Day 5 - FFE - Cakes, Colleagues and Curry

Another overcast day hinting at sunshine greeted me this morning in Surbiton.  Piccola also greeted me, she is in charge of sleep monitoring and was very very busy last night.

My first order of the day was to ice my chocolate fudge cupcakes that I'd baked last night after our rain-soaked day in Brighton.  After the previous cupcake challenge I knew I had to step up my game a bit in the actual icing and decorating phase of the competition. 

I opted to do both a chocolate buttercream and an almond butter cream, piped in a delicate alp style and adorned with white chocolate accents, chocolate cake star cut outs, mini gold stars and gold cereal balls.  I wasn't going to receive lesser marks in the decorating department, not this time Mister!  After a few mishaps in the kitchen, really who says icing inside the toaster is a bad thing?, I managed to complete the process.  Meanwhile my competitor was cursing and swearing and wringing her hands in dismay.  She was peering through the oven door as her cupcakes both overflowed, and then sank in defeat.

Leaving her worries behind, we headed off to meet a few friends for lunch at Dish, a quaint eatery in Hampton Court Village. 



I had the traditional blt sandwich on lush seldom-seen white bread, my competitor had a salad, obviously still too upset about the cupcake fiasco to eat a proper meal.

After our meal, we went down the block to visit a place called Beanos.  If you have a dog, or a cat, or if you are the Aunt of a dog or a cat, or if you are the friend of a dog or a cat, or if you aspire to have or be had by a dog or a cat, you must visit this store.  The proprietor's name is Beano (obviously) and she is a regal beagle.  She rules the shop with a calm, refined demeanour and has hired excellent staff to do the heavy lifting and dexterous tasks. 



There were many many items to see, and we were short on time so we had to rush a bit.  The fortunate part is that this shop is located very close to Tiggy and Holly's Auntie's place of employment so she can easily pop back and pick up anything that we may need in the future.  In my quick visit I managed to find an adorable black muscle tshirt for Tiggy with a union jack flag in the shape of a dog bone, a fancy man style tie in a retro type striped pattern, and a sought-after pink polka dot knapsack/purse for Holly that came with a matching leash.  Shopping success!



We then hurried back to Hampton Court Palace so that Grace (my competitor and Tig's and Holly's Auntie) could attend a meeting.  Judging by Cathy's messy desk, this must have been a VERY important meeting.  Note, she has an industrial Henry vacuum cleaner on the corner of her desk.



Unfortunately by this time it was raining, so my photo walk was cancelled and instead I came in to update my blog.  I did manage to take a few pictures indoors while I was waiting to meet with some royal staff regarding Tiggy's application to be the 'Breed of Britain and the Look of London 2012'.

After the Queen, I managed to get an audience with King Henry VIII and a friend of his:

And as the rain had stopped I managed to have a look around.

I even saw one of the Queen's corgis at work:



Next on our agenda, was cupcake distribution, and then we left to head off to a garden store and a grocery.  My driver missed the turn off for the garden store, so instead we detoured to check out Pets At Home.

And then we went to the grocery store to pick up provisions for this evening's cooking challenge, Red Thai Curry ala Sarah.

Then we stopped in for tea at Liz's place, had a short visit, then had to leave to go home to cook dinner.  Poor Liz.

And that was our busy day.