Cake of the Week - a chocolate Barca cake (in away colours)

Of course, my cake of the week just HAD to be Monkey's birthday cake. The origins of this cake go back a whole year actually, and I like to think comparing these two cakes will give you an idea of where I have gone with baking over the last year and also displays how great tutorials and recipes from other bloggers can really make a difference.

So, last year, when Monkey turned 6, we took him to Barcelona for the weekend as husband was running his first marathon and he had asked to go. Whilst we were there, we took him to see Barcelona play and I took him to the museum during the morning of the marathon, once husband had run past where we were staying and before we went to see him cross the finish line.

His birthday wasn't until just after we came back so I had time to make him a cake and I came up with the idea of turning into a Barcelona cake like this:

Which at the time, I was pretty impressed with. All I did was buy some ready to roll icing and the blue and red seemed to be close to Barcelona home colours and then of course, cut out the 6 from yellow icing, adding an offcut that looks mysteriously NOT like a football. Monkey loved it, especially as he had no idea I was making it and it was a bit of a spur of the moment late night decision which I basically winged my way through. 

At the time, we teased Monkey that if he'd been a year older, he could have had a David Villa cake as his squad number was 7. This is because when we were out there, he chose an away shirt with David Villa's name on the back as a present. You can see him in it here. 

Fast forward a year, and when I asked Monkey what kind of cake he wanted, his answer was unequivocal: a David Villa cake, in the away colours of his shirt, which is now so last season. Hey ho. So, this is how I did it, with links to recipes or instructions that I used. 

First, I made a chocolate cake. My go to recipe at the moment is on The Pink Whisk by the lovely Ruth. Yes, the recipe is for chocolate muffins but Ruth says you can use the same quantities to split between two 20cm/8 inch sandwich tins. I actually make it in a single tin, cook it for about an hour. I allow it to cool in the tin, so that I can shave the top level, then slice it in two, admittedly not very straight. 

Then, I referred again to Ruth's blog to follow instructions for covering the cake with sugarpaste. This can be summarised by saying having levelled and sliced it, I sandwiched the cakes with chocolate buttercream, chilled the cake, topped it with icing and spread it around the sides then chilled it again. Having bought the same pack of ready to roll icing, I realised my mistake in that there was far too little green for the job, but I ran out to the supermarket and bought some white sugarpaste and kneaded about half of it into the green and very quickly, it became evenly coloured. It probably was about right as the green needed to be lighter than the stuff in the packet. I rolled it out, and learned that I need to keep turning it or it sticks very easily, even if you have lightly dusted your workspace! Placing it on the cake is always a nervy moment but I get there and it's never as perfect as Ruth's final result but it will do. 

Next, I needed to do the red and blue flash that was on the front. For this, Monkey had given me his shirt for me to work from which was actually quite handy. I rolled out the red icing into an oblong shape, then trimmed it to the width I wanted and cutting it to the desired angle on the right hand side. I rolled out the blue icing and again trimmed it to the width I needed, overlapped it onto the red icing so I made sure when I cut that side, it was at the same angle. Then I fixed them both to the bottom third of the cake, using a few dabs of water from a clean paintbrush, another trick I learned from Ruth. I made sure they lined up against each other. 

For the lettering, I had thought ahead enough to go and buy number and letter cutters from Dunelm Mill a few days before, so I rolled out the rest of the blue icing, cut out the lettering I needed, and again fixed them to the cake with a bit of water. This was the nerviest part, making sure I got the spacing about right and I wished that I'd made a bigger cake at this point! 

Once it was done, I was ready to go for a lie down. 

And here it is, with candles on Monkey's big day.

And do take a look at Cake of the Week, over on Helen's blog.

Paisatges

I haven't taken part in The Gallery for a while, but when I saw the theme this week was Landscapes, I thought I'd have a go. After all, I have plenty. Then, I realised that most of my photos are stuck on the laptop that I keep meaning to fix.

But, still, I often put my photos on my Dropbox account and found several on there that I could use. Even better, I had one that I hadn't used on this blog before. I think. (Someone will now find this on my blog somewhere). It is of my favourite city in the world.

Barcelona.

