Lemon drizzle is one of my favourite cakes to eat and make. A very good friend of mine doesn’t like lemon related sweet treats and I have to say, when I found out, she went down in my estimations slightly. I just don’t understand.
Lemon drizzle seems to be divided into two camps; those with a crunchy topping and those without. I prefer those without, the drizzle of my dreams is soft, tart and saturated in lemon sugar syrup without leaving crystals of sugar on the top. Here’s how I do it:
Ingredients:
175g margarine/soft butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs beaten
zest of 3 lemons BUT NOT THE PITH!
3 tbsp whole milk
175g self raising flour
juice of 3 lemons
50g caster sugar
Grease and line a 20 x 20cm tin with greaseproof paper. I line like this. Use whatever size tin you have to hand, for a larger pan the bake time is usually less as the cake is less thick. For a smaller tin the bake time is usually longer. You’re looking for the edges of the cake to be pulling away from the sides and for a skewer to come out of the centre clean.
Preheat the oven to 170C. Check the rack is in the centre of the oven. Cream the margarine/butter with 175g caster sugar until really light and creamy. Takes about 4 minutes in a stand mixer. Add the beaten egg gradually, dribble by dribble. Then add the zest and the milk. Worry not if the mixture curdles. Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, pour into your tin, level with the back of a spoon and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden on the top and a skewer comes out clean from the middle.
Leave to cool slightly on a wire rack still in the tin and then make the sugar syrup by heating the juice of 3 lemons with 50g of caster sugar for about 2 minutes until the sugar dissolves and is just starting to bubble away. Poke lots of holes in your cake with a skewer and pour the syrup over the top, being careful not to let it all seep down the sides and drizzle the bottom of your cake only.
Then (now this is the important bit), lay out a large piece of foil, then on top of it a large piece of greaseproof paper – they need to be big enough to use as wrapping paper for your cake. Pick your drizzle cake up by the greaseproof paper it sits on in the tin and move to your wrapping paper. Then wrap your cake carefully, using the foil to fold the edges over. Leave the cake to cool like this. The heat of the cake and the lemon sugar syrup combine to create the most moist, zingy lemon sponge. Just the way I like it.
Another great giveaway… this time a year’s supply of Spiffing Flour , that’s 52 bags which is worth £78! This is very strong flour, made up of a blend of Canadian Manitoba and European wheat, the flour has a naturally high protein count (13%), without the requirement of added gluten, which is perfect for making all kinds of bread. If you don’t win, you can buy it online or at selected independent retailers.
In case you’re slightly worried about receiving 52 bags of this lovely flour in one go, worry not! You’ll get 6 per month for the first two months, then 4 per month thereafter for 10 months. This is such a fantastic giveaway I am more than a little upset that I can’t enter!
Please note there’s an extra way to enter with this giveaway (on the Rafflecopter form as usual) where you email the lovely people at Spiffing Flour to opt into their database. They won’t be passing on your details to anyone else, they would however keep you up to date with any goings on at Spiffing Flour Towers. This is not a mandatory method of entry so if you don’t like joining mailing lists then there’s no need to.
There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date Friday 7th December.
How to enter:
Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
This giveaway will close on 7th December 2012.
Please read the rules below.
Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after the prize has been claimed by the winner.
If no form is showing, hit refresh and it should appear.
Complete the form – or your beloved entries will not go into the draw. And that would be such a waste of time.
Mandatory entries need to be completed first – so leave a blog comment before you try and complete any of the other methods of entry.
Want more chances to win? Come back daily after tweeting about the giveaway and fill the form in again.
If you are viewing this by email you will need to click through to enter.
Rules and things:
Only open to UK mainland participants over the age of 18. Sorry to anyone from further afield or younger readers.
There’s one year’s supply of Spiffing Flour worth £78 as the prize. There’s no cash alternative to the prize and the prize is not transferable. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
Instructions form part of the terms and conditions. Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will obviously be disqualified. The winner will be picked at random using software and then contacted by email. If you win and then don’t respond to this email within 7 days then another winner will be picked so check your emails and your spam! The goodies will be delivered to the winner as soon as possible after you have sent me your delivery address.
I am running this giveaway on behalf of Eurostar who will be responsible for sending the prize to you if you win, which is very kind of them as it saves me queuing up at the Post Office. Their decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into. So there.
This is where I get all stern – please don’t say you have liked the post and followed me on Twitter and Tweeted away like a Tweety thing if you haven’t as guess what? If you win I will check you did do the things you said you did. It’s only fair after all. And I do like fairness.
