Grand Ole Lisa

Today is my birthday!

And this is my birthday cake.

It should really say 'Grand Ole Lisa' cos, 23, yikes! Haha.

Something Nashville/country related was definitely a top option for this years birthday cake because I still love country music, this year I watched the first season of Nashville pointing out all the places I'd been, and I still start sentences with, 'When I was in Nashville...' even though it was September that I went there.

The main cake is a Victoria sponge covered in fondant icing with the Grand Ole Opry logo on it.

Cutting out letters is not easy. I printed out the logo, cut out all the letters and lay them on top of the icing then cut around them with a knife. I stuck them on the main cake with jam.

The cupcakes around the main cake represent the circle of stage that was taken from the original home of the Grand Ole Opry and put into the stage of the new place so everybody would be standing on the same floor.

I made the candles into the iconic mic stands using paper with the words printed on.

See my previous birthday cakes here, here, here and here!

Acme building

The Acme building is finished!

You can see progress of this project here and here.

I put a Kenny Chesney poster in the window because that's what was there when I saw the building in person.

I did my best to distress the brick work like the original building.

I think these are the best windows I've ever made. Might have something to do with using a super sharp scalpel for a change. 

The the roads signs I printed out the images from the internet (finding the right ones took a lot longer than I thought it would) and taped them to a thin brass rod which I stuck in holes that I'd drilled in the MDF base.

Now I'm off to put this in an exhibition with a few of my other pieces!

Best Cookie Ever?

When I was in Nashville I had The Best Cookie Ever.

I'm pretty sure it was the best.

No others from my cookie-eating history stick out as the best.

And, I only had half of it. I only needed half of it cos it was so full of awesome!

(And I was sharing it with my sister)

Here's a fun video of me describing my lunch, which included the cookie, in my best southern accent.

We had an hour to kill before seeing the Kings of Leon. What else was I supposed to do!

(Southern-me cracks me up. Also, who remembers when I didn't have braces?!)

The other day I thought I'd like to do some baking, so I flicked through a recipe book and landed on oat and raisin cookies. And then I thought, 'what if I could make them like the Nashville cookie?'

This is what I came up with.

Note: I was trying to replicate the flavour, not the look of the cookie. Clearly.

I remembered the Nashville cookie tasted of mixed spice and had visible carrot in it.

The recipe I was using had neither of those things, but I put them in anyway!

Yep, I'm a recipe renegade!

The cookies didn't turn out too bad. I'm definitely on the right track.

I think next time I could afford to put in more mixed spice and more carrot.

Also more butter because they were a little crumbly, but the recipe called for 4 tablespoons of butter and I like to be more precise and use grams or ounces like a normal person.

Here's the recipe if anyone is interested:

4 tbsp butter

125g caster sugar

1 egg

50g plain sugar

1/2 tsp salt

(I've just realised I forgot to put in the salt. I didn't miss it)

1/2 tsp baking powder

175g porridge oats

125g raisins

I added: 1 small carrot, grated, and many shakes of mixed spice

15 minutes on Gas Mark 4

What's your Best Cookie Ever?

Nashville!

I'm back from my holiday!

Did you miss me?

Now, I don't know how interesting people find other people's holiday photos, but I'm going to share just a few of mine anyway and give you a little recap of what I got up to.

Today I'll show you Nashville.

It's fair to say I was pretty excited to be in Nashville.

My first impression was that it was so warm! Even at 6 o'clock in the evening when we arrived.

My second impression was that everyone was so friendly! Mainly the bus drivers, who were super helpful. We used buses the whole time we were there, not one taxi, and I'm very proud of myself for figuring out the public transport system.

Downtown Nashville is awesome!

There was live music coming out of every bar as you walked along the streets.

And it was country music. And I knew the songs. That doesn't happen in England.

It was great not to be the minority when it comes to being a country music fan.

(Note how I'm not wearing tights or a cardigan even though I packed plenty. It was like a proper summer!!)

That's me with Taylor Swift's actual laptop!

Boy oh boy, exciting stuff.

That was at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum which had an exhibition of all of Taylor's costumes and props from her Speak Now tour.

That's my sister Joss and I on stage at the Grand Ole Opry!

We took the backstage tour which was very informative and I especially liked the video pieces by Blake Shelton.

You see the circle of stage we're standing on that's different to the rest?

That's a piece of stage taken from the original home of the Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, so that everyone who performs there gets to stand on the same stage as the greats.

That evening we saw the show at the Opry which was amazing.

The performers were Lori Morgan, Riders in the Sky (they wrote the 'Woody's Roundup' song from Toy Story!), Jimmy Wayne, Connie Smith, Bill Anderson, Kellie Picker (pictured), and Dierks Bentley. So good!

The highlights for me were Kellie Pickler singing 'I Wonder' and Dierks Bentley singing 'Home'. I love those songs.

On one of the days we walked round Hillsboro Village which is full of lovely little shops.

It's also where the Pancake Pantry is.

So good!

Go on their website and listen to their theme song. It is hella catchy.

One evening we were walking round our neighbourhood, which was basically Music Row, and I noticed the building which houses Big Machine Records. That's the label Taylor is on.

I'm not a stalker, I just recognised it from google maps....again, not a stalker.

We were also walking around hoping to catch a glimpse of filming for the new tv show Nashville (which I watched the pilot episode of on the flight over). They were setting up equipment at the top of our road but we didn't manage to see any of the actors. Still very exciting!

On our last full day in Nashville we saw the Kings of Leon!

They were being awarded a star of the Music City Walk of Fame.

We only found out about the event the day before.

Check it out; it's Caleb!

In the evening my sister and I watched to local news to see the coverage of the event and to our surprise there was a shot of us!!

Check out this clip and see if you can spot us.

(Here's a clue - we're both wearing hats!)

So that means we're pretty much famous now.

And then it was on to New York, but I'll leave that for another day