Fold in the Flour ...

Dear Mum, Today is the first Mother's Day I've spent without seeing you. The last few weeks have been incredibly hard, in many ways. And I guess that somewhere in the back of my mind, I always thought that we'd have more time. But at the end of the day, it all boils down to one extremely simple fact. I miss you. I miss the way your eyes would light up whenever you saw me, especially if I had Sam with me. I miss the way you would gaze in wonder and admiration at how big Josh and Ben have got. I miss how you would tell me how very lucky I am.  I miss the way that you would blow me kisses with that cheeky grin, and how we would swap 'luvs ya's'. I miss the tender stroke of my cheek as we said hello and goodbye. I miss the way you had of making me feel so special and loved when I least expected it. I miss the way that you would surreptitiously pat my pocket to see if I had brought you sweeties. If you found a Malteser or two or three, it made your d...

Apparently, it's cupcake month. Well, according to Food Network and a few others. (I must be a bit odd then as it seems every month is cupcake month in our house.) Anyway, I came across a new recipe the other day that I wanted to try, as it involved toffee and caramel. Two of my favourite flavours. But it was the salted caramel that really caught my attention. It's something I've always wanted to try making but have never got around to it. I had a bit of a nudge the other week though. Now, I suspect like anyone else that is interested in baking, I have been hooked to the latest series of Great British Bake Off , currently on BBC2 . It's hard not to sympathise with the contestants when they are put through their paces on one of the technical challenges, or are under the pressure of having to produce a showstopping bake against the clock in an unfamiliar oven. Last week's episode had them making cremé caramels for the technical challenge, and there was muc...