I think this giveaway is going to be popular… a whopping £47.30 worth of luxury foodie goodies from Aktins and Potts. This company are run by a husband and wife team who make sure that whatever the gourmet goodie is, it contains a lot of it. So your chocolate orange sauce is full of both chocolate and orange. Sounds obvious I know, but often this is not the case. They also make everything in small batches, so there are none of the problems you get with scaling recipes up to giant size quantities.
My sons are HUGE fans of their chocolate orange sauce, it’s very good for dipping homemade dough balls into. I have one hamper to giveaway that contains a full set of their syrups and a full set of their chocolate spreads. (That’s 9 syrups and 4 sauces!) Perfect for making Christmas that little more tasty and easy.
There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date Friday 7th December.
How to enter:
Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
This giveaway will close on 7th December 2012.
Please read the rules below.
Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after the prize has been claimed by the winner.
If no form is showing, hit refresh and it should appear.
Complete the form – or your beloved entries will not go into the draw. And that would be such a waste of time.
Mandatory entries need to be completed first – so leave a blog comment before you try and complete any of the other methods of entry.
Want more chances to win? Come back daily after tweeting about the giveaway and fill the form in again.
If you are viewing this by email you will need to click through to enter.
Rules and things:
Only open to UK mainland participants over the age of 18. Sorry to anyone from further afield or younger readers.
There’s one Atkins and Potts hamper full of syrups and chocolate sauces to giveaway worth £47.30 as the prize. There’s no cash alternative to the prize and the prize is not transferable. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
Instructions form part of the terms and conditions. Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will obviously be disqualified. The winner will be picked at random using software and then contacted by email. If you win and then don’t respond to this email within 7 days then another winner will be picked so check your emails and your spam! The goodies will be delivered to the winner as soon as possible after you have sent me your delivery address.
I am running this giveaway on behalf of Atkins and Potts who will be responsible for sending the prize to you if you win, which is very kind of them as it saves me queuing up at the Post Office. Their decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into. So there.
This is where I get all stern – please don’t say you have liked the post and followed me on Twitter and Tweeted away like a Tweety thing if you haven’t as guess what? If you win I will check you did do the things you said you did. It’s only fair after all. And I do like fairness.
Why does everything seem so much more appetising when presented in wicker? It’s one of the great mysteries. I have to admit to the 5 year old girl in me getting very excited when this St Kew wicker teacup hamper arrived from Lakeland arrived full of goodies. My first thought was what I could make the teacup into after gobbling everything up… but you don’t want to know about that do you? You want to know about the treats.
Well the biscuits, both the more utilitarian oatie flips and the decadent strawberries and cream shortbread, were delicious, especially when dunked into the English Breakfast Tea. I have to admit we haven’t tried the strawberry and champagne conserve yet. It’s being saved for when the boys are at their grandparents. Breakfast in bed doesn’t work with their little arms and legs flailing about accompanied with cries of ‘read the Thomas book!’
The St Kew wicker teacup is £16.99 from Lakeland, but lucky for you I have one to giveaway! There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date Friday 7th December.
How to enter:
Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
This giveaway will close on 7th December 2012.
Please read the rules below.
Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after the prize has been claimed by the winner.
If no form is showing, hit refresh and it should appear.
Complete the form – or your beloved entries will not go into the draw. And that would be such a waste of time.
Mandatory entries need to be completed first – so leave a blog comment before you try and complete any of the other methods of entry.
Want more chances to win? Come back daily after tweeting about the giveaway and fill the form in again.
If you are viewing this by email you will need to click through to enter.
Rules and things:
Only open to UK mainland participants over the age of 18. Sorry to anyone from further afield or younger readers.
There’s one St Kew Breakfast Hamper worth £16.99 as the prize. There’s no cash alternative to the prize and the prize is not transferable. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
Instructions form part of the terms and conditions. Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will obviously be disqualified. The winner will be picked at random using software and then contacted by email. If you win and then don’t respond to this email within 7 days then another winner will be picked so check your emails and your spam! The goodies will be delivered to the winner as soon as possible after you have sent me your delivery address.
I am running this giveaway on behalf of Lakland who will be responsible for sending the prize to you if you win, which is very kind of them as it saves me queuing up at the Post Office. Their decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into. So there.
This is where I get all stern – please don’t say you have liked the post and followed me on Twitter and Tweeted away like a Tweety thing if you haven’t as guess what? If you win I will check you did do the things you said you did. It’s only fair after all. And I do like fairness.
