Given my Dad's recently interest in stain glass windows after our birthday present to him, we decided to take a slight detour on the way back to Hamburg to visit the Minster at Bad Doberan - just breath takingly beautiful and so very old -  I think it was built in the 1300's.  The swan sculpture outside the entrance, may have eluded to the potential inside the building but I don't think anything prepared us for the sheet beauty of the glass and ceiling paintings.  Hopefully the pictures of the glass will be a nice inspiration for my Dad who may, if I ask nicely, one day make me a little piece of stained glass for my cottage!  If you ever find yourself on the North German coast - not too far from Rostock -  I definitely recommend a visit to this very special and beautiful place.

The positive when life deals you a bit of a rough patch is that it makes you realise how lucky you are have lovely friends and family to pick you up and dust you down.  The last few months have not been particularly good ones (as you may have gathered from the complete lack of blog posting on any form of regular basis - so sorry to all your lovely blog readers).  I have however just returned from a wonderful trip to Germany with my lovely friend Maren who took me for a rest and some much needed TLC at the most amazing spa I have ever stayed in (actually I have stayed there once before so a return trip makes me doubly lucky!)  There was something about swimming in a mother of pearl lined pool and luxuriating in the 35 degree whirlpool bath that made problems just melt away and I am feeling soooo much better.  There were many highlights of the trip but my buttermilk pancake breakfast was the best bit (not a brilliant photo as I was trying to be discrete in such a posh dining room) - so light and fluffy and I so wished that they would have given me the recipe (sadly not an option!).  My room had a perfect view over the sea with a desk at the window and if I ever needed somewhere to sit and write a novel, this would be the place!  Thank you Maren for a lovely weekend - I am now ready to get back to blogging again!

 This weekend's baking project was a 70th birthday cake for my friend's Aunt Kath.  I had a new edible ink airbrush kit for Christmas and I finally plucked up the courage to try and understand the instructions for using it!!!  They are in 4 books!!!!  I shouldn't have worried as, despite the many instructions, it was actually very easy to use and it meant that making the requested green and white cake was easy.  I made sugar butterflies and topped the cake with a few butterflies on wires and overall the cake looked quite pretty indeed!  Now I can't wait for my next opportunities to use the copper colour ink which looks amazing and I think would make very spectacular cupcakes!!!!

 Wilfred the peacock has been majestically enjoying the snow - his feathers looked even more vibrant than usual against the crisp white snow.

Sometimes life can be so beautiful, it takes your breathe away.  I should have know on Friday night when it was minus 13 as I drove home that it would be a bit frosty the next morning, little did I know how stunning it was going to be.  I can safely say that I have lived in my cottage for 7 years now and I have never seen the lane look as beautiful as it did on Saturday morning.  It was as if the cottage had somehow been transported overnight to Narnia - sadly no appearance from Mr Tumnus but lots of beautiful snowy scenery!  I wrapped up warm and spent an hour taking photos and then had hot chocolate in front of the log fire to warm up - what a perfect start to the weekend!

With this cold snap of weather, I am so pleased with my latest purchase - a little red wood burning stove - which has been installed in the new snug lounge (my office has been transformed into a dining room and the old dining room has become a second lounge - it is so nice not having an office at home any more!)  The stove may  be small but it sure packs out a lot of heat and given this really cold weather it is one of the wisest investments I have made.  With a twee wreath hanging over the mantle and a large footstool for feet toasting, it is a very inviting place indeed and has become my favourite room in the cottage!

Some pretty white doves (at least I think they are doves and not white pigeons!)

There has been a bit of excitement in my office today.  A parcel just arrived from Paris for me.  I hadn't ordered anything from Paris!  Well you can imagine how loud I squealed with delight when I opened the box and saw the nice letter from the people at Pierre Herme saying that my friend Maren had sent me a gift.  Macarons!!!  For those of you who may not have heard of Mr Herme - he is the No 1 patissier in Paris and an utter hero of mine.  Such a lovely present and they were 100% perfect - not one crumb out of place even thought they had travelled such a long way.  They must have flown or taken the Eurostar!!!!  They even had their own ice pack to keep them perfectly chilled and came in a super cool box!   We have just eaten one and my word - it was delicious!  The others will be eaten sparingly over the next few days.  What a lovely start to the day and thank you Maren for your very kind present xxx

On Sunday, Sarah from Ryland Peters and Small came to visit to make a short film of me making popcorn for the RPS website.  As you can imagine, trying to film popcorn popping without a lid on was a bit of a challenge!  We made toasted coconut popcorn with lovely multicolour kernels from Zaramama (the last bag left over from the photoshoot - which means that we have made a vast amount of popcorn given the size of the box of corn we were kindly given by Zaramama - thanks again Amelia).  So soon you will be able to see a little clip of me making popcorn on my Aga - I will post the link when it is available!

Sarah with our coconut popcorn!

