Red Velvet Cupcakes

My name is Vickii and I am a baking geek! I like hearing and reading about different cakes, I love cake innovation! So when I heard about this bright red cake called red velvet that was taking LA by storm about 4 years ago, I had to try it! I found an incredible recipe then and it still stands as the best red velvet cake recipe I know! This is mainly due to the frosting which as well as the standard cream cheese also contains mascarpone cheese and double cream. I promise to share it with you when next I make it.

Since then, red velvet has taken everywhere by storm and in my opinion is now usually over-hyped - especially since most places make a pretty average version; as long as it's a red cake with a basic cream cheese frosting, they're happy. Well, I'm not! There's a particular London chain bakery where I tried their red velvet cupcakes about three years ago and I thought they were great. However, I'm sure they've changed the recipe since to make mass producing them cheaper and they've lost so much of the wonderful flavour in the process! Oh well, they've also lost me as a customer so the joke is on them as they’ve lost my custom from all of 10 cupcakes I’d normally buy from them in a year! Yup, 10 a year! Read that and weep sub-par red velvet cupcake producers!! ;p

Anyway, talking about average cupcakes, I recently (well, when I say recently, I mean over 2 months ago - yikes!) made some red velvet cupcakes as part of the batch of 60 cupcakes I made for a friend's engagement party. And I have to admit grudgingly that … ummm, well … they were not my best. In my defence, I never knowingly underbake but I didn't want to risk using my layer cake recipe in cupcake format in case it didn’t work and I had 30 bad cupcakes on my hand. So I decided to use this cupcake recipe along with the cream cheese frosting below from my precious Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. The cake was good and everybody seemed happy but I know they were not as great as my original recipe. It was dryer and more cake-ey (not usually a bad thing, I know!). However, after having a very small bite of the Brown Betty red velvet cake at my friend's wedding, even my original recipe has some large boots to fill! It was so moist, it was almost wet! Apparently that is real Southern red velvet cake! If anyone has a recipe that creates cake that sounds just like that, please, please, pass it on!

I used the Crabapple frosting because it is thicker than my original frosting so makes for prettier looking cupcakes.

Other cakes on my so-unusual-sounding-I-can't-wait-to-try-them list include 7-up cake (another Southern American cake) and Guinness cake (Irish??). I will let you know how I get on with these and my quest to bake the perfect red velvet cake!

Crabapple Bakery cream cheese frosting

125g softened unsalted butter

400g softened cream cheese

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use about 3 teaspoons)

6 cups icing sugar (I'd probably stop at 5 but start checking for the consistency you want from about 4)

Makes 4 cups of frosting - enough for 24 cupcakes

Keeps 4 Days

1 - Cream the butter for 1-2 minutes

2 - Add the cream cheese, vanilla and half of the sifted icing sugar and beat for 3 minutes or until mixture is light and fluffy

3 - Gradually add remaining icing sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy and of spreadable consistency

Dessert Crawl Part Deux!

4th Street Cookie - Reading Terminal Market, 51 North 12th Street

The fourth stop on the tour was 4th Street Cookie. First of all, can I just say Reading Terminal Market! Wow! Love it! If I lived in Philadelphia, I would undoubtedly spend a ridiculously large percentage of my salary buying fresh produce, shell fish, meat and unusual ingredients to prepare lovely meals, and ready prepared food and cake when I'm feeling lazy!

If I'm being honest (and isn't that the whole point after all?), I wasn't so impressed with 4th Street Cookie. It was a pretty basic counter and their cookies looked  ... well ... normal. I'm not sure what I was expecting - actually, that’s a lie. I know exactly what I was expecting. Ginormous cookies that I would ooh and ahh over, beating myself up that I'd never be able to make cookies as nice! Cookies aren't my forte don't cha know?

I bought a white chocolate chip cookie to take away and was pleasantly surprised when I eventually tried it. It wasn't the best cookie in the world - I much prefer Ben’s Cookies in London - but it was everything a cookie should be. Nothing more. But no less either.

