Hummingbird Happiness

For my birthday a few months ago, my friend bought me a Hummingbird Bakery recipe book.

Almost 300 pages of yummy treats; cupcakes, cheesecakes, cookies, pies...

But the section that has captured my attention the most (so far!) is home to the huge, 3 layer mountains of goodness.

They are deeeeelicious, and have got me so many compliments from people! I've always loved baking, but had previously stuck mainly to the traditional Victoria Sponge and simple, iced cupcakes.

These are on a whole other level!

If I'm honest, they use far more ingredients (and therefore money) and take up much more time than I should probably have been spending on a lot of these, particularly since they were mostly made throughout revision time (oops!)

 But they are certainly worth it!

This is their Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting, probably my favourite

Chocolate Malt Cake with yummy fudge sauce in between the layers (as well as the cream cheese frosting, they don't do anything by halves!)

Cookies & Cream Cake

Mississippi Mud Cake, a little sickly I thought but others didn't think so!

I'm looking forward to my next baking day so I can try out another of their great recipes! Has anyone got any cake or biscuit recipes they think shouldn't be missed?!

N x

Insta Update

Since there was quite a gap between my previous couple of posts, it means there's plenty to fill you in on! So I thought I'd just do a little update from my instagram photos showing a few bits I've been up to over the past couple of months (other than revision!)

A beautiful sunset walk down to Exeter quay taking my mind off work for a couple of hours

An afternoon in the sun (finally) relaxing and drinking milkshakes in the Exeter Cathedral grounds

Treating ourselves at my favourite burger place (so far!) - Hubbox in Exeter

Aaand a bit more - huge, delicious pizzas at Firehouse - one of the best places in Exeter for sure!

University Awards night

Beautiful Nerja (which you can read about here)

My friend's 21st - including a Teddy Bear picnic!

Back in my hometown and straight out for cocktails 

In Chiquitos 

More cocktails...

Homemade Tapas - possibly the most stressful kitchen experience of my life

Friend's birthday celebrations

Beautiful sky on one of my runs - burning off all the cakes I've been baking (post to follow!)

If you want to follow me, click here - I'd love to check out your photos too!

N x 

Relaxing in Nerja, Spain

After a pretty stressful term of dissertation hand ins and exams, my housemates and I decided to book a last minute holiday to the south of Spain for a bit of chilling out before hitting the 'real world'. Definitely one of our better decisions - after probably spending a bit too long putting off revision to find a nice villa, we settled on a beautiful property on the outskirts of a small town called Nerja, about 45 minutes away from Malaga airport.

It was loooovely. The villa was in the perfect location with easy access to the beach, town and shops. The views were beautiful. The sun was hot. And the pool (and drinks!) were cool. What more could you ask for?

Day one was pretty cloudy (not that you can tell from this photo!) so we had a wander into the town

And to this huuuge aqueduct, which was used to transport water to the mill in the local village Maro

But other than clouds the first day or so, the weather was beautiful meaning plenty of trips to the beach to catch some rays and swim and canoe in the sea, which was the clearest I've ever seen!

We also got our final university results out there. Everyone was happy, so there was definite cause for celebration!

We also went to see some amazing flamenco dancers at a local bar for just €6 including a drink! We were even invited up on stage to have a little boogie at the end... not quite professional level yet!

A great holiday, and just what I needed to chill out after exams. Just want to book another one now! Where's next on your list?!

N x