It’s amazing how quickly you can forget how hot it felt during the summer. Autumn has well and truly hit us with dark mornings, cold winds and hammering rain.
I live fairly near the sea so I often get woken up by fog horns going off. They’re not hugely loud or abrasive sounds, but I’m quite a light sleeper so will often hear them. But anyway, autumn is here and cooler running is happily happening! I’m four weeks away from the New York Marathon which at the moment feels quite surreal. I think it’s because I’m only going Friday to Monday so it doesn’t feel like a “proper” holiday (or at least not a proper long-haul one). My training is continuing to go well, and by that I mean I’m suffering from no injuries and I’m managing to get the long runs in that I’ve planned. Happy days. More on that in another post.
Work is also tootling along nicely and I’m still enjoying the numerous cakes and baking exploits inspired by the Great British Bake Off. I swear not a day goes by that I don’t have some sort of baked item to scoff. It’s very much happy times right now. I’ll be sad when this is over!
I’ve enjoyed banana cake…
Cookies…
White chocolate brownies…
Lemon and mojito drizzle cake…
And Malteaser brownies.
I don’t know about you but I quite like having something sweet during the day to perk me up. Between my team (there are three of us) we have a snack box that we keep topped up with biscuits and chocolate. I’ve only recently discovered my new favourite obsession: M&M Caramel Crunch.
From speaking to other people (understand that this is a high topic of conversation for me) you either CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF THEM, or you’re absolutely not fussed. There is no middle ground. It gives me slight anxieties to know that they’re “limited edition” and could disappear at ANY MOMENT. It’s taken all the will power in the world to not buy 17 packets in Tesco when they were on offer for £1. That said, I probably have bought that many over the past few weeks. It’s becoming a problem.
And after a month off, Kyle and I went back to Sprinkles. We recognised we were going too often and decided September would be a Sprinkles (and similarly Scoops) Free Month. Now we’re out the other side and decided to treat ourselves for our hard work. We popped in there on Saturday… still as filling, sickly and ultimately amazing as usual.
I am well and truly a fan of waffles now.
And just further on the note of food (my favourite subject other than running)… I won a box of brownies on Instagram the other week! It was through my @AnnaTheCake88 account where I follow a million different restaurants and foodie accounts and someone was doing a giveaway of The Funky Brownie Co. and I got involved and somehow won.
They very kindly posted me six different brownies for free!
How good do they look? I haven’t yet tried them but they look to be a mix of blondies and brownies. They’re safely tucked away in the freezer for the right moment (i.e. a random Tuesday night…).
And I’ve realised that through Instagram you can pretty much buy any sort of baked good you want. Knowing Kyle liked fudge I bought some homemade fudge for a very reasonably price from a lady who lived literally 10 minutes from me. What a time to be alive eh! But please, someone take my cards away from me because knowing how easily this can be done I feel I’m in danger of going bankrupt very quickly…
I got him peanut butter fudge…
And vanilla fudge, both from Vanilla Lace Cakes in Fareham.
I’m actually not a huge fudge fan (surprisingly I know) but I did have a nibble. Very melt in your mouth sweet and smooth. Kyle loved them!
I do eat other food than cake of course, but this stuff is far more exciting, no? 😉
What’s your favourite fudge flavour?
Who’s your favourite on Bake Off?
What would be your signature bake?
Those brownies look so good!
Last summer, m n m’s did a hazelnut one which was amazing but sadly I think we only found them twice- I actually saw the caramel packet and got a moment of excitement where I thought it was the hazelnut ones back, but no, just caramel.
I am always shocked at how expensive fudge is- I usually make either peanut butter fudge or Christmas pudding fudge as gifts, and we keep the off cuts, so if I see it for sale and get tempted I just look at the price and work out how many batches I could make for the price of a few cubes.
Maria @ Maria Runs recently posted…A non-running weekend (and catching up in the week)
“Just caramel” hehe – these are my absolute dream! I can’t stop buying them when I see them for only a £1.
For someone who can’t really bake and certainly couldn’t make fudge, I’m happy to pay for the convenience hehe.
I bet you could make it- you made those jammy dodger blondies…
Ok, I’ve not tried those M&Ms and now I need to. Unfortunately my favourites are the ones you can only get in the US eg peanut butter. And they seem to be bringing out some in the spring that have a Nutella-like filling. I’ll need to try those!
I’m not much of a baker (although I love Bake Off) but earlier this week I tried a peanut butter fudge recipe that a colleague gave me and it actually worked! It’s not the prettiest looking thing ever, but it tastes yummy and I think I’ll try another batch to hone my skills…
Allison recently posted…Race Report – The Disneyland Paris Half Marathon 2018
I cannot wait to go to the M&M store in NY. I’m so excited. I’ve never been excited about M&Ms before haha.
I have cake envy. I’m currently dairy free as LK’s poos were a bit startling. Hopefully she’ll grow out of my needing to avoid moo juice soon enough…
Oh no!! But there are surely dairy free cakes? Vegan ones for example? Don’t deprive yourself 😉
I absolutely love baked goods! Glad you got to enjoy these. If I ever come to the UK again I am going to have to hang out with you and we’ll have to have a few days of eating together. I know there is this whole “Sugar is so bad” movement going on, but I agree with you that it’s really nice to have something sweet in the middle of the work day.
Oh definitely – I’d happily take you round all the good cake places 😉
I mean of course sugar in large doses is bad for you. But ANYTHING in large doses isn’t great. Just moderation and balance. No stress.
The baked goods all look amazing! My favourite in Bake Off was Briony so I’m sad she’s gone.
I went to Sprinkles the other day for a treat and because it’s been so long since I had anything like that it made me feel absolutely horrendous and I couldn’t even manage half of the jar! What’s happened to me?!