Food Bloggers Unplugged...learning about the baker behind the blog!

I was tagged by Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker to answer a few questions about myself and my love of baking! 

1. What, or who inspired you to start a blog?

I can definitely say cupcakes inspired me to start my blog (no surprises there!) I had just been on holiday to South Africa and it was the first time I had seen devoted cupcakeries that were decorated so beautifully and it got me thinking about all the cupcakes I had tried around the world on my travels at different times. I decided it would be fun to start a blog to document them all, and slowly baking recipes crept in to it too! and what was even better was that so many cute devoted cupcakeries started to pop up in England too! I still find myself basing future holidays/day trips around visiting cupcakeries!

2. Who is your foodie inspiration?

It has to be Martha Stewart.  I received her 'Cupcakes' book as a birthday present 2 and a half years ago, and I didn't realise at the time it was the starting point in what is now a very huge baking/cupcake library of mine! She has been wowing the world of sweet toothers like myself for nearly 30 years with her cookbooks, tv shows and magazines, and she's still coming up with amazing and delish recipes! Plus she's an inspiration to me due to the fact that this past August she turned 70! I just about fell off my chair when I discovered earlier this year her actual age.  She looks amazing for a 70 year old and so I'm hoping if I spend my life baking and devouring just as much sugar as her that I can look forward to looking that good when I'm 70 too! 

3. Your greasiest, batter - splattered food/drink book is?

Definitely my Cupcakes by Martha book! In fact my most used recipe, the famous brownie cupcakes, has now fallen out of the book (due to overuse) so it's just as well I know it by heart now!  I've also got more than my fair share of stuck on icing/butter smears in The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook because in the early days it was my go to for frostings.   When we moved abroad last year, my sisters were eager to look after my baking books for me whilst we were gone! and I thought I had retrieved all of them until a few months ago when I was browsing through Hummingbird's book at my sisters flat and I told her I had a butter smear in the exact same place on the vanilla frosting page in my Hummingbird book, she promptly admitted she had never owned that recipe book herself and so in fact it was my book! 

4. Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?

Wow, what a hard question! One of my very favourite things about travelling is all the new cuisine you get to try and I have eaten so many amazing things in so many different countries that it's hard to narrow it down.  Of course our most recent travels to Turks and Caicos produced probably some of the most gourmet food I have ever eaten, many of the restaurants on that little tiny island are world class! So I'll share some of the things I ate there with you...as they're probably more exciting than me telling you that it was Root Beer ice cream in Georgia, an In-N-Out burger in California or a frulatta in South Africa (but all 3 of those are still pretty far up there!)

So I present to you Coyaba's Key Lime Pie....hands down the best Key Lime Pie I have ever eaten or ever will eat! I was slightly disappointed when it arrived that it didn't have cream or meringue on top as many other K.L.P's do, but my disappointment quickly faded away as I bit into it and realised it didn't need it! This was melt in your mouth, tongue tingling amazingness! and I'm only sorry that the restaurant we had it at was so far out of our price range that we couldn't go back for round 2! 

The next best thing I ate whilst in the Caribbean was this huuuge slice of Coconut Cream Pie at Coco Bistro. Would you just look at that massive layer of silky coconut cream! It was the best...

Of course it wasn't all sweet things, we ate a whole lot of conch as well.  We even attended the Annual Turks and Caicos Conch Festival! and while there I ate one of the best savoury things...it was a Conch Taco! and it was so delicious, we voted it best in show!

5. Another food bloggers table you'd like to eat at is?

What a great question! For the savoury side of things I would love to eat at Chef in Training's table because Nikki could whip me up tasty Mexican dishes like a cheesy enchilada stack or lime chicken tacos with a side of her mom's homemade refried beans! I would definitely have to head on over to Steph of Raspberri Cupcakes for dessert because a slice of s'mores cheesecake, mint chocolate Aero cake or kiwi fruit & pineapple upside down cake would go down a treat! 

6. What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?

I have wanted an ice cream maker for quite some time now...and if money is no object then this is definitely the gadget of my affection! It's purple and it even has compartments especially for sprinkles...need I say more?

7. Who taught you how to cook?

My husband suggested I write back of the pizza box for this question, nice hey? but the truth of the matter is that he is really the one that taught me how to cook...but we both agree he's still better at it which is why I've answered the way I have on the question below! 

8. I'm coming to you for dinner what's your signature dish?

You mean my husbands signature dish? you see in our house he's the chef and I'm the baker.  So if you came to our house for dinner we (and I mean Byron) would most likely cook you up some Caribbean pork chops with mango gravy because pork chops are his thing!, and I'd bake you up dessert - Key Lime Pie maybe? and you could wash it all down with our homemade Oreo milkshakes! Yes we're not fine diners...but that's fine by me.

9. What is your guilty food pleasure? 


Corn Dogs! and I didn't realise it had to be a guilty food pleasure until recently after mentioning them a few times in front of other Americans who've looked at me funny for getting so excited about 'the things on sticks you get at ball games'.  I'm pretty certain if I track down anywhere in England that sells them, you can guarantee I'm going to do a song and dance about it, like the one time I found them at Costco (never to be found again) and the time they suddenly appeared on The Diner's menu in London...and the time I found them at our local supermarket in Turks and Caicos after weeks of being there - I may or may not have declared it my happiest day of our Caribbean living up until that moment! 


Of course I had to take a picture to document my delight! 

10. Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?

When I was younger I was a very fussy eater, and only ate 18 foods...one of those being gherkins! which my friends were very surprised about! Fortunately I met Byron and he made me try all kinds of crazy things I would have never eaten before, and he has really expanded my palate! for which I'm ever so grateful because eating the same foods can get very boring after a while! I've still got some way to go, like on our honeymoon in Mauritius when we were meant to be having a fancy honeymoon lobster dinner at the snazzy hotel restaurant and Byron had to especially request that they served me chicken instead...but I've come a long way!

Finally...tag 5 other food bloggers with these questions...like a hot baked potato...pass it on!

1. Nikki from Chef in Training

2. Katie of Apple and Spice

3. Kasey from A Sparkley Silver Lining

4. Hayley from The Domestic Rebel

5. Kelly from Kell's Kitchen

If you have been tagged, please link up your entry here and if you tweet, use #foodbloggersunplugged on twitter. 

Enjoy!