{Three Sisters Bake - Courgette & Lime Cake}

I love it when a recipe is easy to follow and when the results actually look the photograph in the recipe book... So I was delighted when my first attempt at the Three Sisters Bake Courgette & Lime Cake turned out like this...

I think the only thing that could have been improved upon was the cream cheese icing... But that's my own fault as I used a 'light' version rather than 'full fat' like the recipe called for. So mine was a bit runnier than I'd have liked. Also not helped by the fact that the littlest was desperate to ice the cake so it was still a little warm when we smothered it with frosting.

The cake itself was lovely & moist (sunflower oil is used in the recipe rather than butter) and surprisingly light & airy. The lime icing worked beautifully with it. It was extremely easy to put together & I personally thought it looked pretty amazing with the courgette ribbons on the top (made with a peeler...no fancy tools necessary). Knowing me, if the cake had staying at the Glasgow Mummy house I'd have demolished the lot (I ate 80% of the Banana Bread we made myself in the space of 12 hours!), so this time we took half of the cake and delivered it to our new neighbours. Hopefully they like it as much as we did - they certainly were impressed with how it looked when we dropped it off!

You'll find the recipe online here, but I'd highly recommend getting your hands on the Three Sisters Bake cookbook. So far we've made the Banana Bread (also fab, see comment above!) and this cake. I'm looking forward to trying out some more of the recipes - they all sound amazing. The photography in the book is beautiful and I find the sisters story inspiring. Hopefully the kids and I will make it out to their cafe at Quarriers Village soon for a visit.

I was sent a complimentary copy of the Three Sisters Bake cookbook, but as always opinions are my own and are completely honest.

{Eat Pray Love}

This is a post for the Tots100 Book Club, where bloggers share their favourite stories.

I recently finished the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's the first book that I've read in a long while. I guess I'm so busy these days, that by the evening all I want to do is sleep (especially knowing that it's likely my sleep will be disrupted thanks to the little ones!).

Eat Pray Love

The synopsis for the story goes like this "Elizabeth Gilbert is in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, and they're trying for a baby - she doesn't want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to pursue her own journey in search of three things she has been missing: pleasure, devotion and balance."

I purchased the book at the start of the year, with the notion of 'new year, new me' in mind (yes, it has taken me 4 months to finish the book!). I was drawn to the idea of self-discovery and having seen the movie I knew that Elizabeth found her happiness in the end. I have been going through a difficult few months (as you can tell from the rest of my reading list) and I found Eat Pray Love to be uplifting and inspirational. I'm keen to get my holiday alone booked, as part of my 35 at 35 list, but unlike Elizabeth I'll have a just a week whereas she had a year of travels.

I've been a bit slow on the uptake, I think it was 2006 that this book was a big hit, and I here I am in 2012 just getting around to reading it. Anyway, I'm happy that I have finally read the novel and I think I probably will read it again (maybe on my holiday!). I knew the outcome, but despite this I still enjoyed the book. Here's hoping I can find my happy ending...