I know. I’m as bad as all those retailers decking the aisles with tinsel in August. I just can’t help it though and I don’t care who knows it. I love Christmas. I love it! I want to live in a festive schmaltzy film. I want to wake up on the 25th December and find the Santa sack from my childhood nestled at the end of the bed fit to bursting with chocolate coins and maybe even a pink snail Keeper toy. I want flapjack covered with a layer of mincemeat and grated marzipan in October. Well okay then.
Ingredients:
175g butter
75g brown sugar
30g golden syrup
Pinch of salt
175g oats
25g rice crispies
100g sultanas
Half a jar of mincemeat
Half a block of marzipan, cold from the fridge
I basically followed an old faithful flapjack recipe but you should use your favourite. Pop the oven on at 140C or whatever your recipe says. Then I melted the butter, sugar, syrup and salt in a saucepan (careful measuring out too much syrup, your flapjack won’t hold a slice as well) until just about to bubble. Next I added the oats, rice crispies and sultanas and gave the lot a good stir until completely covered.
I tipped into a silicone tray (so I could avoid any lining activity) that measures about 20 x 24cm and flattened with a metal spoon until level. Then I very carefully spread half a jar of mincemeat (I used ready made stuff this time but I will most definitely be making my drunken cherry brandy mincemeat very soon) on the top of the flapjack – just a very fine smear, not huge dollops of the stuff. Careful the knife doesn’t rip through the delicate uncooked oats. On top of that I grated half a block of cold marzipan (grates better when colder, use the course side of the grater) and then baked for 30 minutes until golden brown on top. It looks like a pie topped with grated cheese pre baking. Do not be alarmed.
Leave to cool in the tray and only cut when cold or it all falls apart on you.
I enjoyed mine whilst writing my day dream Christmas list.
Mr Bell has taken to drinking bourbon late at night. Just the one mind. He calls it a nightcap. I think it’s his 40s gently approaching. I love the smell of bourbon but sadly not the taste, so with that in mind I’ve mixed it up with silky walnuts and sweet syrup to make this Autumn pud. Even non bourbon lovers like me go back for seconds. (And yes, they are dinosaurs on the top… nothing unusual about that in our house. We are pro dinosaur.)
Ingredients:
250g plain flour
50g icing sugar
125g cold butter
1 medium or large egg
400g golden syrup
Juice of one lemon
10mls bourbon
150g fresh breadcrumbs
Zest of 2 lemons
100g walnuts
A little milk
A tablespooon of brown crunchy sugar
Make your pastry by mixing the flour and icing sugar together, rubbing in the butter (or whizzing in a food processor) until it looks like very fine breadcrumbs and then add the whole egg. Use a blunt knife to pull the breadcrumbs together, then use your hand to squidge the pastry up until it forms a ball. Don’t add any more liquid, it will come together in the end. Wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
Whilst the pastry is resting add the zest of two lemons to the breadcrumbs, mix and set aside. Then pour the golden syrup into a saucepan (I weigh directly into the pan on digital scales and buy the squeezy bottle version of the golden syrup to save mess.) Next add the juice of one lemon (you will have one lemon leftover which has been alleviated of it’s zest. I suggest you either stuff it into a roasting chicken or pour boiling water over it and drink as a breakfast cleanser after a night on the tiles.) Lastly the bourbon and heat on the hob gently for about 4 minutes until it’s more watery in texture than when you started. Then add the breadcrumbs and zest and stir well. Take off the heat and set aside to cool. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 about 15 minutes before your pastry has rested for an hour.
Roll your pastry on a floured surface working in one direction only (don’t vigorously roll backwards and forwards, this makes for tough as old boots pastry), picking it up and turning it after each few rolls to ensure you end up with a rough circle shape rather than a very long piece of pastry. Once about 3mm thick all over pick it up by placing both hands flattened, fingers apart and palm side up under the pastry circle and move over the top of a loose bottomed flan tin (mine was 24 cm across) – remove your palms and then push gently into the sides of the tin. Use a sharp knife to trim the pastry from the sides and if you like make a pretty pattern on the pastry edge using a fork/knife.
Place a sheet of baking paper over the pastry case, fill with baking beans or uncooked pulses/rice and then bake for about 10 minutes until the edges are just very light brown. Watch like a hawk! In the meantime crunch up the walnuts by placing them in a bag and bashing with a rolling pin and try and cut some nice shapes from the leftover scraps of pastry. Don’t re-roll more than once or it’ll be a bit tough and no-one likes that.
