Hello blog loving friends, how are you? Seriously long time
no see!! It has been nearly a year since we spoke for which I take full
responsibility and apologise sincerely.
2015 has been all sorts of crazy busy…there has been lots of
baking for Auburn Cakes, I qualified as a massage therapist, I’ve been to five
fantastic weddings across the length and breadth of the UK, I had the pleasure
of being part of the beautiful christening of my adorable nephew, I made the
cakes for three weddings, I watching with excitement and love when many of my
gorgeous girl friends brought lovely little people into the world, I’ve been on
some fab city breaks and holidays with family and friends….oh and I moved 11,000
miles to Melbourne, Australia!
So, rather than finishing the year in my kitchen in wet,
cold Scotland I’m writing to you from my kitchen in Melbourne during one of the
warmest summers on record (there have already been multiple days when it has been 40+ degrees celsius ….just imagine
climbing into your oven alongside your Vicky sponge or Sunday roast and you
will pretty much understand how warm it feels). At the start of 2015, I
was contemplating the prospect of turning 30 so I set
myself the '30 with 30 Challenge'. I just wanted to experience the pleasure of sharing 30 new eating experiences with family and friends, old and
new.
Now, as you well know the blogging
aspect of the challenge has rather fallen by the wayside, who would have thought
that working full time, while training for a new career in the evenings and
weekends, and running a small baking business wouldn’t leave much spare time!! Anyway,
life got in the way of writing but I certainly found the time to enjoy some
wonderful food and exquisite company with the people I love. The food wasn’t
always fancy or particularly new but I got the chance to share my love of all
things foodie with so many people and I have the extra pounds and inches on my
waistline to show for it!!
Having now reviewed my many eating escapades of the year I
have smashed my original goal of 30 and found no less than 42 wondrous occasions
where I’ve munched, snacked, gorged, baked, cooked, drunk and generally overindulged.
Thank you to all of my friends, family and colleagues who have indulged me and this challenge over the past 12 months. I know it has been a hardship to share so much delicious food but you have really put in the effort this year and deserve a large high five!
So, without further ado because I know you have all been
waiting on the edge of your seat for this for nearly a year….here is the reason
I have put on five pounds in 2015 (and by the way they are worth every bite because
the memories are wonderful!)
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| Cheesy fondu in Paris! |
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| Recreating the cheesy goodness at home with Dave! |
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| Tasting AMAZING macarons in Paris! |
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| Learning to make (and eat!) macarons in Edinburgh with Rebecca. |
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| Learning wonderful new icing techniques with Cecilia and all of my Free Cakes for Kids friends. |
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| Tasting delicious home baking from the MOB (Mother of the Bride) ladies at Nicola's hen party. |
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| Tasting the gorgeous wedding cake at Nicola and Ed's beautiful wedding a month later. |
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| Stunning bride! |
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| Baking for a three year olds birthday party (one of my catering commission for Auburn Cakes). These are fruit and seed flapjacks which were super easy and went down a treat. |
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| Eating Percy Pigs with Dave at 8am on the motorway on the way to meet our baby nephew Charlie for the first time...oh the perks of being a grown up...you get to eat sweets whenever you like! |
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| Sharing a small squishy apple charlotte for the first time with my beautiful sister-in-law Tori. |
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| First wedding bake ever!!! Lemon and chocolate cupcakes for my colleague Liannes' wedding. |
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| Going back to the 80's for a roller disco birthday party to celebrate my 30th! We indulging in some wonderfully terrible kids party food (sausage rolls, pineapple/cheese on sticks, jelly, choc dips, twiglets....) and skated the night away...SUCH fun! |
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| Best bake of my life to date....I was so honoured to be asked to make the wedding cake for my dear friends James and Lotte. I'm not going to lie, it was super stressful but with help from my trusty assistant Dave (who made the crate cake stand) it all came together and it was such a proud moment for me and the highlight of the Auburn Cakes calendar for 2015. |
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| Having a well deserved celebratory meal and drink with my massage study buddy Emma when we qualified as Massage Therapists. |
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| Trying tasty Vietnamese food (my noodles were wrapped in a giant palm leaf, it was very exciting) with the newlyweds when they got back from their mini moon! |
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| Making the first (of many) Jaffa Chocolate Orange cakes for my colleague Paul's birthday. It is now my most requested cake....it is super easy, just make the Very Naughty Chocolate Fudge cake from BBC Good Food website and add 5 cap fulls of orange extract to the mixture before baking and slather some orange curd in the middle to make a giant Jaffa Cake! |
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| My first ever (super easy) berrytastic Pavlova to share with our friends at our traditional Easter lunch. |
