Mrs Birks Blogs

Afternoon tea is now a thing.  In fact, I think it has been a thing for a long time but, as usual, I've been late to the party.  But what a wonderful thing it is!  At the risk of becoming a 40th birthday bore, I wanted to tell you about my visit in March to Selfridges for a afternoon picnic tea. Afternoon tea is such a perfect thing.  Not lunch or dinner but an extra meal in between and it has a little bit of everything - cakes, savouries and of course tea.  With ours we also opted for a couple of glasses of champagne (did I mention it was a special occasion?) which made it extra decadent for a Tuesday afternoon.   We 'took' our tea at The Balcony, a restaurant at the top of Selfridges in the Bullring but we had done a significant amount of research beforehand and I also liked the look of the Gentleman's Afternoon Tea at Hotel La Tour which also threw a scotch egg and pork pie with mustard into the mix.  We found ...

What's so bad about being forty? Aside from a huge increase in grey hair and the need to apply neck firming cream, it doesn't seem so awful to me.  But then I am only a week or so into my fortieth year. One of the best things about turning 40 is that people shower you with gifts.  40 being a significant number means that the pressies are fantastic!  One beautiful gift that I will treasure always was a plum coloured Ted Baker bag with copper coloured accents.  I don't really have the lifestyle to go with such a beautiful bag but there's still time!  They say life begins and all that. To prove I'm still youngish I also got a Brits CD full of young people music.  I have already irritated the family by over-playing Justin Bieber.  I also got a beautiful silver honey pot, an equally beautiful 3 tier cake plate, some books and a Happy Valley DVD (we missed it first time around and everyone has been raving about it).  All in all, a v...

Just before going back to work in September, I had a final baking weekend where I decided to have another go at my nemesis - macarons.  On the recent series of Bake Off, everyone seemed to be knocking up macarons all over the place and not even as an actual challenge - often just for the decoration on other things!  I have tried them 3 times now and not once have I achieved the perfect macaron.  How do those bakers in the tent do it??? So back at the start of September I had a go at making them for what was the second time using Edd Kimber's recipe for Chocolate and Raspberry Macarons .  I followed his recipe carefully, although I don't have a sugar thermometer, so that bit was guess work.  The result was better than my previous attempt but the mixture was a little bit runny and I think this was due to my folding in technique.  I have never been good at folding in - I think I'm not really delicate enough generally - not just in baking but in general life....

So my poor, neglected blog is 2 years old and what a lot has changed in the past year!  My resolution to write one post a month has gone completely out of the window but it doesn't mean I've stopped loving my blog.  I just haven't had a lot of time to update it.                                             Happy Birthday Mrs Birks Blogs...not 6 yet! Back in February, I wrote about a book called Create Your Amazing Year 2014 (read about it here)  which had been helpful in making some changes to my general routines and I was feeling happier.  Later that month, as part of making changes, I went for a job interview and after a thorough grilling, I got a new job to start later in the year.  No biggy you might be thinking but it wasn't just a new job, it also meant a new house, new school for my daughter and a new daily commute into Cambridge. Instantly...

So my quest to write one blog post a month has already slipped.  March has blazed past and it's already April.  However, as this post is all about last month, hopefully it will make up for it, a bit! March is a marvellous month! The first of the Spring sunshine, daffodils out, the prospect of the Easter holidays and...my birthday. Yes, March this year saw me celebrate birthday number 38. Not a great number but, as my father in law would say, better than the alternative.  This year for my birthday, I decided to go out and do something.  In the past, I've been happy to let the day drift by and at times, I have been a bit of a birthday martyr - "I can't believe I have to do the hoovering on my birthday", "I can't believe I have to make my own lunch on my birthday" - that sort of ridiculous thing.  This year I noticed Leonie Dawson's page in her Amazing Year book (see my previous post) ages before the event and so started thinking about what I...