Spring Bake

It is no secret that I love flowers. I love arranging them, growing them, eating and drinking them. Nothing makes me more excited than a cake piled high with fresh blooms or a drink laced with floral syrup. Whilst planting up my old tin bath tubs this weekend, I made a promise to myself as I bedded in some violas and primrose - to start using them in my kitchen more. I picked up a mini cake mould earlier on in the week and was desperate to try it out, so I made the simplest of rose flavoured sponges topped with seasonal edible blooms for a weekend treat. It couldn't have been easier, as you can see below...

Mini rose sponges topped with edible flowers (makes 10 mini cakes):

Equipment:

Mini cake mould, picked up from any good cook shop (mine is made from silicone)

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter, very soft

225g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract (or if you are feeling really fancy, the seed from one vanilla pod)

225g golden caster suger

2 tsp rose essence

For the icing:

250g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon of rose essence

Cold water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190c/fan 170c/gas mark 5. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, and then add the eggs, vanilla, rose essence, sugar and butter. Cream together thoroughly by hand or with an electric hand-held whisk, but not too enthusiastically as you are looking for a light sponge. Divide the mixture between the moulds, careful to only half fill them as they rise quite dramatically. 

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes until they are golden brown on the base. Leave the cakes in the mould for a couple of minutes before turning out on to a cooling rack. To make the simple icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl (trying not to cover yourself in it as you do so) and add the rose essence. Then add in cold water a little at a time to form a stiff paste. Once the cakes are cool, turn them right side up and use a teaspoon or piping bag to gently drizzle over the top of the cakes. Decorate with edible flowers (violas and primrose here) and leave to set. Serve on a pretty plate with a vintage cake fork and a pot of tea. 

Enjoy...

The month of October

Just some of the things I love about the month of October...

Charlotte xx

Milking it

You know wedding season has well and truly begun when a whole month flashes before your eyes and you have barely had time to stand still and take it all in. There have been multiple birthdays and bank holidays, interspersed with wedding parties and celebrations galore.

I did manage to sneak in a visit back to the shire the weekend before my very own birthday, which ended up being exactly what I needed. We went on countryside walks, ate cream teas watching the cricket (oh how very British) and had such beautiful weather that we ate every meal in the garden - a distant memory today as I watch the rain lash down outside. My birthday bounty included another great big vintage tin bath, a selection of beautifully inspiring wedding flowers books and a LOT of rose chocolate - I was a very happy girl. The tin bath has already been filled with lavender, foxgloves, lettuces and sweetpeas amongst others and I just love it. 

Driving back with a car full of cow parsley from the hedgerows, I spent a happy morning filling up my new milk churns with it at Oh Me Oh My and taking a few photos to show what an impact this simple vase can make. I also spent my bank holiday with the lovely ladies at OMOM preparing for the beautiful wedding of Heather and Ian, with a dreamy palette of white and seafoam green. Using peonies, hydrangea, flowering mint and roses, I filled a selection of vintage bottles at the base of their washing line table plan and to compliment the bride's and bridesmaids bouquets. Please click here for more photos and details on hiring the table plan.

With June on its way, I couldn't help share this lovely little poem from a book I found tucked away in an old bookshop this week. Let's hope this weather cheers up in time for all of June's brides...

' A cloudless sky; a world of heather,

Purple of foxglove, yellow of broom;

We two among it, wading together,

Shaking out honey, treading perfume.

Crowds of bees are giddy with clover.

Crowds of grasshoppers skip at our feet,

Crowds of larks at their matins hang over,

Thanking the Lord for a life so sweet.'

                                             - Jean Ingelow

Charlotte xx

In the kitchen

Sometimes I like nothing better than a few hours pottering in kitchen on a sunny afternoon when I have the time, throwing a few bits into a mixing bowl and seeing what comes out of the oven an hour later (which doesn't always work!) This week I was desperate for something sweet mid-afternoon on Monday and fancied some quick and easy shortbread, which I decided to flavour with orange blossom and some rich dark chocolate.

Perfect for a late morning pick-me-up, and afternoon treat or just to get you through piles of paperwork with copious cups of tea, the quick and easy recipe below is ideal for making a small mountain of shortbread for yourself or to share (mood dependant)...