Once the edges of the pastry are brown, remove the baking paper and beans and bake nude for a further 2 – 3 mins. Then place the bashed up walnuts on the bottom and over that spoon the breadcrumby mixture and tease to the edges.
There isn’t loads of this, just enough. Brush a little milk (or egg wash) over the edge of the pastry case then pop your extra pastry shapes over the top of the tart, overlapping the edge slightly if you like.
Brush these with milk and sprinkle brown sugar over the top. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, again watching like a hawk.
Enjoy warm or cold with cream or custard or bourbon ice-cream. Now there’s a thought.
(This time two years age I was just celebrating the arrival of my second son and munching on these! Ah how time flies when you’re making pastry dinosaurs…)
Healthcliff has stolen Autumn and replaced it with something altogether more misty and mysterious. With him in mind I thought a biscuit with walnuts was in order, a manly nut if ever there was one. Add some Dairy Milk and I may have a biscuit to tame even the wildest moor-roamer.
This made a baker’s dozen though I admit the sizes were rather haphazard.
Ingredients:
115g salted butter
60g icing sugar (plus 2 tbsp extra for rolling the biscuit dough in)
100g plain flour
20g cornflour
80g milk chocolate cut into half cm-ish chunks
60g chopped walnuts, not too fine, about 1cm pieces
Get the oven on to 180C/Gas 4 and find two baking trays. Cream the butter and icing sugar together until really light and fluffy. I used a stand mixer for about 4 minutes. Then add the flour and cornflour and mix again with your stand mixer/handheld mixer or wooden spoon until combined and light and fluffy. Throw in the chocolate and walnuts and mix well.
Pop about 2 tablespoons of icing sugar on a plate, then take about a tablespoon of mixture, roll between your palms to form a ball, then roll the ball in the icing sugar (this doesn’t show once baked but acts as a great non stick layer), place on the tray and squash with your thumb until about 1cm deep. Continue to roll the dough until it’s all gone and don’t forget to put the biscuits about 6cm apart as they do spread a bit, then bake for 10 – 15 minutes until starting to brown at the edges.
Cool on the tray for 5 minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool completely otherwise you’ll end up with soggy centres. These are best eaten from a foil wrapper with a slight snarl and a hipflask of something boozy to keep you warm whilst roaming about.
I’m a bit of a late adopter with some things. I was almost a teenager when I learnt to ride a bike. I only recently got my first iPhone and even then it was a donated one. And I had never eaten, let alone made a cake pop until recently. Unlike the bike riding, I think the cake pop addiction is a habit here to stay. I am ever faithful to all things novelty.
Here are a few good tips I’ve found through trial and error to make perfect (well almost perfect) pops. This makes about 13 pops.
Take your leftover cake. If you are going to eat the cake pops within a couple of days then you can use your own homemade cake. If you want a little longer shelf life then buy one of the value blocks of Madeira cake from a supermarket. Usually has a good few weeks on it. I know, I know, homemade is best, but if I don’t say it someone will ask. As for flavours and types of cakes, I tend to use leftover vanilla cupcakes using a basic sponge recipe, however you can use any flavour you like. I haven’t tried fruit cake yet but I assume it would work okay. Just be careful of the weight of the pop. More on that later.
Use your fingers to break the cake up into breadcrumbs. You need a light touch rather than a squeezing touch. You can also use a food processor or the flatbeater in your stand mixer. I tend to use my hands as I don’t make cake pops in huge quantities. Leave your cake crumbs in a large bowl and then add your buttercream. (If you do make too much cake pop mixture then freeze at the ball stage and you’ll have more pops for a rainy day. A great tip from Jo.)
I use the old fashioned half butter (salted if you’re interested) to icing sugar buttercream recipe with a good tablespoon of vanilla extract, beaten in my stand mixer for 7 minutes until light and fluffy. However, for cake pops you really don’t need light and fluffy buttercream. So if you’re making buttercream especially for cake pop purposes then I would probably use a wooden spoon. You can use any flavour buttercream by the way… much like with the sponge.
Add the buttercream to the cake crumbs one tablespoon at a time and give the mixture a good stir. All cakes bind with buttercream differently. What you’re looking for is the cake to come together with the buttercream into a thick spread like consistency that will hold a shape. Too dry and the cake pop will crack whilst it’s chilling. Too wet and the buttercream will melt when you dip in the Candy Melts. Test it by taking a tablespoon of mixture and scrunching it up with your fingers. It should hold easily and then be happy to be rolled between your palms. Cover the mix with clingfilm and then refrigerate for about 30 minutes. If you haven’t make cake pops before add one teaspoon of buttercream at a time. You can add, but you cannot taketh away.
