Ladybird

I have an obsession with Lady-Birds and therefore requested a Lady-Bird cake for my 26th birthday. Needless to say it's eyes look a little creepy but the pink icing is cream cheese icing and its a wicked chocolate cake underneathe. Covered in my favourite chocolates- freckles, jaffas, clinkers and licorice it was a heavenly treat and it didn't last very long, if you know what i mean!

A Promised Feast

I promised my girlfriend I would cook her a yummy dinner early this week and it was put off for a few nights as I ended up having to work. So to make up for the delay, I decided to make a very special dinner on thursday night, a three course meal to be exact. To accomplish this I needed some help from my good friend (not in real life) Donnah Hay. I went slightly off recipe but still was heavily inspired by her and her recipes from her 'Entertaining' book.

To start, we enjoyed a few pieces of french stick, lightly toasted, topped with roasted holoumi cheese with olive oil, lemon zest and chopped fresh oregano and fresh cherry tomatoes to garnish.

Follwed by roast lamb with oregano and a potato, dill and red onion salad. The lamb had an simple yet amazing dressing of honey and dijon mustard (the honey we have is beautifully candied so gave it an amazing texture and flavour)

And last but definately not least, my all time favourite Sticky Date Pudding, and yes I used mini tea saucers to serve it, needless to say they absolutely melt in your mouth and you can't help but want more!

'Tea for Two'

Despite the disgusting weather we have encountered this past week, there are still hints of spring in the air. I was out driving the other day i came across these gorgeous blossoms (I'm assuming that what they are) and thought to myself, spring is definately near, and tea for two is a must.

A cup of tea in spring is a delight; the weather is perfect to drink a hot drink with the smell of flowers and sunshine floating gently through the air. I have taken poetic liscence on the idea of 'tea' and have created (with the help of my beautiful girlfriend) a fabulous dessert which is as delicate as tea but a little more delicious if I say so myself.

After making a batch of delicious Chocolate Ganache Tarts, my girlfriend mixed through chopped rasberries through the remaining ganache. To serve, we then put it into pastry moulds and mini tea cups. We made some extra pastry pieces and cut strawberries to dunk into the velvet chocolatey goodness to place on the saucer. This was incredibly easy and absolutely deslish!

For those of you who want to try it:

Chocolate Ganache.

200g good quality dark chocolate

125ml thickened cream

50g butter, cold, chopped roughly

Optional: 3 tbsp brandy/ vanilla/ 3tbsp orange juice (Not all of them together!)

Stir all ingredients together in small saucepan over a low heat until smooth.

Allow to cool and thicken before using.

*If allowed to thicken significantly you can pour it into cases to make ganache tarts

*Mix in a punnet of rasberries (crushed/ roughly chopped)

And then simply enjoy, they are amazing and very addictive.