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| Adam, Holly, Isla, Karlie, Dave and Neil enjoying a huge Easter roast and managing to squeeze in some Pavlova for pudding. |
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| Sharing some ridiculous 'Southern' classics with my brother Jamie, his lovely girlfriend Emma and Dave on a baking hot day in Savannah, Georgia, USA. |
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| Emma and I shared 'Treylor Park Nachos'....waffle fries covered in cheese, guacamole, sour cream, southern fried chicken strips, gherkins and ranch dressing....yes we both nearly died from heart attacks on the spot! |
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| Jamie ordered a normal looking ham and cheese toasted sandwich....it came dusted with icing sugar and with maple syrup on the side! Don't you just love the South! |
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| Not so much eating but avoiding being eaten by alligators whilst on a bike ride with my Dad near their house in Bluffton, South Carolina, USA. |
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| After braving the crocs we stopped off at one of my parents fave restaurants 'The Salty Dog Cafe' for burgers with pretzel buns and 'Hush Puppies' (sweet cornbread balls which have been deep fried and served with honey butter).....can you feel your arteries clogging just reading this? |
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| Enjoying After Eight mint chocolate cake and taking my 93 year old Papa's first ever selfie! I'm convinced my love for mint chocolate is genetic because my Papa is just as obsessed as I am so I must have inherited it. |
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| Enjoying a gorgeous Welsh Cream Tea complete with delicious Welsh Cakes, clotted cream and homemade jam in St David's Pembrokeshire. |
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| My first Smørrebrød (open-sandwich) with my gorgeous girls on our fab city break to Copenhagen in June. The rye bread was delicious but I wasn't sure about the caviar. |
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| Jen, me, Rebecca and Lou looking out over the Copenhagen skyline....love these girls! |
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| The most impressive wedding cake table I have ever seen! Claire and Chris invited all guests to participate in a 'Great Wedding Bake Off' and they even awarded a prize to the best one!! Sadly we were flying down to the wedding so I wasn't able to join in the baking but I did enjoy the eating. |
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| The new Mr and Mrs Asghar Stevens (pre-cake!) |
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| Delicious afternoon tea with my lovely Mum at The Tower Restaurant Edinburgh. I have taken lots of friends here and it is a must if you are in Edinburgh, the views of the castle are stunning and the tiny cakes are exquisite! |
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| Drinking Prosecco with my fab Glasgow 2014 work chums (Sarah, Nuala and Liz) at The Dome in Edinburgh (another must visit restaurant)...such fun! |
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| One of seven (yes seven) cakes baked for my third wedding of the year. This was the first Auburn Cakes wedding for proper external clients....it was super scary and I fretted for days after dropping the cakes off but I got some lovely feedback from the Bride and Groom....phew...I didn't ruin the wedding!!! |
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| All seven cakes packed and ready to go! |
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| Celebrating Isla's first birthday! Such a special day for such a gorgeous girl and a seriously delicious birthday cake baked by Mummy Karlie. |
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| Amazing pre-rugby BBQ cooked by Nic and Ed on their trusty Weber (we have now bought one ourselves and they are excellent). |
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| My addition to the barbie....Pavlova in honour of Ed...he is from New Zealand and apparently they invented it (I need to say that quietly though because I think Australians claim they invented it too and I don't want to upset my new neighbours!) |
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| The BBQ master!! |
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| The BBQ queen! |
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| The boys (Dave, Neil, Ed, Dougie, and Adam) heading off to the rugby. |
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| Us girls dancing round the garden while the boys are away! |
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| Sizzle the sausage dog dressed as a hot dog by our wonderfully ridiculous friends Paul and Fi. We had a fab summer (on that one sunny day in Scotland) BBQ prepared by Paul but I promise we didn't eat Sizzle! |
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| Fi and Karen both eating BBQ for two....those bumps have now turned into two beautiful girls Laurie and Iris. |
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| The boys...and Paul's true love Sizzle. |
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| Amazing afternoon baking and decorating biscuits and cupcakes with these beautiful wee girls Lucia, Summer and Isla....Great British Bake Off here they come! |
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| My final bake for Free Cakes for Kids before moving Down Under....it was an emotional one. |
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| Sharing delicious afternoon tea and a mountain of cake to celebrate our fabulous friends Gemma and Emma getting married. |
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| Emma cutting the cake and licking the knife...a girl after my own heart! |
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| My lovely in-laws organised a wonderful going away party for us and put on a delicious spread including a whole roast lamb. |
