Baking Christmas Haul

So, yes I have been a stranger to blogging for a while now! I have been snowed under, not literally, no snow on this side of the world! But University work has been getting the better of me and I have been stressing over uni reading and the likes of essay after essay. Christmas has gone and I have failed to do any of the baking or crafts I have wanted to, and so has New Year! So one of my 2014 resolutions is to get my life back together, no more sitting down at the end of the day and realising I have accomplished nothing whatsoever. As part of this I want to go back to doing what I enjoy...baking. So this year I hope to go to back to baking with a storm! And with this there is hope for more blogging and more yummy food for me and Andrew to eat!

To start of my back to blogging for 2014, I would like to share with you guys a small haul of baking and kitchen goodies I received for Christmas. :)



One of the presents I got this year was from Andrew's Parents and that was a Cookie press, see below. This looks really exciting, the Stamps all say different things: one says 'Eat Me' with a star on which I think will be perfect for an Alice in Wonderland themed bake, another days 'Baked With Love' with a heart on, I am thinking this will be good for Valentines Day and My 4 years with Andrew is looming soon! Perfect for those events I think! The last one, which you can't see in this picture because it is already on the wooden stamp, says 'Home Made' with a picture of a house, which is really lovely and can be used for any sort of bake. I believe this item was purchased from Wilkinson and it is a very lovely set of stamps, perfect for anybody who likes making biscuits and cookies. I can't wait to try this out and obviously eat some very yummy food! I will let you know how these turn out :)

The next item I received only a few days ago was from my friend Belinda, and that is these beautiful measuring cups! Now the only measuring cups I own are some cheap plastic green ones from PoundLand so these are perfect for me. I often look for recipes online which means some are not metric measurements, so this allows me to easily measure out ingredients without the awfulness of trying to convert them. What I love even more about these is the beautiful Nordic design and instead of plastic these are made with china which means they are a lot more stronger. Also inside the cup, there is in small black print at the rim, the cup size. If interested in these they were purchased from Sainsburys. All in all, these will be very much loved and used and are a beautiful addition to my kitchen and baking equipment :)

The next item is even more useful than the last, in all respects. I am ready to chuck out my awful PoundLand scales that were a nightmare to read off and would fall over if you put too much weight on it anyway. I had an awful experience once, of a bowl full of sugar falling on the floor. Lets just say I don't want to have to go through the nightmare of cleaning up sugar off the floor again! BUT now I don't have to, My Auntie Kathryn brought me a beautiful ColourMatch set of scales. Now no more mess or hassle, I can get the exact measurements like the OCD me loves to do. Also there is no need to constantly be cleaning bowls between measurements because I can now just pile it all in one bowl by resetting the scale back to zero for a new ingredient at the touch of not even a button! The whole thing is touch sensitive, which I can't decide whether I will love or hate. I think it will just take some time to get used to it. One good thing about this also is that I can change unit really easily, so like above, no more annoying conversions! The colour is lovely and goes with my kitchen and the glass like top, makes for a lovely shine. If you are interested in this one, I have a feeling it is from the Argos Colour Match range. This will definitely get some use in my kitchen! 

The next two items I received for Christmas were from my mum, I believe she got these from Lakeland, who with the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who brought out a large range of doctor who themed baking merchandise. My mum got me the two sets of Doctor Who Cookie cutters they were selling, these include a Dalek, Sontaran, Weeping Angel and Tardis cutter.  I almost said cyberman there, then again I am use to when there is a Dalek about, for a Cyberman to not be far behind. This will all be really fun to use and perfect for sitting down and watching Doctor Who with. You never know, these could save the day, like Jammy Dodgers did not so long ago :) Looking forward to using these! 

Another Item Andrew's parents got me, was this beautiful and yummy looking cupcake book :) I have seen this book before when I was working at WhSmith, but never picked it up. There are some beautiful looking cupcakes in this book and some very yummy recipes that I am dying to try out and share with you guys! There is also information about icing, techniques and more. So I think this will be a very useful book and provide some very very yummy cakes to eat for me and of course Andrew, who will no doubt scoff them all! 

The next and last item is from my mum again. Now this item when I unwrapped it, I have to confess I had no idea what it was. All I saw was a very cute green dog. But then my mum explained, this is a oven grip. Now although I may not use this as much as the scales. I completely adore this. And it is green! One thing I love about this is the way you put your hands in the grip and open the dogs mouth like a puppet. Me and Andrew have had lots of fun snapping the dogs mouth at each other like little kids with a new toy! I have to admit I sort of love the sound the grip makes when you slap the rubber bits of the dogs mouth together haha. I am a little weird though. I love this novelty grip and although may not use it as much as the scales, the little green fellow is very much welcome in his new home. Below is a few different pictures showing what the grip looks like from different angles so you can get an idea of the object as a whole, and just because this little thing is so very awesome. I have a feeling my mum may have also purchased this from LakeLand too :)

Hope you enjoyed my latest blog post, and can't wait to be posting more to you guys soon. I hope you all had a great christmas and that 2014 is a good one for you, and you bakers and crafters out there, Keep up the Good Work :D