Oh hello hello hello. I hope you have all had very merry Christmases and are gearing up for the sparkliest of new years! I haven’t been writing much over the past week, as have been having a bit of a rest.. and have also been trying (in vain) to kick the bug that gripped me a few weeks ago. I now appear to have a wonderful chest infection and a hacking cough. Hurrah!
Despite this I have been having a lovely time with friends and family. We all bundled down to the great British countryside and holed up in a gorgeous cottage for a few days over Crimbo. We ate and drank and played games and walked and cooked and watched movies and lit fires and ate and drank some more…. and then I decided to make a heavenly, three-tiered, outrageously delicious chocolate cake by The Make Pack. In my onesie. (Which I lived in for most of the festive period.)
All Make Packs come through the post in these brilliant cubes – everything you need is packed tight inside.
My computer had a bit of a melt down over Christmas, (does anyone know how I can get an appointment at an Apple Store in London?!) but luckily for me, I had saved all my photos on Irista.. so even though I am now bashing away on LM’s laptop, thanks to Canon’s super powers, my photos are safe and sound and here in this blog post in all their glory. Phew.
Thank you Irista! (Phew!)
All my ingredients…
The Make Pack is a gorgeous newbie company, set up by two pals, who wanted to take the fuss out of sourcing what you need for a cooking or baking project, while leaving the authentic making experience intact. Each of their Make Packs include top quality ingredients, all measured out and ready to use, delicious recipes and easy peasy clear instructions.
Cake number one…
Cake number two…
As soon as all my three cakes had cooled, I could begin to decorate…
You can see that I am not the neatest baker, (fnar fnar) but thanks to The Make Pack, all the necessary guidance was there to make sure that my blunders were all very neatly disguised!
Ta da!
I learnt how to spread my buttercream to get a lovely smooth finish… (ok, it’s not perfect, but for me, this is GENIUS.)
The buttercream was extremely easy to make and full of real delicious melted chocolate, which I melted by submerging the little bag it came in, into hot water. Clever. Easy. NO WASHING UP.
And then it was time to decorate. The Make Pack came with two additional plastic sachets of chocolate – light and dark. All I had to do was warm them in hot water until they melted, snip a corner off the end of the sachet, and squeeze the chocolate out of my new little home-made piping bags…
Three tiers of yumminess
Everyone LOVED it. It was unanimous. It was a hit. A massive chocolatey hit and everyone wanted to know where they could get one from.
The Make Pack have their own spangly website, where you can find all kinds of different Make Packs. They’ll post your chosen scummy thing to you and all you have to do is stick the oven on and follow the instructions.
It really couldn’t be easier.. and the end result will be so impressive, you may not want to reveal your secret… ;)
I wish you all the happiest of new years and let’s all have a fantastic 2015. One of my new year’s resolutions is to BACK UP my laptop more often.. and if you’re a photo bunny like me, then I can’t recommend Irista enough – all your photos are archived and available to be accessed from your very own personal (and free!) photo cloud. I’ve written in more detail about Canon’s new storage baby over here.
I won’t be back here again until the beginning of January 2015… and until then, lots of love from me to you and I can’t wait to see you all on the other side.
Here comes 2015!
A Luxuriant Triple Layer Chocolate Fudge Cake – £16.45
This Make Pack was sent to me to review, and if I hadn’t loved it I wouldn’t have written about it.
Canon have sponsored some of my work where I have been trying out and using their new platform Irista – I am loving it!
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Oh my goodness. That cake looks truly delicious! x
;) xx
This look so yummy! It’s a brilliant idea. I’ve just had a look on their website and they have some brilliant things, the vanilla marshmallows would probably be a good hit for us.
nimblenote.blogspot.com
Feel free to send me some if you need an official taster ;) xx
Poor you – I hope you’re feeling much better really soon! It sounds like you still managed to have a great holiday though, and that cake looks delicious! What a great idea. I’ll have to check out the other ‘make packs.’ xx
Thank you dolly – today is my first day with no medicine! Hurrah! 2015 here I come! xx
Oh wow, that first picture hooked me in. Looks amazing! Someone needs to do this in Australia – I love baking but sometimes it’s a pain to spend a fortune on high quality ingredients that I’l only use a smidge of.
jessiminhorder.wordpress.com
Very true Jesi – it’s definitely a more cost effective way of baking if you don’t do it very often xx
Oh my God this looks so fun! My worst part of baking is measuring and sorting ingredients so this is right up my lazy street haha! x
You’ll love it Sophia – no scales necessary!
That cake looks delicious :) Happy New Year! I love your blog and I have followed you with Bloglovin. If you ever get a chance to check out my blog I would be delighted, thanks!
Camille xo
http://www.cococami.blogspot.co.uk
Thank you Camille, I’ll be sure to pop over and say hello! xx
That looks amazing!!! May have to try that out! xox
Do it Cass! You’ll love it :)
They look absolutely amazing! So jealous and I will definitely give it a try some time!
http://g1rlonl1ne.blogspot.com
Send me a piccie if you do! xx