Just a quick one! Some Grand Prix F1 cupcakes for a friend. Stuart is 34 today, therefore why all the little cars have 34 on them.

The chequered flags were all drawn on by hand (with an edible pen!) and the road lines were painted on by hand.

I really loved having a play with these – I’m due to make some Jubilee cupcakes later this week and need a little inspiration. Will you be doing any cupcakes this week?

One thing that surprised me most after having Baby T was that the Baby Belly just didn’t want to budge. It seems that 3 babies are just too much for those poor stomach muscles. I must be honest though, I have a healthy addiction to cake and crisps and they don’t help my sylph like figure either.

I have discovered exercise though and am pleased to report that today, as a result of being more active (and still eating all the kids’ Easter Eggs), I threw out my ‘big jeans’. Hurrah!

If you too, are hoping to throw out your big troosers (its a good excuse to go shopping for more), then I can help.

I’m happy to say I have teamed up with Sportsshoes.com to offer one lucky reader a brand new pair of trainers up to the value of £90. How fab is that?

There’s a huge selection of running shoes available, to help you look and feel fabulous as you are exercising (or lets face it, just wear everyday) View the range here:

The winner will choose a pair of running shoes up to the value of £90 which will be sent out directly.
To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment – if you want to tell me, where you would wear the trainers that would be great.

For extra chances to enter, you can also do the following:

* Follow Casa Costello on Networked Blogs – and leave a separate comment saying you have done.
* Follow Casa Costello on Facebook – and leave a separate comment again.
* Tweet the following “I have entered @HelenatAardvark’s fabulous giveaway to win Sports Shoes to the value of £90 http://t.co/S4nzZXFJ” – and leave a comment telling me you have done.
* Follow @HelenatAardvark on Twitter for more giveaways coming up and frankly more of the same drivel I speak here! And you know the score, leave a comment please

The competition will end on Saturday 2nd June at 9PM _ a winner will be chosen from a random number generator as soon as possible after this. Thanks for entering – Good Luck!

Here’s some small terms and conditions (It’s just the usual stuff, nothing scary)

1. Competition is only available to individuals aged 18 and over.

2. The prize will be sent out within 28 days.

3. The prize must be redeemed within 6 months.

4. The prize will be a pair of running shoes selected from www.sportsshoes.com/running up to the value of £90.

5. Sportsshoes.com reserves the right to provide a substitute prize of a similar value should the specified prize become unavailable for reasons beyond its control. Cash or credit alternatives will not be offered.

6. Sportsshoes reserves the right to amend, suspend or cancel the competition without notice and/or review and revise these terms and conditions at any time without giving prior notice.

7. The publisher’s decision is final.

This cake could also be tagged as the cake that nearly led to divorce/a breakdown. Its fair to say, it hasn’t been an easy week – sometimes being a mother of 3, running my own business just catches up with me. Matched with people making a LOT of demands on me, not returning my calls/emails and people letting us down, it has made for a stressful week.

Not the fault of the couple who ordered this cake though – they were completely lovely. Very organised with pictures of themselves, swatches of the correct tartan and detailed descriptions of how they saw the cake but with enough freedom to be creative.

The cake itself wasn’t without its problems – I had to remake the middle chocolate tier as it was a massive explosion in the oven. The blue dress just didn’t sit right the first time I made it so that got redone too and I nearly forgot the pinky sandals and french manicure on the lady – Yep, every little detail was included.

I did have some lovely moments with the cake though. The couple’s 9yo son said it was the best cake he had ever seen (He can come again!) and I just loved making the man’s beard.

We had another good week of entries for Cake of the Week last week.
Sarah gave us a wonderfully simple (but so neat) piano cake.

Jackie has made a welcome return to Cake of the Week with a fabulous football cake

I promise to try to be a little more cheerful next week – another busy week ahead but hopefully it will be a good one. In the meantime, this crazy little one is bound to make things ok …

So what will you be up to this week? Cheer me up with some of your fabulous creations.

A totally new cake for me this week (Yay!) and the reason that Cake of the Week is running slightly late – Oops, we were out partying and then out with friends last night (Yep, we have some!)