Ingredients

I know that this blog is meant to be about cooking and not really about my new niece but I just had to share these two latest photos with you - firstly my lovely brother and Hunter asleep together - what a peaceful looking picture (shame she isn't this quiet all the time!!!!!) and also her dressed up as a reindeer in her car seat - how totally adorable does she look?  Happy Days xxxx

 
My bargain acquisition in the sale this year was this basket full of little bottle vases that hold just one flower each.  With a few pretty narcissus and anemones it looks truly lovely on my kitchen window sill and at £10 it was definitely a wise buy.  I think it will make a lovely centre piece for an afternoon tea party in the garden when the weather is warmer.

A few things you need to know to understand my latest baking project! My Dad is Welsh, yesterday we celebrated his birthday, my Dad (I'm sure he won't mind me saying) is of a certain age where he no longer wants anything for his birthday as he says he has everything he needs.  So my brother had the great idea that we would send my Dad on a stained glass window course (as he is very artistic) so rather than making him a birthday cake - I tried my own hand at stained glass and made these Welsh dragon cookies with pear drop glass.  I have to say that the end result was quite cool if I say so myself and my Dad was quite impressed!  You can do any shape you want in a large cookie, just place the rolled out dough on a silicon mat or greaseproof paper, cut out your desired shape and fill with crushed boiled sweets and bake in the oven for 12 - 15 mins until the sweets have melted.  Don't try to move the cookie off the baking sheet until the sugar glass has set completely!  Happy Birthday Dad xxx

 

As a pretty and delicious alternative to fresh flower why not bake flower shaped cookies (with wooden sticks inserted when the cookies are arranged on the baking tray).  Once baked and cooled, you can ice the cookies in lots of different ways - fondant icing and sweets for daisies or pipe buttercream or royal icing for more elaborate flowers.  Once set, swoosh up your cookies in clear film and tie with ribbons for a very pretty gift.

I know that at Christmas I usually post a picture of a jolly Father Christmas or something similar on my blog but I thought that nothing quiet summed up the meaning of Christmas joy and innocence as this picture of Baby Hunter - just perfect in every way.  I wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas with yummy food, all the presents you wished for and most importantly spending time with your loved ones
Hannah
xxxx

I am so pleased to be able to share this joyous photo with you - the perfect Christmas present for our family - my lovely brother with his new baby girl Hunter Miles, born yesterday at about 6pm UK time weighing 6lbs something! Mum and Baby doing well. Isn't she a peach? Too cute for words. Welcome to the world baby Hunter xxx

Well it is an exciting day - I am about to become an Aunt. My brother's wife Amy is in hospital and baby Hunter is being induced as I type. They joys of modern technology mean that my brother is sending through blow by blow photos so far of the delivery room (am hoping that these will stop during the actual birth!!!!) including the wall posters he has put up! Love the "Picture the Rose" poster which made me chuckle! Good luck guys and I will of course share a photo of baby hunter with you lovely blog readers as soon as I have one!

I will be in BBC Radio 3 Counties at 1.30 today talking about the delights of the mince pie - there is a phone in so feel free to ask any (easy) questions!!!!

I had never been to a baby shower before the one we attended in New York. It was such a nice party - pretty baby favours, a few pink cakes and cake pops made by yours truly and lots and lots of presents for baby Hunter - she is going to be one very lucky girl when she arrives. Gareth and Amy had asked for everyone to bring their favourite childhood book as a present to start her library. What a nice idea! There were even little rubber ducks in the ice bucket - so cute! As you will see from the photo at the bottom, Amy is now looking very very pregnant. Any day now I hope to be able to introduce you to my new niece! Good luck Gareth and Amy xxx

We have just been on a lovely holiday to New York and Boston for the last 10 days. Firstly to visit my brother and his wife Amy who are expecting their first baby any day now!!!!! Very exciting! It was lovely to see them and to attend the baby shower (even if my brother did make me bake a LOT of cakes for it!) We then travelled to stay with friends in Fairfield (the 9th prettiest town in the USA apparently) which was truly lovely - Chuck and Martha made us feel so welcome in their home and every house in Fairfield was decorated for Christmas - it puts us to shame in the UK. My favourite decorations were the pine swags that lined most of the white picket fences (so American and perfectly quaint). On returning to the UK at the weekend I decided that I would try my own version - now the jet lag meant that I didn't go quite as OTT as I would have liked but I think the gates to our cottage are looking very festive. They were very easy to do, with just some pine branches and holly, some wicker hearts and ribbon and plenty of floristry wire to attach it to the fence. I feel like we have a little of New England Christmas at our cottage now! Now what are the odds of pursuading Sacha that we need to paint the fence white for next year....!

My cake pop book is available to pre order on Amazon now - it is going to be a flurry of book releases in spring next year as I have 4 books coming out between Feb and March - whoop whoop! This book is published by Lorenz Books (an imprint of Anness) who have been lovely to work with and the book contains lots of easy peasy recipes for sweet things on sticks, including three of the recipes I demonstrated at the Good Food Show last weekend. Hope you like it!