Happy Birthday, Ellebug!

I thought long and hard about the cake I would bake to celebrate one year of blogging, scratched many designs and flavours, and last night... I finally just did it. Instead of doing fancy buttercream designs like I had intended to, I decided to keep it simple and homey, very much what I like to think I am.

Some may beg to differ, but I'll talk to you lot later.

Anyway, I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who reads this blog, to my family and friends who have supported me, and also helped me move the ever-growing stock of desserts off my refrigerator shelves. I love you all. This past year has been so special for me; I found something I actually really love doing, a great combination of writing and baking, and it's just helped me so much.

I first started baking intensely after my first actual heartbreak, and I started blogging about baking after my second. I never realized until this past year how important it is to just take time for myself, to get to know who I am, to listen to how I feel and think about things; just quality time with myself, you know?

I'm in this place right now where I'm so happy with who I am and enjoying the fact that I've given up pretending to be somebody everyone else thinks I am or should be, and I have Ellebug, or The Happy Hufflepuff (hehe), to thank for it.

So here's to a year of baking, and hopefully, many more to come!

Isn't the Ellebug Cake the cutest thing? ;)

Ellebug Bakes

I've given the blog a bit of a revamp, changing the name from The Happy Hufflepuff to Ellebug. This is due to the fact that The Happy Hufflepuff is not a very sustainable name, considering the legalities involved with using a name from the Harry Potter world. If I am ever to branch out of blogging and open a bakery, I suppose I have start over as I intend to go on.



Ellebug is the name of my car, which was named for my sister - Elle - and the ladybug dashboard ornament she gifted me with when I first got the bug.

It's always been the intended name for a bakery, if I ever do open one. So why not start now, just in time for the new year?

Hope the change is accepted well, though.

Much love,
x Nabs

Dorkus Operandi

I did an interview for a grad magazine recently, as they're doing a pull-out on the Big 4 accounting firms, and want to feature associates with "interesting" hobbies outside of work. There are a slew of associates with ridiculously interesting hobbies in my firm, and they're all so damned talented, but I suppose I'm really dorky, so they want to appeal to a certain market. LOL

Jokes.

Anyway, I spoke about SnitchSeeker - the Harry Potter forum I've been helping to moderate for the past..... 7 years or so - and also about baking! YAY!

I also baked a small cake for a dinner party my parents hosted last week, the same recipe used for the Rose Cake, but in a 6-inch pan, and less fancy decorating. I've actually never simply just laid on frosting with a spatula, so this was kind of liberating.

Unfortunately, did not manage to get a picture of the cake before the party, and so I have a picture of half a cake. Damn. I loved how the cake turned out, though.

Can't wait to go home today and finish it up!