Dark Chocolate and Orange Blossom Shortbread

Approx. 10 squares

Ingredients:

200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

50g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling over

125g unsalted butter

80g dark chocolate, chopped roughly into chunks

1 teaspoon orange blossom water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170c/gas mark 3. Mix the flour and sugar together in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter with your thumb and forefinger. Add the orange blossom water and chocolate chunks and mix together, forming a ball of dough. Roll out or pat with your fingers until it is roughly 1cm thick and transfer to a baking tray lined with baking parchment. If you wish to make the shortbread easier to cut into squares once cooked, score some lines into the shortbread to go over later when cooled. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until it is a lovely light golden colour. Once cool, pop the kettle on and make yourself a cup of tea whilst you sample* the shortbread. Enjoy!

*eat all of

With wedding season gearing up for the summer, I have enjoyed many meetings with lovely brides and grooms discussing their ideas and drawing up flower plans for their upcoming weddings - and what a lucky florist I am! Summer colour palettes of sunshine yellow, cornflower blues and cheery coral with lots of fluffy garden roses and skyscraper delphiniums have been discussed, alongside pretty vintage palettes of chalky pink, soft champagne and parma violet for a more romantic edge.

Luckily my order of milk churns arrived this week, and so I am waiting for the weekend to fill them with flowers and share my love of this old fashioned vase. Perfect for adorning entrance ways and aisles, the laid back charm of the milk churn creates a simple yet striking arrangement and gives that 'country feel' to any venue! For more milk churn inspiration, take a look at my Pinterest board by clicking HERE.

I will be heading down to leafy Buckinghamshire for some birthday celebrations over the weekend, taking full advantage of the blossoming hedgerows and countryside, and my mum and nana's gardens and allotment - I aim to return with a car full of floral goodies!

Charlotte xx

Cornish Camellia

This time last week I was sulking my way home from Cornwall on the train, hot pasty clutched in my hand, trying desperately to savour the last days of my long weekend away in the Cornish sunshine. Ok so thats a bit of a lie, the pasty didn't make it past Plymouth, but I did sulk most of the way home and refused to answer any emails before I reached the city (I apologise if you were waiting for a reply, I was on 'cornish time').

The flowers are all from my mum's garden, arriving in an enamel bucket that had been driven all the way from Buckinghamshire - what a legend. The triple layer rose cake was made by my sister-in-law and travelled down with my parents. I love my family. 

I have spent my summers down there since I were a newborn, and have seen a good few autumn half terms there too, but I realised on this trip that I had never been in the spring - and what a haven it was! As a slightly nature-starved florist living in the city most of the time it was like I had died and gone to floral heaven; wild primrose in the orchard, soft pastel lilac bluebells lining the hedges, delicate flowering quince climbing up walls and the biggest camellia and rhododendron bushes I have ever seen in powder pink and clashing cerise. 

I lived in my dungarees, and LOVED it.

I ate picnics in the sunshine lounging under the rhododendron as drowsy bees drifted by, spent too much time with my head in camellia bushes, had clotted cream ice cream as I admired the tropical Lost Gardens of Heligan and I ate more fish and chips and pasties than one human being should. It is my heaven, and if you have never been then I suggest you pack a suitcase of breton stripes and get down there. (I got a bit giddy on the old Instagram so if you have seen these snaps before then I do apologise). 

The main reason for my stay was for the wedding of lovely friends Charlotte and Patrick, which celebrated everything to do with love, marriage and spring. Think milk churns full of sunny daffodils, pure white tulips and pretty little grape hyacinths - it was so seasonal, elegant and charming and I loved it. 

I captured the confetti moment on my polaroid camera - it is definitely one of my all time favourite polaroids.

I was straight back into work as I stepped off the train, with the Easter bank holiday including more painting (Oh Me Oh My have a lovely custard yellow sideboard coming their way this week! It looks better than it sounds I promise...), meetings with lovely brides about their big day flowers and pretty props and catching up with lots of admin. I did make sure I celebrated Easter by making an Easter bundt cake (and then stupidly leaving it at home whilst we visited family so I've pretty much eaten the entire thing myself) buying a new sweetpea plant in pastel pink for the herb garden and drinking a LOT of rose lemonade. I also struck lucky on Monday morning when I spotted a very healthy lilac tree and bought a few stems home with me to make a jar of lilac sugar. It was so easy and smells gorgeous, and I can't wait to use it for cakes, in tea or just to fling around the kitchen.

As I type I am peppering my keyboard with flakes of that custard yellow paint that hasn't quite rubbed off yet so I am thinking a long soak in the bath with my favourite rose tea bubble bath is next on the agenda - and then to bed to start all over again tomorrow!