This was taken from the top floor of El Corte Inglés in Placa Catalunya, the main square which is regarded as the true city centre and where the old part meets the new. It's also where the Ramblas, which marches up from the sea, finally peters out. 

El Corte Inglés is a chain of department stores - which is kind of a cross between Marks and Spencer, because it has a supermarket in the basement, and John Lewis, because it's filled with designer labels.  This particular branch has about 9 floors. The top floor contains a smart restaurant where we once had the most amazing lunch - half a lobster and half a chicken with rice for about half the price it would be over there. There is also has a cheaper waiter service part and finally a self-service cafeteria where we often pop for coffee. Every time we go, we have to visitt here and I just marvel at the skyline with the Palau Nacional breaking ranks with the Montjuic hillside. 

Just looking at this photo makes me feel like I'm actually there but as it's night time in the UK and not mid-afternoon in sunny Spain, I soon snap back to reality. And then I'm wistful because I want to go there again and we currently have no plans to do so. This makes me sad. Maybe one day. 

You can find some more great landscapes over by clicking the badge below.

Term time holidays: are they such a bad thing?

Two weeks ago, we took Monkey to Barcelona for the weekend. Primarily, it was because he wanted to see his Daddy run in the marathon but he also wanted to go to the Nou Camp and see FC Barcelona play. The fact this fell just before his birthday meant we could do some negotiating regarding presents and party and so the deal was struck.

Obviously, it's term time so he missed a couple of days of school. Thankfully, our school is fairly relaxed about absences and as long as you have asked for permission on the right form, they will grant permission if you've not exceeded the 10 days limit for absence in any school year. And yet, I have heard tales of other schools stating that they will not grant permission for any term-time holidays at all and some go as far as issuing fines for unauthorised absences. Seriously?

This gives the impression that any parent taking their child out of school in term time is depriving their child of a proper education and are somehow failing. But is that really the case?

Monkey learned so much in the four days he was in Barcelona. It was the first time he'd been abroad and be old enough to appreciate all the things that were happening. When we first landed in Spain and were finally in a place where Brits were in the minority, his eyes were as wide as saucers. He could hear people talking and not understand a word they were saying. All the posters and billboards had words on them that he could no longer read. He'd never considered before that being in a different country really was so totally different. As it happened, his teacher had given him a reading book about tunnels which we took with us - and then he went down more tunnels than he'd ever seen before, which helped him understand the pictures and words he was reading. Then, we saw a massive drill that was digging a tunnel to allow high speed trains to come into the central station nearby. He went back to school to tell the teacher all about all the tunnels he'd been in and what they were like.

It wasn't just tunnels - Monkey experienced what was, to him anyway, a whole new world. New food (he ate copious amounts of calamari, tomato bread, patatas bravas and pasta salad), new language, sights, sounds and people. At school, he'd have been doing some reading and some topic work on fruit - so we took him around La Boqueria market so he could see all the fruit, amongst other things, on display. In fact, he learnt so many things, I swear he grew an inch or two whilst we were there.

OK, so not every holiday is a city break to a place that has so much that can be considered educational. But I found a quote from an Ancient Greek philosopher Euripides which is as true now as it was thousands of years ago. “Experience, travel - these are as education in themselves”. Whether it is a trip to the seaside in the UK, a city break, a beach holiday in Europe or further afield, it provides new experiences for a child, which surely, they must learn from.

I appreciate why they say children should not miss school - largely for reasons that are more disruptive to the school and fears it will hamper the child's progress - but if it's managed carefully and planned, surely it can't be detrimental? And how much more disruptive to a child's learning must unplanned absence for illness be? Persistent lateness is likely to be more disruptive to the child's progress too, if not more so, as it will affect more school days than a week or two of authorised absence.

So, why do some schools frown so much on term-time holidays? Or is it because the pressure on them to deliver on targets for attendance as well as academic performance mean there is little margin for error? Surely it pushes parents to lie to the school and say their child is ill instead! Many families are now finding that taking a term-time holiday is the only way they can afford one. (I won't go into the whys and wherefores of the price of holidays during school holidays; that's a whole other post). Taking children out of school to spend valuable time with their families that they would otherwise not have is likely to be a largely positive experience that has the potential to benefit their school work.

Or is it just me that thinks that? Am I just being a rebel?