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| Leaving party fun! |
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| Saying goodbye..... |
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| Leaving old friends was so hard but at least we did it on a full stomach. |
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| Leaving drinks in London with old university friends...moving to the other side of the world really reminds you to make the effort to see your friends even if its been years since your last catch up! |
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| One of my oldest friends Julia (we met in playgroup ages 3 and became chums over milk and biscuits at break time) and my fabulous friend Kathrine who I spent a year in Atlanta with. I love it when you see old friends who you haven't seen for ages and it feels like no time at all has passed. |
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| MacDougall Family Christmas in September because we knew we wouldn't be together for the real thing. |
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| Cracker hat selfie! |
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| Dave is delighted with his ginormous Christmas dinner...made by my wonderful Mum despite having a broken wrist...Mum's really do have super powers. |
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| Scoffing tea and cake with some lovely ladies to celebrate the upcoming arrival of my dear friend Rachel's bundle of joy (Little Emilia arrived in November and she is such a cutie). |
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| Putting on a good spread for our northern leaving party at our home in Linlithgow, Scotland...I baked five of the six cakes in the photo (in between packing suitcase/boxes) and when I showed my Dad the photos he was horrified that I didn't bake one of them!!!! |
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| I was eating my feelings that day so needed plenty of food...we were so excited to be going but so sad to be saying goodbye. |
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| Delicious chocolate cupcakes made by Nic....I think they say it all! |
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| After a whole year of baking this is the final cake delivered on behalf of Auburn Cakes to Caffe La Ronda. |
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| My first bake in Australia during a cupcake masterclass at the Cake and Bake show. It was so good to be baking again. |
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| My first (of many) Melbourne brunches....Sour dough toast with a poached egg, feta, spinach and avocado....amazing! |
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| Melbs brunch number two at Cafe Gaia in South Yarra....I seriously love the brunch culture here! |
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| My first bake for my new charity group Cake Angels (it's a similar organisation to my Free Cakes for Kids group which is great but I still miss my baking friends from Edinburgh). These were Rocky Road slices and Raspberry Muffins for The Very Special Kids annual fundraiser. |
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| Cake Angels bake number two...these were for the special families who use the Ronald McDonald House in Melbourne. |
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| A proper Christmas (well pre-Christmas really) roast with new friends. |
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| Sensational Yorkshire puddings by Thom and the best bread sauce I have ever eaten....thank you Laura for introducing me to this fabulous addition to any roast. |
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Aussie Christmas breakfast on the terrace....it was 25 degrees and there was avocado involved so it didn't feel at all Christmassy but it was still fab.
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Phew...that was quite a year wasn't it! I am so grateful to have shared so many wonderful meals with so many special people. With this in mind I am starting 2016 with a different sort of challenge...to help others who aren't always able to share good meals with their loved ones.
Since moving to Melbourne I have started a job with a wonderful charity called the
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. Yesterday was my first day back at work after the Christmas break and instead of spending the day with the traditional post-Christmas blues, trawling through my emails I spent it alongside 15 dedicated volunteers and staff working in the Centre's Foodbank. We helped to provide food for 112 families who are currently seeking asylum and therefore have little or no income. Without the help of the Centre and the generous donations from local businesses and the community those 112 families would be going hungry......I am just going to leave that thought with you for a moment............
Over the last three years I have shared with you the stories of my baking, cooking and eating so by now I'm sure you know I love my food! I am so fortunate to have never had to worry about where my next meal is coming from. So, instead of continuing my own gluttony, my new challenge is about me finding ways in which I can help other people to have access to good food because it doesn't matter who you are or where you live, we all need to eat! I don't know what 2016 will bring, it might be as simple as picking up a few extra items at the supermarket each week and donating them to a Foodbank or signing up to an advocacy campaign or volunteering my time to bake/cook for others. I will try to keep all of you updated once a month so that it might give you ideas of how you can help in your local area.
Thank you blog reading friends for your love, support, friendship and willingness to eat. I hope you will join me this year in sharing the love of food with others in the 'Share a Slice' challenge.
Xx Linds xx