 Flying Monkey - Reading Terminal Market, 12th and Arch

Now this was exciting! They had lots of cupcakes, as well as brownies and other baked goodies! Mmmmmm, baked goodies .... sorry, what was I saying? Oh, yes, cupcakes! They had cool colours and lots of exciting flavours; lots! Crème brulee, pistachio, pina colada, baileys, bubblegum, black velvet, rose, chai ... and the list goes on. I wanted to try everything! But you know, the real world being real and all, I can't get everything I want so I settled on the pina colada, my partner in crime had the crème brulee, and I got the pistachio for my pistachio obsessed other partner in crime. My pina colada was good! The cake itself was really good - in Lara's opinion the best we'd tried - but my heart still lies with Brown Betty's pound cake. And the icing was nice but not too sweet. Lara's crème brulee icing didn't really taste like crème brulee; it had more of a burnt caramel taste to it. And when we eventually got round to eating Doyin's pistachio cupcake (I bought it for her, it was only right that she halved it with me :D), that also tasted nothing like pistachio either. So my general impression is nice cake, lots of cool flavours but the icing leaves a lot to be desired. I admire their ambition though!

Final *sob* stop - Serendipity - 225 East 60th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
While we were in NY, we were staying in Queens. Shopping there during the day and then coming into the city at night for dinner and drinks with friends Trouble and First Lady. That schedule, though fun, did not leave much time for dessert crawling, despite my best intentions. I didn't get to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge or do the Sex and the City tour either :( Anyway, we did manage to make it to Serendipity, which was in Sex and the City incidentally. It was very quirky and their frozen hot chocolates - although not really frozen, just really cold and thick – were lovely! The cheesecake was alright but I really wish I had gone to Juniors for cheesecake. And Magnolia bakery for cupcakes. And Make My Cake for cake. And Crumbs for cake. And ... well, you get the picture. I guess I have to save something for next time right? And I did have Coldstone ice cream!

Chocolate Banana Bread

I'm afraid I won't be weaving a funny anecdote about my banana bread making experience. Nor will I be facing any challenges in the process, or overcoming any obstacles to make the best darn chocolate banana bread EVER! Nope, my life is not always that exciting. You'll find this hard to believe but sometimes my baking adventures aren't adventures at all! So here goes:

Once upon a Sunday morning during that time of year known as summer to the rest of the world (it's true other UK dwellers, it's not just a myth! Some countries have sun and warmth for more than just 1 month of the year!!), that time of year where my usually empty diary finds itself choc-a-bloc, I found myself at home unexpectedly one weekend. Me, three ripe bananas and a craving for some home-baked goodness! Naturally, my mind went to banana bread, and even more naturally, my fingers flicked through the pages of Nigella's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'. Ta daa... there it was; Banana Bread! And then my eyes spied at the bottom of the page a variation; Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. Even better. But due to extreme laziness, I couldn't be bothered to go out and buy chocolate chips so I met Nigella's recipe halfway and settled for chocolate banana bread. As I was in a 'quantity over quality' type of mood, I made two loaves with the recipe and while they were very good, it would have been much better if I had made just one and had those perfectly tall, square slices that a good loaf cake produces. 

The recipe below is for banana bread with the chocolate chip variation included at the bottom. Enjoy!

Ingredients

100g sultanas

75ml bourbon or dark rum

175g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

125g unsalted butter, melted

150g sugar (I used brown)

2 large eggs

4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed

60g chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin, buttered and floured

Makes 8 - 10 slices

1 - Put the sultanas and rum or bourbon in a smallish saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for an hour if you can, or until the sultanas have absorbed most of the liquid, then drain.

2 - Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3 and get started on the rest.

3 - Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well. 

4 - In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the walnuts, drained sultanas and vanilla extract.

5 - Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. 

6 - Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1 to1 1/4 hours. When it is ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.

For Chocolate Chip Variation: Replace 25g of the flour with good cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) and add 100g of dark chocolate cut into smallish chunks. You can also use chocolate chips. 