Charlotte xx

Nana

Hello April! The month of hot cross buns for breakfast (smothered in far too much butter), Mother's Day and celebrating Easter. I decided to name this post 'Nana' as everything I wanted to write seemed to link back to her this week, and she is also a bit of a hero in my eyes.

Impeccably dressed, she gardens in her high heels, makes the finest bakewell tart in the land and conjures up delicious afternoon teas by the fire in the blink of an eye. We grew up toasting bread on the log fire, picking and eating cherries from the tree in her garden and cooking fry ups on Cornish holidays on the doorstep on a camp fire. Ask me my perfect Sunday afternoon and it will involve her garden, a blanket on the grass and her infamous Pimms (she swears on her life Pimms isn't alcoholic and serves it eyewateringly strong - there is no correcting her, believe me we have tried...)

This week I picked up a bundle of vintage mini jelly moulds from a charity shop, and was instantly reminded of the towering blancmange she made for my 21st birthday tea party in her garden. Most of my friends didn't have a clue what the blush pink wobbling mass was, but it disappeared as quickly as it was dished up and was a firm favourite with all who had a bowl full. This summer I plan to make mini versions of her delicious blancmange in these moulds, alongside elderflower and rose flavoured jellies with edible flowers dotted through them - I promise to share!

My sewing machine has seen some serious action this week with a last minute order of lavender hearts for a bride and groom's favours, and starting on the soft furnishings for the lovely Oh Me Oh My. An abundance of plump cushions in pretty prints will hopefully entice guests to sit and just 'be' for a while on the comfy chairs and sofas and admire the beautiful setting, including the ceiling which is just one of the amazing features of this lovely space. Their special secret sessions include afternoon tea and Sunday roasts, and I could not think of a nicer place to collapse with a tummy full and watch the world go by. (I urge you to book yourself in for one of these sessions now, you won't be disappointed!)

I often find it hard to complete my own projects when I have lots else going on, but on Sunday I made myself sit down and finish painting, sanding and waxing my vintage sewing box, - the perfect Christmas present from my Nana. I decided on my favourite colour and painted the inside and out chalky pink, and sanded down the edges to give that timeworn look. Having lined the compartments with floral wallpaper offcuts, my box is now full to the brim of threads, trims and buttons, and ready for the mountain of sewing I still have to do!

This week has been scented by hyacinths around the home, the smell of spring (finally) in the air and sticky toffee pudding hot from the oven. I am aware sticky toffee isn't exactly a spring time dessert, but it earned me brownie points with the other half - finally! I am returning to my favourite part of the UK this weekend for a wedding of one of my oldest friends Charlotte, in Cornwall. Charlotte is a dear friend as we were next door neighbours growing up, and used to spend our summer holidays making 'cakes' from the mud, moss and flowers in our parents gardens - much to the frustration of our mums and their precious rose beds! The lucky girl lives down in Cornwall, and I cannot wait to see her be married and be part of her springtime wedding celebrations. I adore Cornwall. I am in love with its coastal paths, rugged beaches and lush countryside, and cannot wait to spend the next few days with my family and friends down there. A trip to the Lost Gardens of Heligan may be on the cards, in between eating enough fish and chips and cream teas to last me a lifetime.

I better get my breton stripes on...

Styling and Cheese Scones...

This week has been a bit all over the place, but in a nice way. In between painting wedding props, wedding flower consultations with the loveliest brides there ever were, drying rose petals for confetti, a new styling project in my favourite venue and a bridal photo shoot where I nearly got blown off a balcony, I found the time to bake (and then eat all 8) cheese scones, sort out the herb garden and cry at every birth on 'One Born Every Minute'. There hasn't actually been a single one I haven't cried at, it is getting embarrassing now.

Starting this week, the wonderful ladies at Oh Me Oh My have given Verity & Thyme the task of styling their mezzanine space, unifying the area and making it a more inviting place to come and be, whether for a wedding or simply a cup of tea and piece of cake. Here is a little 'before' photo, with more to come soon! In between painting, I had the best sausage and caramelised onion sandwich with a rose lemonade for my lunch whilst listening to Billy Holiday. It was heaven.

The bouquet below is the one used in the bridal shoot, and I just fell in love. Blowsy palest pink peonies, vintage roses, fluffy spray roses and trailing jasmine amongst others - I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It is so easy as a florist to become immune to that 'oh my gosh that is gorgeous' feeling when you see a really lovely bouquet, but this little beauty caught me by surprise - and I loved it.

Charlotte xx