For the record, I'm not planning to take my children out of school regularly although this was the second time they had been out of school this year, due to attending a family wedding in Devon that took place on a Friday. Last year, Monkey missed no school days at all, not even one for sickness. Next year may well be the same - the way that the school holidays have worked out, we can take a holiday this summer during the last week when most schools are going back so prices have dropped quite sharply. All the same, I don't think that if we choose to take them awayduring term time, I will worry too much about any harm to their progress at school.

Because they have so much to learn, the world is out there. And unfortunately, the world doesn't come to them inside the confines of a classroom.

Silent Sunday - Enjoying the view

The Five Fs recommends... Barcelona

As you will have noticed from my Gallery post, we've just come back from Barcelona. Well, actually it was just the three of us - Missy Woo went to stay with her Granny for a few nights, so it was just us and Monkey. I thought I'd do a post recommending various places based on each of the five Fs that this blog is (mostly) about. These are purely personal recommendations - everything I've mentioned is purely because we love them.

Firstly, we have family. Barcelona is generally family friendly as the Spanish love children. Monkey got in the way of a few passing pedestrians and the worst he got in return was an indulgent smile and a ruffle of his hair. Getting around is not too bad, even for those still in the buggy years, thanks to copious lifts on the Metro system. My main recommendation in this category is The Patio B&B. It has only two rooms so it's perfect for families who can take over the place therefore not disturb anyone nor be disturbed. It is amazingly quiet, save the distant rumble of Metro trains passing through the tube station across the road - it's located at the back of an apartment block and is surrounded by buildings on all sides. Traffic noise is often a problem when staying in Barcelona so a quiet retreat is great, especially when you have children. What really makes it for me are the owners, Liz and Tony. Liz is English and is a source of lots of information and great help to make your stay run smoothly. She was great with Monkey too, who benefited to the tune of several chocolate bars! A stay there is so relaxed; our second stay there was as good as the first, if not better. We'll be going back.

Our view last Saturday

Then, there is football. You can't really go to Barcelona and not visit the Nou Camp, can you? The Nou Camp experience is the most popular museum in Barcelona but not that good for children - Monkey spent only half an hour there before he got bored. However, actually going to a match is a different experience but not a particularly straightforward one. Let me offer a few tips:

• Although the fixtures for a weekend are known months in advance, kick off times are not decided until 2 weeks beforehand which makes planning difficult. Kick off times can be anything from 6pm until 10pm, 9pm on Sunday so small children might need to stay up, but it's worth it for those who are into football, plus it makes a Sunday night flight home impossible if you are planning a trip.
  
• Season ticket holders can sell their tickets back to the club for resale if they cannot attend a match. This means tickets become available at any time and is the only way you can buy tickets for most areas. If you can't get what you want straight away, keep trying. You may not be able to get tickets together, particularly in a large group but you can often swop once you get inside. Tickets cost between 32-102 euro, more for bigger games.
  
• If you want to buy tickets in advance of travelling, buy your tickets from servicaixa.com - we tried several times over to book tickets from the FC Barcelona site and it wouldn't let us. A phone call to Spain pointed us at this site and it actually worked.
  
• If you do book tickets online, you still have to turn up with the card you used and some photo ID to collect tickets. I spent an hour queueing (and I use that term loosely) to collect our tickets because we did so on match day. If you can go on another day to collect, you'll probably wait a lot less! You can also collect from ServiCaixa terminals of La Caixa bank - IF you can find one.
  

• Finally, get there early. The layout of the stadium is not straightforward and they send you in an access door which forces you to walk round to your "boca" (block).. and then the odd numbered seats are one side of the aisle, and the evens the other! And be prepared for a crush on the Metro on the way home after, or walk if you're feeling up to it.

