Goodbye Corner Cottage Bakery

Four years is a long time.

2010 was the year Corner Cottage Bakery was started.  There were a lot of exclamation points, terrible photos and a cake made of soup but we carried on. We bought Corner Cottage in 2009 and were still doing that "damn, buying a house is expensive" dance that first time buyers have.  Corner Cottage Bakery turned from being a place where I could store my recipes and photos to a creative outlet and a hobby that wasn't stupidly expensive to fill my time with.  Highlights for me have to be flower pot bread and French Martini truffles.

2011 was full of huge courgettes and my first foray into marshmallow making.  We celebrated a royal wedding with Eton Mess Jack-arons, and Corner Cottage Bakery's first birthday with a big rainbow cake.  Meringue mushrooms and orange curd were also some of my favourites from that year.

2012 was, and can only be described as, one of the best years of my life.  So much happened like French Martini macarons, Han Solo brownies and chai lattes. Going to see the dressage at the Olympics was brilliant.  

Oh. And I got married. And then spent ten days in the Maldives. Both of which were both understandably amazing.

2013 seemed to fly past.  One moment you're making ginger doughnuts and then the next you are making your sister an 8ft giant squid pillow.  Then you are hanging out on the back of the Harry Potter Knight Bus for your birthday and then you are trying not to throw up a lump of fermented shark that you just ate. See. Crazy busy. Green tomato galettes, ice cream tacos and DIY walnut whips interspersed all of this of course. 

2014 has also seemed to carry on with the same appetite of guzzling months from the calendar as 2013.  We celebrated the return of Game of Thrones with hand painted macarons and relived my strange childhood with ice cream oysters. I talked about what blogging means to me when I hit the milestone of four years blogging at Corner Cottage Bakery and I wrestled with some DIY sausages.

The past four and a bit years have been pretty sweet.  I hope you'll come and see me at my new home!

Honey & Dough will be live from 1 August 2014.  

We Should Cocoa: Boozy Ice Cream Floats

This month's We Should Cocoa is hosted by Elizabeth at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary who has gone for the saviour of the summer and challenged us to make ice cream based beauties and topping treats.  You can read all about We Should Cocoa on Choclette's blog by clicking here. 

Say floats to me and I don't think of creamy, fizzy, brain freeze inducing drinks. 

Nope.  I think of carnival floats. 

The highlight of the Brownie and Girl Guide calendar but now rarely seen.  They were themed, I vividly remember wearing a lion costume, with full face paint, for the Wizard of Oz float we did one year.  We'd throw sweets and wave at people. Then we would crash out like tiny rockstars, high on sugar and crepe paper and face paint fumes. 

These boozy ice cream floats will also make you feel like a rock star.  But that kind of depends on how much liquor you put in them.

Ingredients

Full fat coke. No room for diet here. 

Your favourite spirit that will mix with coke. Vodka, amaretto, rum or bourbon welcome at this party. 

Soft scoop ice cream. Vanilla, preferably. You could posh this up with fancy ice cream if you want to.

Melted dark chocolate

Method

The golden rule with a coke float is fizzy first. Half fill a tall glass with cola and one shot (two shots, who are we kidding...) of your preferred tipple. Gently place in a scoop or two or ice cream. Top with a little melted chocolate. 

Drink through a straw or else ice cream float tash. 

I am also, belatedly, entering this into the wonderful Kavey Eats Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream challenge, the theme of which being holiday memories.  You can read all about BSFIC here and how to enter here.  

Seven on Sunday: 20.07.14

Funky flour patterned honey and oat bread, local honey with the cutest paper bag, live bees from the honey stall, Macarons from Sylvia and Terry Fine Kentish Chocolates (probably one of the best Macarons I've put in my mouth to date), local veg and fancy lettuce from the veg stall, my coke float reward for weeding.

You might have noticed that things are slowing down around here. It's because I'm relocating to a new blog home called Honey & Dough (www.honeyanddough.com)
Please bear with me whilst I make the transition, it'll be launched on the 1 August!

Dotcomgiftshop's Christmas in July

Man, I love Christmas.

Especially, fun and new things for Christmas.  These Santa Sacks were one of my favourites. 

This cheery chap...

... and this bony bro would make total cute gifts. 

Total ceramic porn. Mainly the simplicity of the blue and white stripy set.

Thank you to Dotcomgiftshop for a lovely afternoon and Jenny Wood for her equally as lovely chat.

Chilli Coconut Cashew Nuts

I think it's a myth that if you are an adult, that you have all your shit together. Like you can keep on top of your laundry and you remember to put salt in the dishwasher. You can get yourself ready in the morning leisurely, over some freshly brewed coffee and yes, you even made eggs. There is a meal plan that you write in beautiful calligraphy on a Pinterest worthy chalkboard in your beautiful kitchen. You probably enjoy the finer things in life, like good wine (i.e. ones not bought on offer at Sainsburys), the theatre and discussing politics.

This is pretty much crap. Pure crap.

I'm an adult and the only reason salt is put in the dishwasher is because there is an angry light that lights up on the new dishwasher when there isn't salt in there. I don't like being judged by technology. Empty laundry basket? That's funny.

I dont have time for eggs in the morning. I have time for throwing on an outfit, brushing my teeth and trying to avoid my cats trying to kill me on the stairs. I have a meal plan but am a big fan of coming home in a royal strop and wanting Thai food. Like now. What do I have drawn on my kitchen chalkboard? A ninja. There is a ninja on my chalkboard.

As for the finer things in life; yes, I own posh welly boots and enjoy wine. But sometimes it takes every fibre in my mortal being not to laugh when someone says "nuts". You're welcome 

Ingredients

1tbsp runny honey

1/2tsp coconut oil

200gr plain cashews (not roasted, or salted)

15gr dessicated coconut

1/4tsp salt

1/2 small dried red chilli, finely chopped

Method

1, Add the honey and coconut oil into a small suacepan and place over a low heat. When the oil has melted, give it a good stir and then add in the nuts. Stir this well until the nuts are completely covered in the honey/oil combo. 

2, Remove from the heat and add in the rest of the ingredients. Toss these together so the coconut and chilli sticks to the nuts. Scrape all of this out onto a lined baking sheet. 

3, Spread the nuts out, making sure you dont dislodge too much of the coconut from them and bake for 5-7 minutes until golden brown at 180 o/c. You might have to give them a little shake every now and then so they colour evenly. 

4, Leave to cool completely before snacking.