After a long silence, I've turned my hand back to writing a little this month, and I've landed an article in Harboured magazine! It's a new magazine in Bristol (where I'm living), and I'm pretty excited about it. 

Not only am I back writing seriously again, I've posted on my blog for the first time in seven months because of it, and, the best bit is the article is about my baking business, 280 Bakes. 

Take a look - Five Places To Eat Cake can be found online here. 

Stay tuned for more - I hear this writing lark is addictive!

​Lou x

This weekend sees the opening of a dream of mine... my own (mini) bakery!!!

Every 3rd Sunday of the month I will be selling home baked cakes from my kitchen. The baking starts this weekend and I can't wait!

I've got a full Christmas themed menu (check out #bakemenu on Twitter) from iced Christmas cake to Brownie Santa Hats, so if you're in the Bristol area this weekend, be sure to stop by! The first 25 customers will receive a gift, and of course, there will be tasters!

280 Bakes
280 Broadlands Drive
Bristol
BS11 0PW

Join me 4-5pm every third Sunday (opens 20th December) and find what you want for tea!

280 Bakes is on Facebook and Twitter, so get in touch!

Lou x

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My sister's a cleaver old stick. She's the showstopping baker in our family. Mum is technical (having trained in food) and I'm firmly in the signature bake, a bit more experimental. We threw my dad a surprise retirement party earlier this year and my sister baked this bang on theme treasure. Dad was a pilot. 

The cake was a tripe sponge layered delight covered in chocolate icing and shortbread plane cookies. Well done sis!

Before you ask, the marzipan man was a throwback to my wedding party in February. It's a model of dad, helping to give me away. I still have to post a picture of that cake - it was epic!

Into bakes? Feeling hungry? Check out my less show stopping but equally tasty contribution to the party's cake display, inspired by the Great British Bake Off. 

Lou x

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These are so easy, and taste THE BEST when they are fresh out the oven. I bet you've got all the ingredients needed in your cupboard too. 

Try it now!

Warning: This are VERY moreish!

Lou x

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Born to be a Tourist - today's post was from New Zealand!

No, there's no elephant seal meat inside these, you'll be glad to hear. I think they're hideous animals, violent, selfish creatures, and ugly at that - just like this pie! 

I had some shortcrust pastry to use up from my sweet potato pie baked for Halloween, so I lined four muffin tins with the leftovers. Then I finely sliced ham, dropped it into the bottom of the pie case, and covered it with scrambled egg mixture. They took about 30 minutes to bake at 180 degrees, and created some fantastically uneven (ugly!) elephant seal like pies. They tasted amazing, but they're not something I'd make for company!

Have you ever created something new and ugly, yet tasty?

Lou x

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I don't have any kids (yet), so I can't really trick or treat, but I'm a big fan of Halloween all the same. Here's how you Halloween with no one under 20 years old...

​After all the lead up, here's how my Halloween went down. Like a bat out of hell, if raced past, even with a bed time of 1.30am! We had soooo many trick or treaters - love it - the food was a success, and everyone got in the spirit/booze. Check it out!

Feeding Frenzy

I made 'dragon's blood' cocktail (sangria, essentially) and non-alcoholic bat's piss (a jug of lemonade) for the t-totals. 'Wink Murder' made an appearance once the food had been devoured. Halloween themed tunes were playing all night - just google 'devil' songs!

That's how you Halloween like an adult. 

Lou x

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​We're half way through my Halloween series of blogs here on Miss Write and today is all about food! Hope you're hungry... Here's my top five Halloween finger food picks. 

From the top left, we have...

Werewolf cupcakes 
Monster eye cookies
A pumpkin shaped cheeseball
Doughnut bugs
Devil's Eggs 
Olive creepy crawlies
Mummy croissants

As you know, I love trying new things in the kitchen, but I won't be making any of these this Halloween. I have a few top secret tricks up my sleeve. 

I won't be making Werewolf cupcakes as there will be plenty of cake at my house. Standard. 
Monster Eye cookies - doesn't really work with my aversion to eyes!
The cheeseball looks like it has disaster written all over it, however great it may be as a centre piece. 
Doughnuts are not really in my favourite foods, so I'll give those giant bugs a miss. 
Devil's Eggs - see Monster Eye cookies - ick!
The olive creepy crawlies were a possibility but El Husbandio doesn't like olives, so I can find something we both like. 
Croissants - don't go there. Mine are shortcrust pastry. Deal with it! 