Next, we have food. I have to be honest here and say we discovered nowhere new this time. Our itinerary didn't really allow it. We apply the following rules when selecting where to eat:

- nice outdoor chairs; plastic ones are a total no-no
- the bar must stock Amaretto; not my guideline and this is not always strictly applied!
- there must be no pictures of the food, especially the dayglo ones that are supposed to make it look more appetising but fail
- never, ever buy anything to eat, other than perhaps an ice cream, on the Ramblas, it'll be expensive rubbish

Most of our eating occurred in two small chains where we've had some great tapas. The first is Tapa Tapa, which I've visited every time I've been to Barcelona and our first meal this time was down at their restaurant in Maremagnum, where we sat outside at Monkey's insistence. (I know they are environmentally unfriendly, but thank God for patio heaters!) We had some stunning calamari there, and tried some black rice with allioli which was gorgeous. The second was Taller de Tapas where we had some great patatas bravas and a tapa of spinach, pancetta and chickpeas, an old favourite of ours. We were very happy when we discovered there is one close to the Nou Camp so we stopped there before we went to the match.

And a special mention for Buenas Migas as a great stop off point for coffee and cake, or their great foccaccia. Husband managed to steer us in the direction of the branch behind the cathedral as he wanted some of their flapjack with yogurt but we also discovered their salami dolce this time around which is enough for two to share! I think we've pretty much visited all the branches in the city in our time and they're always good.

So, we're onto fitness. Strangely, I don't have too many things to say about that. You walk in Barcelona. A lot. Even if you go by Metro, you walk. You soon discover that most line changes actually involve a walk of around half a mile. It's generally pleasant walking in Barcelona if you can avoid the crowds (in which case, give the Ramblas a miss at busy times although you have to experience it once). But if you really want a fitness challenge, perhaps consider entering the Barcelona Marathon. The scenery is stunning and it's only 50 euro to register which is much cheaper than, say, the London Marathon. And it's much quieter too - only 13,000 out of 15,000 registered started last Sunday although it has grown rapidly in recent years, meaning you will get a place rather than having to go through a ballot.

Monkey and Miró

Finally, fun! There is actually quite a lot for children to do in Barcelona. An aquarium for starters, which we didn't get time to visit, nor CosmoCaixa (a science museum) a bit out of the city centre. There are also tons of smaller parks, but Monkey discovered his favourite on our final day. It's Parc Joan Miró, where there is huge Miró statue which totally dwarfed Monkey, but also extensive play areas for different ages of children as well as football pitches and basketball courts. It has a café too, so parents are catered for whilst their children run off some steam. Perfect.

We have been to Barcelona many times, and we will no doubt go again. It never fails as a great place to visit and now Monkey loves it as much as we do. As I said at the start, I've recommended these places I've mentioned here purely because we love them. If you go to Barcelona and try them out, we hope that you will too.

Silent Sunday: More than a club

The Gallery - A celebration

This week's prompt for Week 27 of the Gallery was "A celebration". It was in honour of the 40th birthday of Garry from The Blog Up North which was last Friday. His Gallery post is a summary of his celebrations.

Now, no-one is going to believe me when I say that I already thought of making my post about a 40th birthday. Not mine, however - I was 32 weeks pregnant and I am not even sure if or where any photos of that event might be. The most memorable things were a midwife appointment on the day, a pub lunch, a weekend away with dinner not 15 feet from Kenny Dalglish, and Carlisle flooded. No, anyway -  in April, my husband turned 40 and he wanted to go where we always go - Barcelona. We have an ongoing love affair with that city and return frequently so it's weaved through the fabric of our lives.

The trip had been planned for months and then the ash cloud debacle started. For a few days, it looked like we wouldn't be going, and I emailed or rang a few places to see if we could get anywhere closer to home that didn't involve flying. (Answer - No.). I needn't have worried as things were pretty much back to normal by the time we flew on the Friday and everything went without a hitch - apart from an hour long wait to check in and a dash to the plane.

We stayed in a beautiful place that was new to us called The Patio. We'd found it on Tripadvisor and it came highly rated. It's basically in a private courtyard behind an apartment block and is bounded by buildings on all sides so there is hardly any noise. It was hard to believe there was a city outside - the most obvious sign was hearing the Metro rumbling underneath not far away.

The lady that runs The Patio is English and she recommended various places for us to go. When she heard we wanted somewhere special to go for a birthday, she recommended Asador de Aranda for a celebration meal. She booked a table for us for Saturday lunch - as we had a prior engagement with FC Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the evening.

As the restaurant was out of the city centre a bit, we set off late morning to get the metro out to Avenue Tibidabo and then walked up the hill, trying to keep in the shade as it had got hot very quickly. As we walked, we noticed this lovely sign and it was decreed that a photo was called for. (The husband would like me to point out that this is not a label.)

