As mentioned briefly in my previous post here, I made some Mini-egg muffins! Even though we're a chocolate-loving household, we still had two big multipacks left over from Easter, so I improvised a bit and followed the Chocolate Chunk muffin recipe from my trusty M&S book, but added the Mini-eggs instead. (Even though that sounds really simple, and it is, I'm secretly really proud of myself for making successful substitutions - it might mean I'm on my way to becoming a proper baker, right?)
In other kitchen-related news, I made some nice buns. Now, I know that calling them buns is really old-fashioned and uncool, but they are buns. At my most extravagant, they might be fairy cakes, but they are NOT cupcakes. However, I will be extremely gracious and say that all the lovely American bakers are allowed to use the C-word, because they make them like THIS.
Now, as beautiful as these proper US cupcakes are, I don't think I'm quite ready to progress to this level yet, although I have pored over the pictures and I think they all look amazing. But there is a good reason for me wimping out of making cake lions and snooker tables and that reason is the buttercream nightmare that I had with this week's buns. I had such grand ideas of practising my icing techniques with my new Tala icing bag, but my buttercream was like cement. So I smeared it on my buns (oo-er) and promptly ate them all so I have no photographic evidence of the debacle. Here is a picture of the vanilla buns pre-icing - I avoided the issue of cream all together with the chocolate buns and went with the age-old trick of dusting icing sugar over them to make them look pretty.
I did get out of the kitchen, though, and we went cycling! This summer, one of my aims is to get a bit more fit and active (for those who know me, this is a big deal). So, as the boyfriend is a v keen cyclist, he took me out and about on the back of the tandem bike, because last time I rode a bike all on my own, I had an accident with a stationary car. We went up to the top of Plymbridge and back again, which was plenty far enough for me - I definitely need to work on getting some muscles in my legs, because I don't actually think I have any. It was a really good afternoon, though, in spite of my jelly legs and bf. even provided the halfway-point snacks, in the form of a box of Party Rings. Yay!
To add to my self-inflicted aches and pains in my (non-existant) muscles, I have once again started the 30 Day Shred - aaarrrrghh! I don't know whether lots of people have heard of the Shred, but my friends definitely have because I tend to start it every 6 months or so and manage 10 days at most before I either hurt too much to do any more, or I forget about it. It's a work-out DVD by Jillian Michaels, who used to be an instructor on the US version of 'The Biggest Loser' - she is, in her own words, 'TV's toughest trainer'. Anyway, there are three half-hour workouts, Levels 1, 2 and 3 and each one is made of three circuits. The idea is that you do ten days on each level and then, as if by magic, you look like Jillian's friend Anita! That's the idea anyway. I'm on Day 5, but I'm rotating levels because 10 days on each can get a little boring. Fingers crossed I have the willpower to get through it this time around!
Finally, we're off to Somerset next week! We're going up to Weston-Super-Mare for the day and then on to Wells to stay with bf's grandparents for a few days, which will be lovely. Wells is such a beautiful and very teeny city, so I'm looking forward to taking lots of photos (I apologise to my Instagram followers in advance!) More importantly, his grandma's cooking is amazing, so I can't wait for our few days away!
Here's a little mosaic of the last time I visited Wells and Glastonbury:
(: xx
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