Funfetti Cupcakes

On Sunday morning Rob woke up with a craving for something home-baked. I am always up for a baking project, so I immediately looked up at my Food board on Pinterest and the first thing that caught my eye was this Funfetti Cupcakes recipe. I showed it to Rob and he was easily sold. So, we checked if we had all the ingredients in the cupboards and sooner than we imagined we were all in baking mood! When I say all, what I really mean is that I did all the baking and cleaning, Emilia had fun with the sprinkles, and Rob watched us, impatiently waiting to put his hands on the cupcakes! 

 

 

 

In the end we had lots of fun and the cupcakes turned out quite yummy! Not as cool as the ones from the blog, but still quite nice. My dough was definitely less white than that one from the original recipe and so was the frosting. I wonder why...If you are intrigued and want to give it a go, here is the recipe.

 

And if you are wondering what is Emilia wearing, here is a shot of the full, crazy outfit. Doesn't she look like a rock-star? :)

Steph's baby shower

Today was the day: Steph's baby shower! 

I had been looking forward to this for quite a while, my first baby shower, and what a lovely day it was. London was beautiful today, the sky was very blue and it was sunny all day, perhaps it was even a bit too hot for a pregnant woman. I can't believe a beach-town girl like me can't take the heat anymore. Pregnancy, what are you doing to me and my poor feet??!! :) 

I left my flat late in the morning, faced the heat and headed to Natalie's place. By the time I got to Barnes, where Natalie lives, my dress was full of sweat patches and my feet adorned with many blisters and cuts. Sweet! It will be nice to have my body back in a few months, or at least I hope so. 

When Amy and I got to Natalie's the other girls were already there. The first thing to do was to take a picture with Steph, bump by bump. Steph is ten weeks ahead of me but for whatever reason I look bigger than her. Gosh, I am really getting big! 

When Natalie invites you to a cupcakes and tea event you know you are going to get amazing cupcakes. She is just too good at making them. Rob loves them and actually asked me to bring him some back, which I forgot (pregnancy brains?!). 

It was such a fun day. We first ate and then we all gave Steph our gifts, which she really seemed to like. It's always nice to open gifts but I think it's even more special to open gifts for your new baby!

In truly WI spirit, we then got crafty and decorated onesies for Baby Girl. We had so much fun!

And here are the results, aren't they lovely?

I had such a great time, I love spending time with the girls. Now, I am looking forward to my baby shower!

Ella's Bakehouse

Ok, so there are several very good cupcake shops in London and many of these are quite popular: Lola's cupcakes, Primrose bakery, The Hummingbird bakery ...
But yesterday for the very first time I discovered this little cupcake shop in the very heart of Covent Garden and I fell in love! One thing I am asking: how can it be that I keep discovering new things in places where I go pretty much every day!? How could I miss this little gem? This is the magic of London!

Ella's bakehouse is a tiny little shop at one of the corners of the beautiful Covent Garden Piazza. What I loved about it, apart from the super lovely cupcakes, was probably the fact that it is very small, not pretentious at all, which means it only has five seats! And the stools themselves are quite cool, very old style, diner-type, red leather stools.
My friend Steph and I went there last night to celebrate my engagement and we could have not picked a better place. Quite girlie, as you'd expect from a cupcake shop, but not too much! Don't forget the *Happy Days* style stools! Boys, fans of Fonzie, you are welcome too!

Lakeland

OMG! My good friend Amy has just introduced me to this shop and I simply love it! I know I will be spending lots of time, and money!, browsing around, looking for the perfect cake topper and birthday candles...

Lakeland is a shop full of lovely little things that will make your cooking and baking even more fun! Below some of my fave:

Flowers, Vegetables, Cupcakes and Relax

So, the weekend is now over...what have you been up to?

I had a very relaxing and lovely weekend and now feel ready to face what's going to be a super busy week.

On Saturday morning Rob and I went to Borough Market to buy some goodies and new plants for the terrace. The atmosphere in that market is always amazing and I simply love going there. It's always full of people, smells and colours...I could go there every day (if it was open)! We also bumped into our friends Andrew and Stephanie while shopping, which was very nice; it doesn't happen that ofter to run into people we know in London, this city is so big! We spent the afternoon strolling around St. Katherine's Docks, probably my favourite spot in London. The weather was glorious and the docks were so beautiful. I must confess: I envied all the people tanning and sipping wine on the boats. Anyone out there, owners of boats!, who would be willing to invite us over for a drink? Once back home from our stroll I spent the rest of the day gardening and baking, the perfect life! I planted new wonderful plants on the terrace and seeds of mixed lettuce. Meanwhile my chard, rocket and courgettes are growing nicely while the tomato plants are suffering the heat a little bit. I hope they recover, I can't bear the idea of not having tomatoes this summer! After dinner, vegetables and prawns stir fried noodles outside in the terrace, I baked some cupcakes. They didn't come out perfect but I think they look ok and taste quite good. Today we celebrated the 4th of July with our American friends Andrew and Steph. They organised a very nice bbq, food and drinks were simply delicious and we had a lovely time.

This is how every weekend should be...