burnt disaster.

Ok, I was upset by this time but I reckoned it was my own stupidity that had been the problem. So I got proper quantities and instructions for the 2nd recipe and tried it again. I followed that recipe TO THE LETTER. And guess what – it burnt again.

Now I was really upset. This was the morning of the cake club and there was no way I was going to go with no cake, but I was too stressed out to try it all again.

Gary came up with the bright idea that our oven might be faulty. I didn’t think so as we just got this new oven a few months ago. Anyway, we scooted out to the shops in search of an oven thermometer. And yep, it turned out the oven was/is indeed faulty. Turning the oven to 180 degrees (what my cakes had to be cooked at) resulted in an actual temperature of over 250 degrees…. No wonder my poor cakes were burning.

So, now I knew the oven was at fault and I felt so much better! I decided to give up on the fancy recipes and just make a chocolate cake I know works (this is it HERE), and make a marshmallow and chocolate ganache thingy to fill and cover it with. I had the oven dial turned to 50 degrees – this gave me the cooking temperature that I actually needed, although I did have to keep adjusting it while it was cooking.

My cake came out fine as that recipe always does. I made my marshmallow ganache by melting marshmallows and double cream and then whisking in some chocolate. Mmmmm it was delicious. I had several spoonfulls! I whipped some more double cream and plonked this on the top of the cake and then covered it in marshmallows and a sprinkle of cocoa powder. DONE!

So – the actual cake club itself was good fun as always. I didn’t have much of a cakey appetite this time so I only managed a few cakes, but I made sure to take plenty home with me

We had 9 yummy cakes: my chocolate & marshmallow cake, chocolate surprise cake (with popping candy!), toffee apple cake, hummingbird cake, chocolate & caramel cake, pink champagne cake, devil’s food cake, maple & pecan cake, pineapple & banana cake.

I forgot to take a proper pic of my cake, but here it is in the foreground of this slightly blurry pic:

Sarah enjoying some cake:

Emma AKA Miss Tigers:

Me & Zoe:

Favourite cakes of the night: Chocolate Surprise Cake with popping candy & Chocolate & Caramel Cake..

Check out the Clandestine Cake Club website and see if there is an event on where you live!

Sylvester was our neighbour’s cat who decided he much preferred living at our house most of the time. The first morning we woke up in our new house he was on our kitchen windowsill to say hello:

Notice our cat Meg peeking out from inside?

He was a real friendly fella and it didn’t take long before he was a regular visitor to our house. He fitted right in with our 3 cats as well, there was never any fighting between them. He especially bonded with our male cat Jinx – the 2 of them used to race about the garden trying to catch each other, it was so funny.

Meg, Jinx & Sylvester

The 2 mates – Sylvester & Jinx

We found out a while ago how old Sylvester actually was – he was 16 this year, although you could never have told until recently.

We didn’t always get on with our neighbour as he told me off for feeding his cat. But if they lock the poor cat out in all weathers, and he prefers to lie in our house I wasn’t going to refuse him.

He really was so affectionate, he used to come bounding in at night time and jump right on top of us and do that kneading thing cats do with their paws and give the loudest purrs. He used to like sleeping on a cushion we had at the top of the stairs for him, or on our bed with some of the other cats.

Recently, however he would only sleep on our stairs and was a lot quieter. He also got very skinny – he looked like a bag of bones near the end, so gaunt and unlike his previous self. He still came in every night and ate his breakfast and slept for most of the day on our stairs but we could tell he was going downhill.

At the weekend, I opened the front door and he was lying outside. He wouldn’t come in for any breakfast so I brought his bowl out to him. He barely sniffed at it, then gave me an awful almost pain-filled look and tried to miaow. He couldn’t even make a sound. Then he ran off. I kind of knew after that that we wouldn’t see him again.

We hadn’t seen him all week. Then last night our neighbour came to the door to ask if our cats wanted the rest of Sylvester’s food. They had taken him to the vets for tests and it turned out he had cancer and they had to get him put to sleep yesterday. I was touched that the neighbour came over to tell us, especially as we hadn’t really got on in the past. He was quite upset too, and I told him I was very sorry and that Sylvester was a lovely cat.

Of course I cried when I found out and ruined my makeup as I was just about to head out for the night. I still feel sad when I think about him and how much pain he must of been in. I’m now wishing we had approached our neighbour when we first saw the signs of him being unwell or took him to the vets ourselves. Maybe we could have spared him a couple of weeks of pain.

It really hit home how much I care about my animals. I had a big cuddle with each of the 3 cats last night and the 2 pups. I don’t know how I will cope when anything happens to one of them. But I just have to enjoy them at the minute.

One of my favourite memories of Sylvester is when a nasty cat from the neighbourhood was fighting with one of our cats and Sylvester ran over to scare the other cat away. I thought that was so sweet!

