That's another year done and dusted then!
Where does the time go? It only seems like a couple of weeks ago I was writing my review of 2013. But then, as you will see, I have had a pretty packed year, which always makes time fly by! This isn't a recipe review by the way - I did that a couple of posts ago.
courtesy of greatbritishbakeoff.co.uk |
The start of the year saw me audition for the Great British
Bake Off. I applied in the latter part of 2012, but didn’t have my first
audition until January in cold Manchester. I made a Hummingbird cake decorated
like a watermelon to take along.
And they must have liked it as at the
beginning of February I found myself in the final 50! I won’t go into great
detail (I had to sign papers forbidding me from talking about it too much), but
I had another audition, this time in London, where I had to take part in a
technical challenge. It was nerve-wracking, and I waffled into the camera.
courtesy of greatbritishbakeoff.co.uk |
I
also met Norman, Jordan and Diana there who did make it to the final show. I
got my call mid-February saying I hadn’t made it. I was pretty gutted to be
honest! As for this year? I haven’t even applied this time, even though
everyone says I should!
I
learned so much about the intricacies of food blogging. Someone called Ottolenghi
was there (I am a baker, forgive me that I didn’t really know who he was) and excitingly
for me I met Anna Olson the Canadian chef and TV presenter. I was definitely
star-struck by her.
August was also an exciting month as we attended the Foodies Festival in Edinburgh. Sadly the day we went there was torrential rain.
But to
brighten things up we saw Glenn Cosby from 2013’s GBBO do his thang on stage. He baked
and cracked jokes, and is actually a very funny guy.
Plus we met ‘Fanny’ of the brilliant blog ‘Keep Calm andFanny On’. ‘Fanny’ gave me a copy of the treasured Christmas Cookery booklet
which I now cherish! And ‘Fanny’ has since become a very good friend. We food bloggers are lovely people!
I thoroughly enjoyed myself and even signed my first autograph
(thanks Melanie!). The Good Food Show itself was as enjoyable as ever. We saw
Paul and Mary bake, John Torode cook and visited loads of stalls and sampled
great food.
We saw Easter Eggs being made, decorated a chocolate casket ourselves,
saw toffee being made, broken and smashed into pieces and sampled loads of
lovely choccies. The staff were really hospitable and gave us a great insight
into a British institution.
It has been a great year and I want to thank those of you
who have been there throughout!
Here’s to 2015 and whatever that may bring (hopefully losing a few pounds personally!!). Happy New Year
when it arrives folks!