114. Links Worth Sharing - Baking Special

Hello everyone, as the Great British Bake Off finished this week, it only feels right to upload a baking related post this weekend. Firstly, for any fellow GBBO fans, what did you all think of the final? Personally, I found it to be the most emotional one yet! I was crying at Nadiya's winning speech and both her and her family's reaction but then when they showed Mary with tears in her eyes, I had a full on breakdown. Nadiya deserved to win as she improved her baking every week. I am so proud of how far she's come over the course of the series, especially in terms of confidence. The other two finalists did amazingly too, especially during the showstopper challenge. Nadiya's wedding cake was gorgeous and I'm sure any couple would be happy with that on their big day. Tamal's showstopper, which was inspired by an abandoned Chinese fishing village, may not have been quintessentially British but it is the most beautiful cake I've ever seen. His sugar work was superb. Also, Ian's Colossal Carrot Cake certainly lived up to its name, I have no idea how he managed to make 10 cakes in 4 hours, hats off to him. I'm really going to miss GBBO but can't wait for the new series of The Apprentice which starts on Wednesday.

Now back in June, I did a post called Links Worth Sharing which is exactly what it says on the tin. Regularly, I share links on my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts so figured I should do the same on my blog too as you probably have similar interests to me if you are reading my content in the first place. I have three baking themed links to share this time around and two of them are science related, enjoy!

1. The Cakes of Science - Now if you enjoy baking and happen to study/work in science like myself then you will thoroughly enjoy this picture heavy article featured in The Guardian. My personal favourites are the first periodic table cupcakes shown in the article as it is the perfect excuse to justify making 114 cupcakes and the cake which has a message written in DNA base code.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/gallery/2015/aug/12/the-cakes-of-science

2. Now strictly speaking, this isn't baking related but more to do with the fruits of your culinary labour - here is The Scientific Way of Cutting a Cake. Yes ladies and gentlemen, for centuries, we have all been doing it wrong. Watch this video, it will make cake even better than it already is.

3. It was my best friend's birthday last month so I baked her some cupcakes because she liked them when I baked them for my Parkinson's Awareness Week bake sale back in April. I want to improve my piping technique and found this video by Cupcake Jemma to be really useful.  

Here are the cupcakes I baked for my friend which were vanilla cupcakes with a blue vanilla buttercream icing topped with wafer daisies to finish them off with an overall pastel coloured look:

Hopefully the above links don't leave you feeling too hungry. Have a great week and see you next weekend!
Until next time, take care.
Love,
Mancunian Sheep x