Last month I decided to have a go at practicing my piping technique by making some iced biscuits for mothers day. I admire the beautiful iced biscuits other people create but I have always thought to myself, surely they are just too much hastle to make? I find that making royal icing can be quite a pain, let alone having to colour it and use various piping bags and tubes to create the desired design. Nevertheless, the biscuits that I have seen on other peoples' blogs do look lovely and I really wanted to atleast try and have a go myself. I dug out some spring themed cookie cutters that I bought last year and got started on making some simple butter biscuits- a Nigella recipe that she claims are biscuits that have a buttery taste and hold their shape during baking. I made butterfly and flower shapes- pretty and feminine- perfect for any mother!

Luckily I had some royal icing already made up so all I had to do was make a few different colours and get piping! Once I got started, I was pleasantly suprised at how addictive icing biscuits actually is. I found myself getting quite carried away and before I knew it, several hours had passed! I am really happy with the finished biscuits, and I'm so glad a had a go. Infact, I think I'm on a bit of a roll, as I even decided to make some Easter themed ones. Do you like?

Okay, so you're probably wondering why I've been a bad girl? Well, it's fairly obvious really...I've not updated my blog quite a while (as you may have noticed!). However, that isn't to say I haven't been baking. Quite the opposite really. I've been very busy baking, cake decorating, and trying to fit in a little college work inbetween (eek!). I was planning to wait until college was over until I made my next blog post, but tonight I decided that would be far too long, and that I would get straight to work on a new update. So here it is! As I have made quite a lot of sweets and treats in the past few months, I thought I would share a few of the best with you.

Last week we celebrated a special occasion, as my (not so) little sister Helen turned 21 years of age. With help from my sisters boyfriend Rabbi, me and my parents organised a suprise jungle themed party for Helen last Saturday, which, luckily we managed to keep a suprise until the big night! The party was a success and everybody seemed to have a brilliant time.

I put myself in charge of the sweets and cake (not suprisingly) and created a birthday cake that tied in with the jungle theme. I'd actually been planning this cake for a long time as last year, I said to myself that Helen's 21st birthday cake would be the best cake I've ever made! I really wanted to live up to my own expectations...

The finished cake consisted of three tiers made from different types of sponge: fruit cake, chocolate cake and victoria sandwich. The best three types of cake in my opinion! I decorated the cakes in animal print designs and made jungle animals out of marzipan (I also sneaked in a Tigger, did you notice?)

Everybody was certainly very impressed with the cake (including Helen) and although it took a lot of work, I felt a great sense of achievement once the finished piece was put together- the hard work always pays off in the end- especially when you eat the first slice!
I managed to get a few close up shots of the marzipan animals as I think they are kinda cute. What do you think?

Earlier on in the year I bought a book called Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery by Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas, owners of the famous Primrose bakery in London. It's a great book with a variety of cupcake recipes and some lovely pictures. I hadn't actually tried out any of the recipes until now and I'm wondering why I waited so long as the cupcakes were absolutely delightful! The first recipe I chose was for vanilla cupcakes, although I substitued the vanilla extract for almond and added a little cherry jam to make vampirish cherry and almond ones instead.