After 30 minutes you can start to roll your cake truffle mixture into balls about 2.5cm across between the palms of your hands. Any larger and you run the risk of the weight of them dragging them off the stick when dipping. Oh and don’t add oil to your hands or anything else to stop it sticking, just go with it. Once rolled, pop on a plate lined with greaseproof paper or back into the bowl you chilled the cake pop mixture in and either put in the freezer for 20 minutes or if you don’t have room in your freezer (my hand is firmly up) then cover and pop back in the fridge for an hour. You don’t have to shape your cake pops into balls of course, you can instead shape into cones to make Christmas trees or Santa hats. Whatever you fancy really. Here’s a little film to show how:
A few minutes before you’re ready to start to dip and decorate your pops, melt your Candy Melts. I use the microwave in 20 second blasts – the packets have all the instructions. If you do overheat them they seem to lose their shine when dry. Instead you could melt the Candy Melts over a pan of simmering water instead to control the temperature better. Make sure whatever you end up transferring your melts to that the receptacle is small enough in width to allow the Melts to have a little depth. You need to have something to dip into. (I know some of you will prefer to use chocolate to dip your pops into… I have found it less easy as it takes a little longer to dry. You just need a bit more practice I guess.)
Find something to rest your still wet pops in to allow them to dry. I use an upturned meatball griller (!) but you could also use a block of polystyrene with holes poked into it, an egg box with yet more holes poked into it or an upturned colander if the holes are big enough. Dip a lollipop stick about half a centimetre into the melted Candy Melts and then push the stick into the rolled cake pop until it’s just over half way in. Set aside and allow about a minute to dry. This stage is important as it stops the cake balls from falling off the sticks later.
I tend to get all the sticks into the cake balls first. It makes best use of the dry time required. It also makes sure your Candy Melts aren’t so hot that they make the cake expand and crack through the dried Candy Melts shell once you dip the whole cake ball. Using boiling hot Melts to dip cake into ends in cracked pops and possibly tears. (If it does happen just allow the pop to set and then dip again as if starting with a nude cake ball. Just a thicker coating but better than trying to patch the cracked pop up.) Here’s a little film of the whole process from stick dipping to sprinkling: (If you prefer to read instructions then they’re all below the film along with some pop-pics.)
Then take the stick with the nude cake ball now attached to it and dip into the melted Candy Melts. Don’t start to swish it about as it’s likely to fall off. If your receptacle isn’t deep enough to cover all of the cake ball then use a teaspoon to bathe the cake ball in Candy Melts, gently pushing it over the cake ball. Then use the stick to pick the cake pop up and hold the stick against the side of the dish and tap very gently encouraging the excess Candy Melts to fall back into the dish. You can turn the pop as you do this to ensure you don’t end up with a peak drying where the Melts drip into the dish.
Using Candy Melts is very easy but it’s different from chocolate as it dries more quickly. Either allow to dry by carefully placing the stick into your drying rack of choice or take this opportunity to hold the pop over an empty dish and sprinkle anything you fancy over the still wet pop. You can use a toothpick or fork to make a spikey cake pop if you like by pulling at the Candy Melts covering as it dries. You could also allow the pop to dry with one coating and then use an icing bag to dribble another colour over the pop… the possibilities are endless. Oh and you can even melt your Candy Melts into a disposable icing bag in the microwave, just balance in a jug.
P.S. For those who might ask the Reindeer and Santa faces are from Sainsbury’s, as are the red, white and green sprinkles. The holly leaves and berries are by Wilton (though you can get similar from Sainsbos) as are the little white snowmen on top of the Christmas tree pops. The holly leaves were attached using a white icing pen, the type you buy that comes with nozzles to just attach to a toothpaste type tube. Lastly if you have Candy Melts leftover you can allow them to dry, seal in a bag and then re-melt again the next time you need them. They don’t get upset by repeated remelting like chocolate does. (Same goes for if you’re a slow-dipper and they get too solid half way through the process, just re-heat.)
Like most parents I seem to spend my life washing, cleaning, tidying, ironing, washing, cleaning, tidying, tripping over trains and standing on Lego. The lovely people at Dishmatic and Ecoforce asked me to review some of their products. Well, they sent me all sorts of goodies including some very clever washing up pads with long handles that hold washing up liquid… perfectly easy to use and aesthetically pleasing too.
