Birthday Treat

Last week myself and the boyfriend took ourselves to Suffolk to celebrate my birthday. I'd come across some beautiful converted barns on Domestic Sluttery last year & decided i'd treat us to a relaxing country break where I could hide away & pretend like I wasn't turning 25!

We stayed at Belle Grove Farm, the love child of Jo & Nick - who after 30 years of running Safari's in Africa moved to Suffolk to create an absolutely beautiful countryside haven. They've built themselves a stunning fairy tale home on the site of the old farm house (complete with its very own dragon on the roof!) & converted the old out-houses into beautifully exotic self catering accommodation which they rent out as holiday homes.

We stayed in the Stable, the smallest of the 5 properties (the largest of which sleeps 8) It was the perfect size for two & had everything we could possibly have needed from a selection of DVD's & board games to a coffee machine & hot water bottles.

This has got to be one of the most beautiful places i've stayed EVER, the detail that went into every aspect of our stay was crazy, there is nothing that Jo & Nick hadn't thought of & we were only too happy to be tucked away in the middle of nowhere in our beautiful stable with the log fire, under floor heating, roll top bath & a bottle of champs.

The fact that it snowed pretty much every day we were there only made the farm even more beautiful, it was like walking out into Narnia every morning with the iced over pond & snow covered trees, it's like Christmas had come again. I could not recommend Belle Grove more highly, it was the most beautiful place to run away to & the perfect first holiday of 2013!

Cake!

A little bit late but with last week being the Queens Diamond Jubilee and my Dad's b-day it was an obvious excuse to make some yummy treats so I made a couple of cakes for the occasion...

Piped buttercream Victoria Sponge :) 

Red, White & Blue inside - v.patriotic! 

Old school pineapple upside down cake!

I do love cake :)

Peggy Porschen's Scrummy Cakes

Over the past year or so I've developed a bit of a passion for baking and cake decorating and through this I discovered one of my favourite places in London: the Peggy Porschen parlour.

If you haven't heard of Peggy porschen before and you have a sweet tooth or just appreciate amazingly beautiful cakes, her Belgravia parlour would be the first place I'd suggest you visit.

I went with the boyfriend during that ridiculously hot week in October (remember that?! ... That was lovely) and I was so amazingly excited, having drooled over pictures of her cakes for a good 6 months, to actually get to eat one.

After a wander through Belgravia in the blistering sunshine we rounded a corner and I spotted her pretty pink parlour, my boyfriend said I actually squealed and jumped at the sight of it, ever the cool and collected person that I am I just don't believe him, he must have been delirious from the heat.

Spotted this pretty little bird on a pretty Belgravia door.
So cute!

After spending a good 10 minutes choosing what cakes we were going to go with (I chose a slice of the summer berry cake and the boyfriend got a chocolate cupcake) we sat outside and devoured said cakes in what seemed like a couple of seconds, it was literally the best cake I ever tasted! It was light and fluffy and the flavours were amazing, I do think everyone has to go and have at least one of her cakes in their life time, I personally have very over the top dreams of having one of her beautiful tiered cakes centre stage at my wedding one day... maybe if I start saving now! I've also recently discovered that you can go to the parlour for afternoon tea which I will deff be looking into for my birthday next year!

So go... Eat cake and be merry, I've heard the black forest cupcakes are heavenly!