(International) Dessert Crawl - Paris/Philly/New York

This dessert crawl is going places! It started off as a humble cupcake crawl, an idea I nicked from Two Wedding Belles. Then I decided to extend the invitation to all cake. And then … due to popular demand (from me), it was extended to all dessert; cupcakes, cheesecakes, layer cakes, ice creams- whatever note-worthy desserts I came across on my travels! THEN ... in Paris on our way to Philly, Doyin and I decided to have a Laduree macaroon (the must famous Parisian macaroons) and Dessert Crawl; International Edition was born. It's more of a Dessert Tour now!

So here, in two parts, are reviews of all the dessert places I tried while I was in Philly and New York - all in my quest to be a better baker - ahem, that is my story and I'm sticking to it! I hope you guys appreciate how many hours I'm going to have to spend in the gym and how many egg white omelettes I'll have to consume to make up for this – it’s a hard job, but somebody’s got to do it. *Sigh* just call me Miss Committed.

1st stop - Laduree, Charles de Gaulle Airport

Bonjour! Ummm, that's about the extent of my French. I'd heard about Laduree Macaroons and wasn't too fussed to try them because while I do like macaroons, I can pretty much take them or leave them y'know? But Doyin kept talking about them and when we saw the shop at the airport, it seemed like fate and totally rude not to. However, at €1.50 per tiny macaroon and a severe lack of Euros on our person, we could only afford two macaroons between us; one pistachio and one salted caramel. Making a decision of two from about fifteen flavours – from coconut and liquorish to vanilla and Madagascan chocolate - was excruciating! Doyin; judge number 1, had nothing more to contribute to this review other than "Divine. I want more".

As for my review, first of all, I have to say, the difference between these and other macaroons I have had (mainly from Paul) was very clear - these were sooooo fresh. You could tell that they'd been made just hours ago. They were soft, melt-in-your-mouth and yet still crisp. The pistachio flavour was exquisite, and the salted caramel whilst also great, was more … interesting. It had a lovely burnt sugar taste but if I was to go to Laduree again, I'd literally empty my purse on the table and ask for “as many pistachio macaroons as this will buy me!”

 2nd Stop - Naked Chocolate Cafe, 1317 Walnut Street, Philadelphia

The lovely ladies from whom I borrowed this idea were kind enough to recommend places to try in the Philly area and this was one of them. It's nice and bright inside and they have more chocolate than they do cake and other deserts. They had about 6 cupcake flavours; nothing too wild or crazy - chocolate, vanilla, chocolate with peanut butter frosting; you get the gist. They also had some amazing looking desserts like an Oreo mousse but as I was by myself on this leg of the tour, I only tried one thing; the vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting. I decided on this one after I asked for, and refused the personal recommendation of the lady behind the counter (choc/peanut butter if you’re interested). I decided to go with the most popular choice. The cake was pretty average, quite dense and didn't taste particularly fresh. The frosting made up for it though; it was obviously made with real strawberries and wasn't too sweet. To be honest, I'm not the biggest strawberry fan in the world so this stop left me a bit disappointed!

3rd Stop - Brown Betty Boutique, 1030 North 2nd Street

I had back-up on this part of the crawl, which meant we could try more stuff ... yay!! The idea was that Lara and I would have one cupcake/cookie/dessert at each place and then share but we turned out to be total light weights! After Brown Betty; which was our first stop, Lara was more or less out, muttering something about big breakfast, can't stomach more cake **shaking my head**. But I must admit, I couldn't completely enjoy the rest of the desserts that day as I just felt caked-out! I know, I know, I didn’t think caked-out was a non-word that would ever have to be a part of my vocabulary either!

Back to Brown Betty – I loved it! First of all, their cupcakes were huge and while they were very pretty, theirs weren't the dainty, perfectly decorated cupcakes that some bakeries specialise in. They also had some interesting flavours like sweet potato. And sour cream. And all their cakes are pound cakes! For those of you who don't know what pound cakes are (which was me till my friend explained it to me), pound cakes are denser than sponge cake so wedding cakes are pound cakes so that they can hold the icing and all the numerous tiers! If you know me, you know that dense cake is not something I am a fan of, but these were amazing!

