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This was Ivy's favourite birthday present, which was beautifully handmade by my dad. I used to have one the same as this when I was little, so I love seeing this one in our home.

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What a great feeling it is pulling your own fresh home-made sourdough out of the oven! Even better when it takes no time, not even any kneading. Even better again when you can make a big batch at the start of the week, pull a piece off each morning, pop it in the oven and have perfect warm bread for the best-ever morning toast. Amazing. So easy. So yummy.

All 4 basic ingredients are just thrown in together and mixed.  Apparently, lots of people already know about this bread revolution, but I didn't and you may not. You can get this basic recipe via Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

 

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An incredible, challenging and love-filled year has already passed us by. How lucky we are to have been given such a lovely little girl to watch grow.  I'm pretty sure that she had a wonderful day with all of her grandparents, her Australian uncles and aunties and her gorgeous little friends to help her celebrate.

 

It was an exciting milestone for me too. A sense of fulfilment and accomplishment wrapped up in unsurpassed pride. I could go on all day, but will spare any reader that I may have.

 

Here is my first attempt at a birthday cake. I still can't believe how much easier this was than I expected it to be.

 

To make this, I found a cute picture... she loves elephants, I then:

-Traced the shape of the cake tins onto baking paper to get the right size.
-Copied the picture I'd chosen on to the baking paper.

-Made 2 chocolate cakes and cut the picture out of the cakes using the baking paper pic as a guide.
-Mixed up a basic frosting and added blue colouring until I got the right blue and used this great icing stuff (see below!) for the outline. It was so easy to use.

At the end, I mixed up some runny white icing and used a small paint brush to fill in the eye.

All in all, so much easier and less time-consuming than I had expected!