We walked into the restaurant which is on several floors and were amazed. It was beautiful.

(It was empty, because we arrived as it opened and the Spanish tend to lunch late - the place was packed within half an hour.)

You can see a bit more here. We ordered the Menu Asador on the recommendation of the lady from The Patio which came with just about everything. The one thing we didn't take a picture of was the starters - it was a plate of morcilla, chorizo, minced meat, red peppers and chargrilled asparagus. The morcilla (spanish black pudding basically) was spectacular and we wished we'd had more of it.

Then the main event arrived.

Roast baby lamb cooked in a wood oven. It was the most delicious lamb I've ever tasted and it melted in your mouth. (Whoops, sorry, my boobs appear to have got into that picture!).

Then we were brought orujo and rosquillas.

Orujo is the liqueur which tasted of aniseed and the rosquillas are little doughnut shaped biscuits. We dunked them into the liqueur! Then, we had dessert - chocolate mousse, which was nice, but nothing like as special as the rest of the meal.

It was an amazing experience. I can't remember the exact price but I think it worked out under £30 per head which included wine, a glass of cava, water and a coffee afterwards as well as the food. If you ever get the chance to go to one of these places, do so but you might want to make sure you book as they get very busy.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, we had an evening appointment with FC Barcelona at the Nou Camp. They were playing Xeres and we'd bought tickets as soon as we could after arriving. A Barca match falling ON the day of your 40th birthday is not to be missed. We couldn't get cheap tickets and even these ones were a row apart, but when we got inside, we were able to swop so we sat together but we were in full sun for most of the game, and it was hot, despite it being early evening.

(You might have seen that hat before - it was bought that afternoon to keep the sun off. I apologise for it now. I think it's because it clashes with the tangerine orange of the shirt.)

Barca did their bit, and won 3-1 to round the celebrations off nicely. Apparently, the match was on Sky and the children, having stayed at home with Granny and Granddad, tried to spot us - in a crowd of 100,000. Unsurprisingly, they didn't see us but we rang them briefly from the ground. 

All in all, quite a memorable birthday. We've already booked our next trip to Barcelona - we're taking Monkey in March; both for his birthday and also for the Barcelona marathon, which the husband is training for. I can't wait, so I might start saving now for another fantastic meal.

Well, hello again.....

Um, it's been a while. Sorry.

The last month has just been *chaotic*. First, thanks to the airspace reopening, we went to Barcelona for 3 nights to celebrate a significant birthday of mr k. We ate at Asador de Aranda for one of the most memorable meals I think I have ever had, we went to the Nou Camp for a game on the same day and we got last minute tickets to see Joaquin Cortes. It was a lovely trip and we stayed at The Patio which was unbelievably peaceful considering it was in the heart of the city.

We got back from there, just about got unpacked and sorted when we then headed south for the bank holiday weekend to stay with my mother. mr k wanted to go on a Chi Running course in London so stopping there was convenient. Unfortunately, the course started at 9am on Sunday morning. In south London. With no feasible means of mr k getting there on time, so muggins had a 2 hour round trip to take him there.

Again, we get back from there and barely time to had to unpack before I was onto the next thing. One of the things I do is volunteer for the NCT and it was my local branch's Nearly New Sale on the following Saturday. That in itself is a busy day but this time was different. Firstly, I'd "sold" flyers to local businesses in that we charged them to put their flyers in our bags. Said bags had to be stuffed so we held a "bag stuffing" night at our house on the Tuesday and then our usual meeting to check on final details. It was a late night but worth doing - it costs us nothing, but we raised £280 by flyer sales alone. Worth doing.

On top of that, I had to get items ready for sale as I was also selling and keep on top of normal life. Then, on the Friday, I had to take the children to their swimming lessons for it was test week before heading down to the sale venue to help get it all set up. On any other normal Friday, mr k would have been around to take the children to swimming but with true perfect timing, he was at a wedding. Great.