First things first. Lara chose the chocolate cupcake with coconut frosting and I had the fruit-filled sour cream and lemon cupcake. The cake in both was dense and yet still moist, soft and fresh! The chocolate cupcake was great but the sour cream and lemon was amazing! The cake was lovely, the filling (like a very light lemon curd) not too sweet and not overpowering and the icing ... oh the icing, It was like a vanilla buttercream but fluffier, creamier and not as sweet - it was lurrrvely! If anyone has their recipe for that frosting, I'll love you forever ;p

The Boutique, which is where I went, is where they baked the cupcakes and cakes for all three of their stores and that in itself was inspiring because it was a pretty small kitchen area with a much smaller oven than I'd expect. If they can run three successful shops from such a small base, it's something to aim for :D

Darn my nerves at the wedding that made me turn down the Brown Betty wedding cake at my friend's wedding! I had a tiny bite of the red velvet which was lovely but there was also almond cake and another cake which I didn't get to try ... I'm still harbouring regrets.

 That's all for now folks! Part two coming up soon!

Ice Cream Cake

There is a book which has been on my Amazon wish list for a while called 'Rose's Heavenly Cakes' by Rose Levy Beranbaum so imagine my surprise when I came across a blog called 'Heavenly Cake Baker' - where a bunch of very talented bakers are 'Julie and Julia-ing' their way through this book. That's something I'd quite like to do at some point but I need to find a baking book that I love so much that I literally want to try every single recipe. Perhaps Rose's book will be it.

Anyway, I digress - one of the cakes they made was a chocolate ice cream cake. As soon as I saw pictures, I was determined to make an ice cream cake and when a friend's birthday came up, my mind immediately went to the ice cream cake. Now try as I might, I couldn't find a recipe for Rose's version - I guess I just have to buy the book - so I decided to improvise and I used Nigella Lawson's Victoria Sponge recipe from 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' because it's just an incredibly simple yet flavourful recipe. I used Carte D'or's 'Vanilla' and 'Chocolate Inspiration' ice creams as they were buy one get one free but if you're feeling flush, I'd recommend buying a luxury brand of ice cream like Green & Blacks or Waitrose's Seriously Creamy Range. The great thing with this is you can mix it up as you feel like. I'll probably always have a layer of vanilla in mine but perhaps make the second layer coconut and lime ice cream in summer or use just different chocolate ice creams when I am having an intense chocolate craving. The spring form pan is your oyster! Go crazy!

Serves 10 – 12

Prepare about 24 hours before you intend to serve it.

Ingredients

Cake

338g unsalted butter, very soft

338g caster sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 large eggs

300g self raising flour

38g corn flour

1 and a half teaspoons baking powder

6 tablespoons of milk

12 inch spring form pan

Filling

2 litres of ice cream - I used 1 litre each of two flavours

Fudge sauce

200g milk chocolate

100g white chocolate

300ml single cream

Whole milk

Cake

1 - Grease and flour your baking tin

2 - Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4

3 - Cream the butter and sugar together till the butter has turned white. 

4 - Add the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour between each.

5 - Fold in the rest of the flour and the corn flour, adding no baking powder, and when all is incorporated, add the milk as you need.

6 - Pour and scrape the batter into the tin and bake for about 40 minutes until the cake is beginning to come away at the edges, is springy to the touch on top and a cake-tester comes out clean. 

7 - Take out cake and leave to cool for an hour.

Assembly

1 - When you take out the cake from the oven, take out your ice cream from the freezer.

2 - When cake is completely cool (about an hour), remove it from the spring form pan, and slice in half horizontally (Tip: Sticking toothpicks into the side of the cake at the halfway mark at regular intervals all the way around will help you guide your knife and cut it evenly)

3 - Put the bottom half back into the spring form pan (exposed side facing up). Handle the cake carefully as it will be delicate but don't worry too much about mistakes as you can cover a multitude of sins with the ice cream and fudge sauce.

4 - Evenly spread the first layer (1 litre) of ice cream on top of the half cake in the baking tin, making sure to spread it all the way to the edges. Follow with the second flavour, again spreading evenly and round the edges.