Here are some more piccies of him:

He really was a part of our family and he will be missed every day… R.I.P. Sylvester xxxxxxxx

Yes, yes I know I’m late again, but as much of last week was a write-off with my uber bad hangover I guess I’m allowed!

So, October’s reads were:

One Day by David Nicholls:

This had been on my to-read list for ages and it finally became available at the library. Three words – I LOVED IT. One more word – ABSOLUTELY. If you haven’t read it and don’t know what it’s about then I’m not going to tell you – just go and buy it/borrow it. I couldn’t get enough of this book, and I thought I knew what would happen at the end, but I was wrong… haha love it when that happens. Don’t know if I will see the film as I will no doubt be disappointed in it. 5/5

Black Sea Twilight by Domnica Radulescu:

Yes I did have to copy & paste that author’s name haha! This was part of the book club at Love A Book and I actually won my very own copy of this book. By the cover alone, it wasn’t the sort of book I would usually pick up – but then that’s what is good about book clubs – finding new things to read! It took me a while to get into this book, I found the first half of it very hard reading BUT I really enjoyed the second half! Glad I persevered with it.. There was a lot of talk about art and things which I’m not really interested in, but I skimmed those bits. All in all, it was a good read although I don’t think I will bother with any of her other books (unless I’m really desperate). 3.5/5

The Only Way is Up by Carole Matthews:

Again, this is not the sort of book I would usually read but it was recommended on someone’s blog as a good read plus it says on the back of the book she can “rival Marian Keyes”. First of all, it is totally not in Marian Keyes’ league. I wasn’t too keen on the style of writing, but the story was quite good and entertaining (if somewhat predictable). A nice easy read. Again, I won’t be in a rush to read any of her other books. 3/5

Book of the month = One Day

Book of the year so far = One Day

Has anyone read any of these books (I bet loads of you have read One Day?!) Any other must-read books to recommend? See my September Books post HERE. x

After our fun Halloween last year, we decided to host a proper party this year and decorate the inside of the house as well as the outside. We invited some friends and told them they could dress up if they wanted to.

We turned Gary into a quite terrifying zombie, and I was a corpse bride wearing the lovely dress I bought at the vintage fair.

The house looked fab, all the kiddies that came to the door loved the outside decorations. Amongst our party guests we had a pumpkin (read how Sarah made her pumpkin outfit HERE), a witch, a skeleton and a ghostbuster! Everyone put loads of effort in and we had loads of fun.

I had a few lots of glasses of Pimms. I don’t drink a lot usually and tend to get hangovers very easily but I am usually  OK with Pimms. However, the 2 days after the party I was completely dying with a really bad hangover! Not sure if it’s because I’ve been having a pretty healthy diet recently etc.. but the alcohol just did not agree with me at all. Don’t think I will be in a hurry to drink again! Ugh, so not worth it!

Here are some piccies of our night:

Yummy spider cakes from Sarah

Sarah & Mike

The other Mike

Me about to stab Kim

Holly pup in her vampire outfit

Gary & me

False teeth!

There are loads more pictures on Flickr – you can check them out HERE! There are some really fun group shots of us all. I hope you all had a fun Halloween and enjoy Bonfire night tonight! We will be staying in trying to keep the cats & dogs company.. x

On Sunday (was it Sunday?? I’m so very confused with the days…) Sarah aka Tilly Mint Boutique and I headed to Manchester to attend the Affordable Vintage Fair. These are held all over the country, so there is bound to be one near you.

The fair was held in a big warehouse type place. The bottom floor was freeezing lol.. and we got told off by some woman for trying clothes on in the toilet, even though that’s where you were meant to go to try things on! So what do you do when you’re cold and have been told off by a random woman? Yes, eat cake and drink tea..

I had a slice of the chocolate cake to the top left of the pic – it had marshmallow frosting which didn’t taste very marshmallow-y but was still nice! Sarah had some victoria sponge cake.

Thankfully upstairs was much warmer and there were sooo many rails of clothes to look through! The prices overall weren’t that affordable, I saw loads of lovely dresses but didn’t want to pay £25 plus for each one! At one stand, they were giving away a free cupcake with every purchase which was a nice touch. Sarah bought a skirt from them so of course I ate the free cupcake..

The last stand we visited was the best – fab prices and lovely stock. I could have bought 2 or 3 things. In the end I bought a lovely dress which I wore for Halloween and will show you all in a post later this week.

Oh, I also saw these (Cookies in a jar) and thought they were a fab idea. Sarah knew all about them but I had never heard of them before (obviously I’m not very cultured!).

So a good day was had by all! The next Manchester fair is on Sunday 20th November in the city centre, we will definitely be back! Check out Sarah’s post about what she bought at the fair.

PS – I also bought a 1960′s black and red swirly disco dress for the bargain sum of £5. However, I have tidied it away in a drawer somewhere and couldn’t be bothered going to find it haha!