Anyway, on with the cakes – I have to admit that I had to google Raa Raa the Noisy Lion as I had never heard of it. The eldest girls have moved on from CBeebies and Tara just isn’t interested in TV – weird, I know! Raa Raa seems like a friendly chap but the size of his head gave me cold sweats. Even with a creme egg body, I still struggled to keep him upright but managed to lean him next to the cake.

The colours on the cake matched Ruby’s napkins, tablecloths etc at her party – I was really pleased with the combination. The ‘tree trunk’ was made using a cake pillar and some leaves on wires poked into the middle.

The girls had the most amazing time at the party. Vi bonded with another little girl that she goes swimming with and Millie played Mum with Tara -bonus! And it was held in our close, so we didn’t have far to stagger home. Perfect.

Last week’s Cake of the Week linkup was brilliant – I’m loving exploring the new blogs I’m coming across and the creations out there are wonderful.  Kate from Five F’s gave us a wonderful sounding Lavender Cake – I’ve not used lavender in cake yet but keep intending to after the success of the Lavender Cookies. Lisa showed us her first attempt at a number 13 birthday cake for her son – she really made me laugh at her horror of the tins not having bottoms – we’ve all had the same thoughts, Lisa!

Julie from MyLifeandKids amazed me with this fantastic Peppa Pig Cake – I tend to shy away from Building cakes but from seeing this I want to give one a go.

And then I came across this from Angie at Cakesphotolife – Wow!! Angie says in her post that she is proud of this cake – and so she should be. I really must get to grips with my Giant Cupcake tin but seeing this wonder gives me the jitters. Just fantastic!

Thanks so much everyone who takes part in Cake of the Week, I completely love it that the cake community is so strong and supporting of each other.

This week’s event is the burying of a Time Capsule in the local church garden after Church Parade (which we have never managed to make it to yet but that’s another story).

Our brief is to find something that is no bigger than Vi’s fist. The item has to be something that reminds her of her childhood, a happy memory or a holiday that she has been on. A memory?? SHe’s only 5!

Anything that she associates with her childhood, she still plays with – in fact she nearly had meltdown at the thought that Pink Elephant might get buried. Its a real worry that days after the Capsule has been buried she might want the item back.

So what are we burying? Well, Mummy Pig it looks like your time is nigh. (To be honest, we’ve got 3 of them and Vi has always said Mummy Pig is really boring but who’s telling?) Let’s hope she’s not claustrophobic!

Let me out!!

Its been a while since I got any real satisfaction from trying out a new recipe – I’ve done some baking but the recipes have either been too complicated or I haven’t been that happy with the results. Not one to give up though, I tried a new combination yesterday and it worked!!

I introduce my Jammy Muffins with Streusel – Why has no-one told me how delicious streusel is earlier? (that grammar is pants, I know but I’m too tired to care)

Ingredients:
For the streusel:
4oz (90g) cold butter
2oz (60g) demerara sugar
1.5oz (45g) plain flour

For the muffins:
10oz (315g) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp bicarb of soda
pinch salt
4oz (125g) cold butter
4oz (125g) caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract (or seeds from a pod)
8oz (250g) milk or cream (I used full fat)
12 tsp jam of your choice (I used raspberry)

Recipe makes 12 good sized muffins

Make the streusel first:
Mix together the butter, flour and sugar – cut through with a knife until in small lumps and stick in the freezer until the muffins are ready to go in the oven.

For the muffins:
Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder & bicarb in a large bowl.
In a mixer, blend the sugar and butter until fluffy.
Add the eggs and vanilla one at a time.
Add the milk/cream and flour alternately until just mixed.
Put 1 tbsp of cake batter into muffin cases.
Add 1 tsp of jam into each case.
Distribute the rest of the batter mixture on top of the jam.

Get the streusel out of the freezer and sprinkle over each muffin.

Bake for 16-18 minutes until golden and a knitting needle comes out clean when pierced (try to avoid going through the jammy bit! )

These taste amazing when they are still warm but definitely try to eat them on the same day.

My box this month was exactly what being in a penpal scheme is all about. Exploring new tastes and products, whilst getting to know someone at the same time. My second month of being in the Foodie Penpal gang and our numbers are growing.