5 - Cover with the top half of the cake. Wrap the tin in cling film and place back into the freezer.

Fudge sauce

Make the fudge sauce about 10 minutes before you intend to serve the cake.

1 - Break the chocolate up and melt it (I melt chocolate in a Pyrex bowl placed in a wok partially filled with water)

2 - When melted, take the chocolate off the heat and stir in the cream, stirring continuously.

3 - You want it quite liquid as it will harden once it is poured onto the frozen cake so add milk to get it to a liquid consistency (think the consistency of gravy).

4 - When you are ready to serve the cake, place spring form tin on a large plate, open up the clasp and lift the side of the tin off the cake. 

5 - Pour the hot fudge sauce over the top, drizzling some down the sides. I kept half of the fudge sauce and poured a bit over each individual slice.

Tip: To cut the ice cream cake, have a pitcher of hot water nearby and dip the knife into it in between cutting each slice

Irene's Meat Pies

I don't need to explain meat pies to any Nigerian readers. For non-Nigerian readers, meat pies are a snack food similar to Jamaican Patties (but I think all Nigerians would agree that meat pies are better ;p). We had them during our lunch breaks at school, bought them from Mr. Biggs (a Nigerian fast food joint), they form an integral part of any good 'small chops' plate - in fact meat pies are to Nigerians what cold water is to garri. Hmmm, okay, for a non- Nigerian metaphor ... okay, got one, meat pies are to Nigerians what a tea bag is to tea - absolutely essential! Good comparison huh ;p

Despite being so 'essential', I might have made them once in home economics class at school but never since. I got my meat pie fixes from parties and Chicken Republic on my yearly visits to Nigeria and from my friend Irene in between. Irene makes great meat pies (not often enough by any means) but enough that I never felt the need to learn how to make them myself. In fact, she gave me this recipe a long while ago, after she first made them for us, but I never felt the need to use it till now. 'Why?' I hear you ask. Because friends, my 'friend' Irene decided to move back to Nigeria! Did she stop to think of the consequences this would have on her meat pie loving friends??? Nope! Luckily, I stepped up, tried Irene's recipe and realised that in lieu of her actually being here to make them, she had left the next best thing; a great recipe. So without further ado, here it is!

I'd never made pastry before but following Irene's instructions, it was easy peasy.

Makes approximately 18 pies

Ingredients

Pastry

500g plain flour

5 tablespoons of cold butter

1 level teaspoon salt

1 level teaspoon nutmeg

Warm water

Filling

250g beef mince

1 onion, finely cubed

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 large potatoes (not baking potatoes), peeled and finely cubed

1 carrot, peeled and finely cubed

Handful of peas and sweetcorn

Seasoning (thyme, black pepper, salt)

Assembly

Flour

One egg, beaten with a dash of milk

Pastry

1 - Measure the flour into a clean, dry bowl. Add the salt and nutmeg and stir together

2 - Break off the 5 tablespoons of butter (large spoon fulls) and add to the flour

3 - With your hands, rub the butter into the flour piece by piece until it all disappears and the flour is crumbly. Add one more tablespoon of butter if necessary. The flour should be crumbly but light. This process should take you at least 10 minutes. Any quicker and you're being too heavy handed.  As you rub the butter into the flour, lift it and let it fall back into the bowl, this is to allow air into it.

4 - Add water to the mix, tablespoons at a time kneading it with your hands until the dough bonds together completely leaving the bowl clean. You don't want the pastry too dry so it is crumbly; you need to be able to roll it out.

5 - Wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

 Meat pies are all about the pastry, practice makes perfect

Preheat oven to 180ºC

Filling

1 - In a pan or wok, heat up 4 tablespoons of oil, and on low heat, add the onions and garlic.

2 - When browned, add the mince and fry for a couple of minutes till mince is cooked.

3 - Add a cup of water and the rest of the vegetables and leave to simmer for a few minutes then add seasoning to taste. Season however you want; add chillies if you want it spicy.

4 - Leave to cook on low heat until all the water is absorbed and the potatoes and carrots are cooked and tender. Turn off and allow to cool.

