Diamond Jubilee baking

What a weekend! The weather didn't stop the Diamond Jubilee spirit touching everyone - and what could be more British than a Bank Holiday weekend when it rains anyway. Everyone seemed so excited about celebrating the Queen's 60 years, and everywhere there was a sudden community spirit that we've not seen for years.

A beer festival at the pub next door was full to the rafters with revellers with Union Jack flags, beer, and burgers in their hands. We went to a massive picnic in the park with bands and fireworks, and the cheer that went up when the beacon was lit was huge. The telly has been filled with all sorts of celebrations and I've loved all the pomp and ceremony. The sight of so many Union Jacks throughout London has been wonderful. I don't think I've ever felt so British, or Royalist - and I certainly don't remember anything like this for the Golden Jubilee in 2002. I don't remember much about that at all! (Mind you, I was at university, so I was either buried under a pile of books, or had my head in a pint glass...)

For the weekend's tea parties and picnics, I baked a million sausage rolls, a fruity traybake, and some Jubilee cupcakes.

The fruity traybake was the same recipe as my American flag traybake last week for Cake Club. It's so simple but extremely effective, and everyone is impressed. It's from the latest issue of Good Food Magazine. There's another lovely version over at Laura Loves Cakes (her raspberries look bigger than mine!).

My cupcakes were a lovely velvety chocolate, with buttercream swirled on top. I attempted a red, white, and blue theme, but I'm not great at decorating so they're not as impressive as I imagined. I need to go on a cake decorating course.

What a 60 years the Queen has seen. She reminds me so much of my Nanny, who died last year. She would have loved this Jubilee weekend. God rest Nanny. God save the Queen.

I'm keeping my bunting up for a while yet.

Time for picnics

With Spring officially sprung, and some lovely warm weather over the last few days, I've been desperate to jolly off for a good ol' picnic. We had planned one for Mother's Day - we were going to visit Sandringham and have a great treat of cakes, sarnies, and strawberries under the watchful eye of the Queen (if she'd been there...). But the weather that weekend was dull and grey, so picnic was postponed.

Hopefully the ongoing project of the other half's VW Golf cabriolet will be completed this summer (it's been going on for about 4 years now!). As soon as the car is ready, we are off to the coast with picnic basket in hand, I'll make lots of goodies, we'll put the top down on the car and zoom! Off we'll go! That's the plan anyway.

In readiness for soft-top car completion, I've been looking for a fancy picnic basket to make the scene complete - we've decided we'll wait until the car's ready before treating ourselves to a really lovely one. I've found the most wonderful picnic basket company, Life's a Picnic, and their beautiful baskets are definitely on top of my 'wanted' list now.

The willow baskets are all unique and really sum-up the brilliance of a British summer. Handmade and vintage, I'm really covetting one of the baskets, although I don't know whether I'd prefer a teatime theme, or maybe one complete with Champagne flutes, for those extra special picnics...

They're not cheap, but then you really do get what you pay for in this life, and I think these look like they'd last a lifetime. I saw one in a local shop recently, and it was about a quarter of the price - but it was so badly designed that when the lid closed, it hit the glasses inside (I know this, because I closed the lid, and I heard glass smash...and quickly exited the shop).

They also do lovely cake stands. I have about 4 cake stands already, but you can never have too many - I certainly bake enough cakes to fill them all.

So, if anyone wants to treat me to a summer present, maybe if you missed my birthday in January, you know what to do....!