Having a birthday is something that all of us celebrate every year, spending it with family, friends and loved ones.Special birthdays usually end up calling for a big party - your 18th, 21st, 30th, etc. etc. and ultimately, the biggest birthday of them all, your 100th!

Well, on the 31st May 2015, one lovely lady from Sheffield, Winnie Blagden, who has lived in the city her entire life, was doing just that, celebrating her 100th birthday.  There was one thing missing in dear Winnie's life to help her celebrate her landmark birthday - she had no living relatives to celebrate with. However, she does have some wonderful carers from Serenta Homecare, who enlisted the help of BBC Radio Sheffield in arranging a surprise for her. Initially, this was going to be a surprise tour round the radio station, as she has been an avid listener for quite some time. Well, BBC Radio Sheffield, thought they could go one better and launched a Facebook campaign to arrange a few cards and letters for her to open on her big day. Little did they realise the power that social media could have on such a thoughtful plight. By the morning of 15th May, the day after the campaign was launched, over 2 million people had seen the post and it had been shared all over the world! From one small appeal, it grew and grew. As Radio Sheffield received more and more cards and presents, they thought it would be a lovely idea to present them to her in a nice way for Winnie to remember. So, they arranged for her to have tea with the Lord Mayor of Sheffield. She thought she was just having tea and cakes.

I was one of the 6 million people that saw the Facebook post and decided to offer my cake making services. I just thought it was such a lovely thing that BBC Radio Sheffield was doing, making this lovely lady's birthday a memorable one. Obviously, the radio station had been inundated with requests to send cards, presents and others offering their services, so I was extremely excited when I had a reply saying "Yes, we would love to take you up on your offer". The theme was to be nostalgic/vintage, so I set my brain to work. Having recently discovered brush embroidery icing, I thought this would fit perfectly with the theme. 42 beautifully iced cupcakes later (some lavender, some sponge), I was all set to participate in the Winnie's big day.

Well yesterday was my birthday so this weekend I have spent with my family enjoying being looked after! It's not often you get to share your birthday with the Queen either! We both had a fly past from a Lancaster Bomber - not bad at all :) I ate far too much chocolate i thought i was going to explode!

Well, this week has been a wonderful week for sitting out at lunchtimes enjoying a lovely cup of tea with toast and jam. It has also been a great week for creating yumminess in the kitchen. From blueberry muffins (which, it turns out, my daughter is far far better at making than I am!) to delicious fruit scones which went exceedingly well with butter, jam and clotted cream. This afternoons' baking involved a delicious blueberry and apple loaf courtesy of @utterlyscrummy on Twitter. I did give it my own little twist by replacing the apple juice with orange juice in the mix. Then covered it in beautifully glossy orange icing, grated orange zest and pretty little lavender flowers. It tastes simply divine when it is still warm!

Well it's here at last! My shiny new website! :) This will be my first ever blog - and the first of many no doubt! We've had a wonderful weekend of beautiful weather and what better way to spend it than with a slice of scrummy orange meringue pie and ice cream! But with a slight twist.........a hint of pink in the meringue to make it look even prettier.