Assembly

1 - Clean and dry a counter surface and sprinkle with flour.

2 - I roll all the pastry out in one go but you can do it in two lots if your surface isn't big enough. Dust your rolling pin with flour and roll out your pastry. Not too thin.

3 - Cut using a cutter - I use a large mug to get relatively small pies. If you want larger pies, use something larger to cut. I make circles over all of the rolled out dough and then gather the in between pieces into a ball ready to roll out for the next batch.

4 - Fill (but don't over fill) your pastry on one side with mix. Keep mix away from edges. Keeping a small bowl of water nearby and dipping one finger in, run your wet finger in a semi circle round the edge of your circle where you intend the ends of the meat pie to meet. This helps bond the dough when you fold the empty half of your pastry circle over the half with the filling.

5 - Using your fingers, press down on the ends and then using a fork, seal all the way round and pierce a couple of times in the middle to allow the heat to escape when baking.

6 - Repeat until all your pies are ready. Place pies on a baking tray and using a small brush, brush lightly with beaten egg and milk.

7 - Bake in pre-heated oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown.

My Baking Adventures!

I have always loved baking and because I know my creations taste great, I have never been too fussed about how they look. My housemate (who is very into baked goods and their appearances) has actually laughed at my cakes a few times. This one time, at band camp it was a Victoria Sponge which had risen in the oven and then fallen as soon as I took it out so it was too thin to slice in two. 'No biggie', I thought, 'I'll just put the cream and strawberries on top in the manner of a tart'. And I was perfectly happy with this until my housemate came in, took one look at it, pointed with one hand and burst out laughing while trying to stifle his laughter with the other hand. Another time, I had made a layer cake but only had enough frosting to cover the top of it so the sides were frosting-less - he said it looked half naked! But it never bothered me ... until I started baking cupcakes. Because let's be honest, cupcakes are all about appearances! A layer cake will always taste better than a cupcake but what cupcakes have is the potential to look so amazing that you actually have a pang of regret when you bite into them. And now I'm very into appearances, not just of my cupcakes but all my cakes!

There are some really talented bakers around like Faithy The Baker and 4 Goodness Cake and they have inspired me to work on learning to frost cakes so that one day I too might make incredible cake creations just like theirs! But practice makes perfect so there is a lot of baking and frosting in my future before I'm even close. Starting with a cupcake decorating course at the make lounge in November - I can't wait! If anyone knows of any other good cake decorating or even baking courses in London, please do let me know! I might invest in a 'cake decorating for dummies' book after in order to continue learning and progressing. Again, if anybody can recommend any good BEGINNERS cake decorating books, then please let me know.

I'm sure it's not coincidence that I'm trying to improve my craft around the same time that I have realised that I would like to take this baking thing more seriously and start baking for parties and events from home. I had a taste of mass baking the last couple of weekends. I made a huge, rather rude cake for a friend's Hen Party a couple of weekends ago despite much initial protest on my part that I had never made a willy cake and wouldn't even know where to start. After much discussion with my cousin (who begged, pleaded and cajoled me into making the cake), I decided to make a vanilla sponge cake with a strawberry cream filling and vanilla buttercream icing using the recipe for the vanilla cupcakes I blogged about here. And then for the piece de resistance, we bought a willy mould into which I poured melted chocolate and voila – an 8 inch chocolate willy! Due to the fact that I’d like my blog to have a U rating, I’m not going to post pictures but email me if you’d like to see one!

My baking the following weekend was more family friendly – 60 cupcakes; half of them vanilla with vanilla buttercream frosting (as per my previous post) and half red velvet with cream cheese frosting (which I’ll blog about in the future). Despite only being able to bake 12 at a time, I really enjoyed the process and it seemed everyone really enjoyed the results!

So if you’re in London and you need some cupcakes, a cake, anything baked really, for an event or party, let me know!

In other news, Nigella has a new book out; Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home which has been promptly added to my Amazon wish list! Bring on Christmas or Amazon might send me an angry email telling me to stop adding books to my wish list unless I start buying books from it!

Have an amazing weekend and week people!