Baking and burgers

Oh hey!! 
Apologies for my very long hiatus. I've actually been quite a busy bee.
Firstly, one of my friends got engaged and asked me along with four of our other school friends to be bridesmaids!! She's also asked me to make their wedding cake! So I organised a shopping trip to Birmingham and with the help of a personal shopper, all five of us, plus two of Emma's other friends now have stunning dresses. Now we're on a mission to plan the worlds best hen-do (got to keep it a secret though- don't want the bride-to-be finding out all of our little ideas).
Next, I got a new job!! I'm now a reservationist at a De Vere venue. Been there a month now and loving it. All the girls in the office are lovely and I like to think I'm picking everything up quickly. I'm hoping that it'll lead to more event planning opportunities but currently I'm enjoying the new challenge.
Lastly, I bought my first car!! It's a little red VW Up that I've named Una and I love it!!

Cooking wise I've not been too crazy. I've spent some time perfecting my lemon cake recipe ready for making Emma's wedding cake. Fellow bridesmaid Emily had her birthday recently so I made a batch on teeny tiny lemon cupcakes.
Using my trusty all-in-one method with 1 egg to 50g each of self raising flour, caster sugar and butter plus a 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder. I used three eggs so 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder and 150g of everything else. 
Add the zest of two lemons and the juice of half.
Spoon into your desired size cupcakes cases and bake at 160oC fan until well risen and golden.
Leave to cool before making the butter cream.
250g icing sugar
100g soft butter 
zest of a lemon
2 tbs lemon juice.
Beat the sugar butter and zest together until the mix resembles crumbs and then add the juice and beat till it all comes together. 
Spread or pipe onto the cakes. Ideal time to practice those piping skills.

Next, if you recall my foray into orange curd? I decided to use it up in a Sunday afternoon orange Victoria sponge cake. Classic sponge mix - 6 eggs, 300g flour, sugar and butter, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, zest of 2 oranges and 1 heaped tablespoon of orange curd. Beat until smooth and spread into two sandwich tins. Bake at 160oC for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tins for ten minutes before turning out to cool completely. 
It's completely up to you how you fill this cake- you could just use the remainder of the jar of curd to sandwich them together, or, as I've done, whip up a small amount of plain buttercream icing and use that, as well as the curd. Dust the top with more icing sugar and sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy.

I also made turkey burgers which were lush. Turkey thigh mince, an egg and an assortment of herbs and spices, grilled and served in a toasted bun with salad, grated carrot and lashings of ketchup and mayo.

These have me dreaming of summer when I can barbecue them instead of grilling.
I promise I won't leave you all so long without my words of wisdom again.
Much love!