There's nothing to stop you making these though - go for it! They all look awesome and very tasty. Good luck and send me some photos on my Twitter!

Lou x

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I was brought up in a church-going Christian household, and I don't like the taste of pumpkin. We never had any form of Halloween celebrations, other than the odd bit of on-theme 'art' we did at school. We didn't give sweets to kids in the neighbourhood (one year got egged because of it!), and I was petrified of horror movies into my early teens. My mum even used to take us out to a friend's house on Halloween to avoid the trick or treaters. It goes without saying we never traipsed the streets dressed up, looking for a sugar high from familiar doorsteps. I remember thinking I was missing out, and as the years passed, the excuse that the event was for kids kind of stuck. 

Halloween just didn't happen in our house. 

Fast forward 20-30 years, and I am planning to wrap the house in Halloween gear ready to bring in the 31st October. I'm planning gross looking food (e.g. 'mummy' croissants, 'pumpkin' fruits - you'll see!) for a little ghoulish cocktail get together, I'm entering Halloween themed writing competitions, and I'm trying to work out when I'll get the time to pumpkin carve. In my previous Northamptonshire life I enjoyed the annual zumba 'spooktacular', really getting into the spirit of the thing. 

After a hesitant and discouraging start, why do I now love Halloween so much?

Firstly, I don't need much of an excuse to get into fancy dress. And, I plan, when I have kids, to make Saturdays 'fancy dress day'. They will be (forcibly?!) dressed in outfits from Snow White to the superheroes while we carry on our way through regular Saturday activities. We'll brighten up our local grocery shop! Complex and well-thought through or eBay specials and simple hints - love those costumes. I can't wait to take my kids trick or treating!

Halloween is a great time to try something different. I mentioned I'm baking goods with a spooky taste, making me attempt new things in the kitchen. Same goes for cocktails. If it wasn't for Halloween, I'd never have discovered raspberry liquor. I'm also trying new ways to decorate our home. I love a bit of craft - there's more to Halloween decor than pumpkins!

Some of my favourite films are in the horror genre. I love a good (or bad!) zombie movie - the best being Dawn of the Dead - The Shining is in my top ten, I think, and I'm looking forward to the forthcoming Frankenstein movie, Victor Frankenstein. 

Maybe Halloween's not just for kids. Maybe I've grown into Halloween - and I'm having a great time of it. Never liked apple bobbing though. Water, up nose, not good. I'll stick to toffee apples. 

Stay tuned for my week of Halloween planning - spooky edibles and decorations, cake and BOOze!

Lou x

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​This was my first sweet potato pie, unbelievably, as it's my favourite vegetable. The first step in the preparations for Halloween... and I want a bite! 

I've really perfected my Great British Bake off style over watching...

Lou x

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Born to be a Tourist - just finished a Costa Rica mini series here, take a look!

Baking, baking, baking. I'm going made for it. Not only have I bought myself a posh new cake stand (my first!) and a croissant cutting rolling pin, I now own an icing kit. And what do I blame? The Great British Bake Off. The fantastic TV show has gripped the country for 5 series and it's back on our screens with 12 new participants seeking fame and frosting. 

Paul is as dashing as ever. Mary is more darling than ever. Mel and Sue? They've grown on me with every series and I'd miss them if they were no longer the cheeky hosts. My bet this year is Ian - probably like most people. Love his understated humble approach to inventiveness in the oven. Personal favourite: Ugne, but she's gone. Loved her, so creative!

Frankly, I love the Bake Off. And so do 9 million other people. 

Most of the recipes are pretty challenging, technical and too artistic for me, but contestant Nadiya baked something last week I needed to try: the icing pattern bake (I'm calling it). 

When the cake it taken out of the oven, carefully turn the cake out onto a cooling rack and peel off the grease proof paper. Voila, your pattern is etched onto the sponge. I was amazed how clearly is came out, no smudging and the icing didn't grow or shrink in the temperature change.

I cut the sponge into 3cm (ish) squares and made a sandwich with them using a plain sponge (same recipe) and a honey mascarpone cream filling. Delish! They really were tasty ... I felt quite sick once the bake had finished, I ate so many off-cuts and smears of icing!

See below - my 'mini Nadiya cakes' are displayed on my new cake stand with a friend's brownies. Who's hungry?!

With hindsight, the pretty little pattern I made wasn't very visible once I'd cut the sponge sandwich into small(er) bites. I should have gone for a grid or something - the leaves and swirls would work better as a tablet bake. 

Thanks to Nadiya for her inspiration!

Lou x

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