Saturday was a long day. Until recently, I was the branch treasurer so I was working alongside my successor showing her what to do on the day. It was busy, but ultimately so rewarding. We'd moved venues and not only, moved our sale to a whole new town, so you can imagine how pleased we were when we realised that takings were up 10% on last May and on a par with our November sale, which is normally busier. Our new venue, a sports hall in a secondary school, was excellent and people came. We reckon we had as many people through as at our old venue and it would appear they stayed longer and bought more. For the first time in a long time, I didn't have to visit the nightsafe after so when I walked in the door at 4pm, I was told "You're early" which said it all.
That, still, was not the end of it. As we sell on behalf of sellers, we have to add up their shares and pay them out. As a result, I came away from the sale with a file full of tags which I had to check and enter on a spreadsheet which does all the calculation. Thankfully, that only takes an hour but we also meet up to write cheques and stuff into envelopes on the Thursday after the sale. Which took me out another night and I really needed to go as I needed to explain to new treasurer what to do next. It all got done and in record time. We are a bloody great team, our branch, and we are AWESOME, let me tell you. ;)

And still, not the end. The very next day, I was off to Telford. Cue much running round from me to pack for me and children etc. The reason we were heading there was the NCT's Big Weekend which was the charity's annual conference and AGM. Normally, it's my weekend away but this year it was more of a family event so the family came and went off whilst I did "my job" - which, for this weekend, was as Regional Coordinator for the North West region. With the other coordinators from other regions, we had a slot on the Saturday which we had to rehearse. Oh yes, be afraid. Be very afraid. I went along with it but there are other more extrovert (believe it!) members of the team who had been paying more attention during the week and therefore took a more prominent role.

I also ran a workshop on the Sunday morning - which technically meant I was a speaker which got me free lunch on both days. However, this did not go to plan. I had some lovely slides on a USB stick but the PC I used wouldn't load the file properly. To make it worse, I knew the file was stored somewhere on the internet, the internet connection was slow, and when I did get there, it wouldn't let me download it. So, I winged it. I had 30+ treasurers turn up and we just talked amongst ourselves, sharing tips, explaining how to do things. Much more interactive and everyone seemed to enjoy it, barring the lady who hadn't got a clue and seems reluctant to use the accounts system.

However, on the whole, I loved the whole event. There is normally a point each conference where something makes me cry and this year, there were two. First was a lady who was speaking in the same session as our slot. She was, as it turned out, a former president of the NCT and had been involved for many years. She spoke eloquently about her work as a rep working on maternity services liaison committees, as well as training other reps and even NHS staff to work more effectively. At the end, she mentioned that her husband had recently retired and that perhaps she should too when her voice cracked. She spoke for the last 5 minutes through tears - she obviously has a huge passion for the NCT and its work, she feels she's getting on but she just can't let it go because every little bit of work makes a difference.

The second time came a short while afterwards. When the main session reconvened in the big hall, an unscheduled speaker was announced. It was Gwen Rankin, who was a founding member of the NCT. I found out later that she is 82 and whilst slightly dodgy on her feet, her mind is absolutely 100% spot on and with it. She spoke well, amusingly and touchingly and just listening to her speak made tears spring into my eyes for perhaps the second time in an hour.

There were other highlights too. A new president got elected and in my view, the right candidate won, a lovely lady called Sue Saxey. Good luck to her in her 5 year term although I'm sad it is the end of Gail Werkmeister's term as President - Sue has a lot to live up to! James McQuillan, the funny bloke from The Apprentice last year, made a hilarious speech and also made friends with my fellow regional coordinator, Geraldine. And to close conference, Davina came to conference and interviewed Ina May Gaskin on stage, who then went onto talk about her work on The Farm Midwifery Center in the US. She is truly an inspirational woman who has worked against the tide of medicalisation of birth in the US and round the world.

Beyond that, I laughed. Conference is normally how I catch up with the fantastic ladies I share my "job" with. And we did have a blast. Even the 6.30 fire alarm on the Saturday morning turned out funny in the end.

So, erm, that's it. As you can see, I've done bugger all these past few weeks. To recover, I sloped off to Titanic Spa  on Tuesday night for some peace and quiet and it was fab. Tomorrow will be the first Saturday I've had at home with nothing planned for over a month (tho the men of the house are going to Wembley tomorrow to see Blackpool in the play off final).

I may be very lazy tomorrow, but hell, I'm going to enjoy it.

Do you forgive my absence now?!