The thing I like most that they sent me were the food clips. I am forever throwing away cereal and half eaten bags of rice cakes through staleness. Even better they’re all made from recycled material so I didn’t feel one jot of guilt when I opened up my bag of kit. As for the kids who made all the mess? Well their favourite things were the recycled peg basket and recycled pegs. They now ‘own’ these. It’s never too late to train boys to clean up after themselves.
If you would like a years supply of Ecoforce goodies and Dishmatic goodies coming to a total of £50 delivered to your door then you’ll be mighty pleased with this bumper giveaway. There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date Friday 7th December.
How to enter:
Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
This giveaway will close on 7th December 2012.
Please read the rules below.
Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after the prize has been claimed by the winner.
If no form is showing, hit refresh and it should appear.
Complete the form – or your beloved entries will not go into the draw. And that would be such a waste of time.
Mandatory entries need to be completed first – so leave a blog comment before you try and complete any of the other methods of entry.
Want more chances to win? Come back daily after tweeting about the giveaway and fill the form in again.
If you are viewing this by email you will need to click through to enter.
Rules and things:
Only open to UK mainland participants over the age of 18. Sorry to anyone from further afield or younger readers.
There box of EcoforceUK and Dishmatic goodies worth £50 which will be delivered in one go. There’s no cash alternative to the prize and the prize is not transferable. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
Instructions form part of the terms and conditions. Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will obviously be disqualified. The winner will be picked at random using software and then contacted by email. If you win and then don’t respond to this email within 7 days then another winner will be picked so check your emails and your spam! The goodies will be delivered to the winner as soon as possible after you have sent me your delivery address.
I am running this giveaway on behalf of Ecoforce UK and Dishmatic who will be responsible for sending the prize to you if you win, which is very kind of them as it saves me queuing up at the Post Office. Their decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into. So there.
This is where I get all stern – please don’t say you have liked the post and followed me on Twitter and Tweeted away like a Tweety thing if you haven’t as guess what? If you win I will check you did do the things you said you did. It’s only fair after all. And I do like fairness.
My friend Tania came up with the idea of making gorgeous newborn mini clothes into what look like flowers. (The company is called The Flower Stork.) Why? Well, so that when you have a baby rather than get sent 20 bouquets of flowers and being left with them sticking out of empty wine bottles in a vase crisis, instead you end up with loads of baby clothes for your little one to vomit on to their hearts content with not one sniff of a ‘we’ve run out of clean vests’ crisis. Genius. She’s formidable.
Not content with coming up with such a fab idea, she has now diversified into chocolate bouquets. They’re fabulous. She sent me one when I had my second son. I ate it all myself. I did do the pushing after all. She is donating one to this blog for you guys to win. It’s worth £29.95 and includes delivery to mainland UK. You can win it and send to someone else within the mainland of the UK if you so wish. Or send to yourself.
There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date Friday 7th December.
How to enter:
Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
This giveaway will close on 7th December 2012.
Please read the rules below.
Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after the prize has been claimed by the winner.
If no form is showing, hit refresh and it should appear.
Complete the form – or your beloved entries will not go into the draw. And that would be such a waste of time.
Mandatory entries need to be completed first – so leave a blog comment before you try and complete any of the other methods of entry.
Want more chances to win? Come back daily after tweeting about the giveaway and fill the form in again.
If you are viewing this by email you will need to click through to enter.
Rules and things:
Only open to UK participants over the age of 18. Sorry to anyone from further afield or younger readers.
There one chocolate bouquet worth £29.95. There’s no cash alternative to the prize and the prize is not transferable. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
Instructions form part of the terms and conditions. Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will obviously be disqualified. The winner will be picked at random using software and then contacted by email. If you win and then don’t respond to this email within 7 days then another winner will be picked so check your emails and your spam! The goodies will be delivered to the winner as soon as possible after you have sent me your delivery address.
I am running this giveaway on behalf of The Flower Stork who will be responsible for sending the prize to you if you win, which is very kind of them as it saves me queuing up at the Post Office. Their decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into. So there.
This is where I get all stern – please don’t say you have liked the post and followed me on Twitter and Tweeted away like a Tweety thing if you haven’t as guess what? If you win I will check you did do the things you said you did. It’s only fair after all. And I do like fairness.
I’m a mum of 3 boys, a cookbook writer and also a finalist on the 2011 Great British Bake Off.
I’ve decided to record the recipes I use, partly to save them somewhere and partly in case someone else might like to use them...
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Holly Bell 