It's taken me a while to make this post as it's been such a busy time for me! I spent all of Thursday evening baking and decorating my Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary cake, all of Friday in the Midlands celebrating with the family and recovering the last two days! But I'll start from the beginning.
So, I've been planning this anniversary cake for sometime and as my first ever properly decorated cake I wanted to keep it simple and pretty. Obviously at 50 years gold was going to be a main colour and I decided to join that with ivory (I prefer the slight offwhite colour). I spent (what is to me) a fortune on this cake, at least £20! The edible gold paint, flowers and a new piping set were from Hobbycraft and the rest were standard supermarket baking ingredients. Though not
totally vegan as I used eggs I did make this cake
dairy free using my sunflower butter; not that anyone noticed the difference! I also suffered my first ever baking diaster! I was originally using soya butter as I know it's slightly sweet and would therefore compliment a cake, however I didn't grease my pans enough and the cake stuck! Mum and I managed to break it all off into pieces (that are now in the freezer) and we'll be eating it with custard whenever we're short a dessert as it still tastes yummy! After a frantic count of the pennies in my money box I had just enough for some more eggs and I started again, this time with sunflower butter and baking paper lining the pans! A second disaster was averted! Decorating wasn't as stressful as I anticipated. After joining both halves of the cake with dairy free buttercream icing and my homemade raspberry jam I simply rolled out some ready-made icing and placed on top and used my piping bag to seal the bottom with icing. Mum found me the gold wrapping in her odds and ends box so while she fitted that I got out a new paintbrush and the gold paint and got to work painting the flowers gold! The gold paint I used was good for this, though I wouldn't suggest it for large areas as it's a little thin. I placed the flowers with a generous blob of normal glaze icing and then painted the '50' on. I was so pleased with how it turned out for my first go! It was what I had envisioned and I got so many compliments from family and my grandparents friends. :) And yes, I did get 2 slices in the end and they were scrumptious! Everyone who tasted it complimented the lightness of the cake and my raspberry jam so I was pretty much beetroot by the end of the day! My Gran even preferred it to the cake my Granddad bought, and even said she's passed the baking torch onto me! What a compliment! =^.^=
Otherwise, I wore my new owl dress! I love it so much, even if it does make me conscious about my tummy. I even managed to wear heels (a big feat with vertigo!) as my Mum said she'd be my crutch for the day! I managed to wobble about without falling over successfully. It was so nice seeing the family as well, as we live 2 hours south of everyone we don't get to see each other more than about twice a year and everyone was in such good spirits it turned into a wonderful day. I even managed to spend time talking to my uncle and granddad who are usually not that talkative at these events.
Even Phoebe made us all proud, she was so good all day and was happily crawling and playing at my Grandparents house with my 6 year old cousin. On the way home she was asleep and kicked her foot over where the electric controls for her window were and opened the window! It woke her up and as she's teething pretty bad at the moment she was really restless and cried the last half an hour back. But considering how well she'd done all day it was a small price to pay.
I on the other hand did well until the evening when I really started to notice I was deteriorating. My head kept getting worse and I was noticing my tremors were becoming more frequent. I managed to sleep most the way home but then when we reached my sisters I had to stumble upstairs to be sick I felt so ill. ): I'm really upset I couldn't last the day but everyone has praised how well I managed. I'm still not well yet, I've had a headache all day from the constant spinning and I think this weekend I've spent at least 30 hours sleeping. This is pretty much why I can't work yet. Thursday I have physio, so we have lots to discuss.
It's my sisters' 20th birthday tomorrow! I was hoping to bake a chocolate and buttercream cake but we're going to see how I feel in the morning before I attempt anything. I hope I feel well enough as it's an easy enough cake to make. (plus the dairy in it means I can't have any, I've been bad enough with my diet with all the cake!!) And then it's Phoebe's 1st birthday on Thursday, the years gone so fast! Luckily, I don't have to make a cake for her as my sister's baking one, I have the honours next year!
Outfit details:
Dress:
Primark, Jacket:
Newlook, Shoes:
Faith found in charity shop.
Apart from Phoebe's birthday I've been kind of low the last day or so. After fainting again yesterday doing a simple walking exercise at physio I've been feeling really downhearted. I was hoping the fainting was starting to become better but I've now fainted five times in five weeks, been sick from vertigo several times and even though the movement disorder is getting better I just feel so sad and deflated. I dunno, maybe I'll feel better in a few days and move on but I feel like I'm against this uphill struggle all the time. And hearing about how all my friends are getting these great job interviews or jobs, or how they're going out to have fun, or even how they can leave the house on their own makes things worse. I hate this, I'm fighting it as hard as I can but it's hard. It's one of the hardest things I'm having to do. I wish something good would happen, like loose some weight or something - I can't even succeed at that let alone anything else. Just looking in the mirror sometimes and seeing what a failure my life has become makes me want to scream or melt into nonexistence. Which of course is really selfish. I just can't win.
So, I've been planning this anniversary cake for sometime and as my first ever properly decorated cake I wanted to keep it simple and pretty. Obviously at 50 years gold was going to be a main colour and I decided to join that with ivory (I prefer the slight offwhite colour). I spent (what is to me) a fortune on this cake, at least £20! The edible gold paint, flowers and a new piping set were from Hobbycraft and the rest were standard supermarket baking ingredients. Though not
It's been a pretty quiet, dull two days since I last posted. I've spent most my time in bed reading, recovering from the intense exhaustion that seemed to have come over me. Feeling a little more alive today, still tired around the edges and have a busy night ahead! Mum's taking me to Hobbycraft in a bit to get my things for my Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary cake I'll be baking tomorrow, then we'll home have dinner and then we're dying each others hair. Mine's the harder since it's henna and I'll be sat around for 4 hours after with cling film around my head but it'll mean I can get some studying done. :)
I've started a new book as well, Jostein Gaarder's 'Sophie's World'. I was recommended it in sixth form in my philosophy class and just never could get a hold of the library copy. Imagine my excitement when at Bookends in Northern Ireland they had a beautiful hardback copy (which I swear is unread!) for 50p!! I'm really enjoying it at the moment, it's such a good refresher or starter for anyone looking at the history of philosophy. I did find over the last year at uni studying philosophy I lost some of the taste for it, I actually became quite bored. This book has already piped my interest again, my natural unsastified curiosity about the world we live in. Anyone who has an interest in philosophy should read this book as it's a fantastic introduction!