My penpal for this month, was Andrea from Made With Pink (a blog I could just read for hours – so pretty). Andrea said she was worried in case I already owned everything foodie and cakey – Dear Andrea, a girl can NEVER have too much baking stuff. When my parcel arrived, I was delighted. Andrea is originally from Canada and during a recent trip home, did her Foodie Penpal shopping – how lucky am I?

What did I get?

* Lemon Whoopie Pie Mix = I’m going to have a go at these this weekend. Can’t wait!
* Movie Theatre Popcorn = The girls are very eager to break into this.
* Some Maple Extract – I’m having great fun coming up with ideas that I can put this into. Gammon with Maple and Honey is springing to mind.
* A Coffee Crisp – Like a Coffee flavoured Creme Egg
* Cinnamon Roll frosting flavouring – I’m a new convert to cinnamon so this will go down a treat.

Thank you, Andrea – I love my parcel.

Of course, I sent a parcel out too – Mine was some little pink tagine pots (Which I have tried not to think about every day since I sent them but I’m going buying some tomorrow), some ‘proper’ chocolate and a selection of nuts. Yep, I forgot to take a picture but I believe my recipient, Sarah from NorthWestNosh was as in love with the little pots as I was.

Foodie Penpals are co-ordinated by Carol Anne from ThisisRockSalt – get it touch if you want to join the gang. We’re not that scary! The original idea is from Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband rang me and gave me some news that I thought would never happen – We had won 2 tickets to see the Synchronised Swimming at the Olympics in London in August.
I’ve always talked about seeing the synchro at the Olympics, well before it was confirmed that they would be happening in London and certainly, well before Millie started being involved with synchronised swimming.
We didn’t even enter the draw to win tickets though as the timing of the Games clashed with our holiday in France. So imagine my surprise to get a call saying that through being a member of our swimming club, we had been entered into a draw to win some tickets that they are allocated.
But we still had the problem of being in a different country to where the Games were taking place. So what did we do? We only booked flights back from our hols for Millie & Me – Yes, we are taking a holiday from our holiday and it has cost a fortune. We have had to book 2 nights in London (yep, leaving OH in France on his own with the 2 littlies) – our connections were just too tight to chance arriving on the morning of the Olympics.

The big economy drive is now on – aside from the usual (promising to have this trip as my birthday present for the next 5 years), we are doing the following to try to make the expense a bit more bearable:
• Trying to cut down on short local trips in the car to save on diesel
• Working out the best deals on Gas/Electricity prices through different suppliers.
• Turning off every electrical item/light that we don’t need to be turned on – We sometimes have every light on in the house when no-one is in the room.
• Buying shops own brand items wherever we think we won’t be able to tell a difference.
• Buying in bulk when it is a product that we know we will use (We save a fortune on Washing powder from Costco)
Can you think of any other tips for saving a fortune?

Hope you enjoy the video – filmed just last week at the Olympic Stadium of Team GB – Eek! I’m so excited to be going there!

Of all the characters, I make, Upsy Daisy has got to be one of my least favourites. There’s so much that can go wrong with her (her spikes can break if you just look at them funny) and there’s tons of detail that takes forever. Every time I make one I say, ‘Never again’ … until the next time.

Iggle Piggle is a joy to make in comparison – as long as I remember to make his body a couple of days in advance to dry (which I did this time – no Creme Eggs or Walnut Whips necessary for this one)\

So, I guess, what I’m saying is don’t expect many In the Night Garden cakes to be featured here – I’m not saying never, I’m just saying Not Often

It was a great week for the Cake of the Week linky last week:

We had a delicious looking (and flour free – does that make it gluten free?) chocolate roulade from Cara & Emma came back for a second visit with an intriguing Coconut Milk Layer Cake. Over at the Five F’s, Kate is getting familiar with sugarpaste and finding just how much colouring is needed for vivid colours with this very neat Football Cake (Tip: I always buy my deep coloured sugarpaste ready made – have spent too long mixing reds and blacks).

After posting my Peppa Pig tutorial earlier this week, I was shown an amazing Peppa and Friends cake by @JudeandOllie – I could spend days looking at the amount of detail in this cake. Wonderful!

I also want to introduce you to my new apprentice, my daughter Millie. I didn’t know I had an apprentice until yesterday when she brought me her Playdoh rose – Just shows that they watch every little thing that you do!

Link is up as usual – share with us your creations over the next week. Looking forward to seeing them.