Foodie PenPals #1 – June 2012

Last month in May, I signed up for the wonderful Foodie PenPals. I turned out to be 1 day late for the May sign up (boo!) but managed to join up for this months. If you’ve never heard of Foodie PenPals, it’s where you send a foodie package of your choice of what you think your match would like to another foodie with to the value of up to £10/$15.

You get matched with two different people: one who will be sending a parcel to you, and another of which you will be sending a parcel to them. What is there not to like about receiving a surprise parcel?! Wonderfulness!

I sent a parcel to Lucy at Offally Good. To see more on what I sent and Lucy’s reaction, see her blog post here.

My parcel came from Hannah at Parkinson’s Pantry and was beautifully handpicked to my liking. I’m over the moon! My first opinion of Hannah and her blog is that she has exquisite taste, we seem to have a lot in common. I’m totally lusting after the kitchen appliances, cookery books and recipes she has posted on her blog.

So, what did I receive? Read on… As this is my first ever parcel, I can only assume that I’ve been very lucky. But poor Hannah with the postage of almost £7 (bless you!)

I received the following:

• Renshaw Simply Melt strawberry flavour buttons (candy melts),
• Wilton lollipop sticks,
• Cath Kidston napkins/serviettes,
• Pack of 3 different shades of pink and contrasting green sugar crystals,
• Welsh Teatime Recipes book,
• 6x Welsh cakes.

When I received my email from Hannah asking the kind of things I liked, of course I explained that I’m into sweet baking and making sweet treats. I also disclosed that I’ve never ever made cake pops yet and wanted to venture into possibly making them in the near future. This information must’ve got Hannah’s creative juices flowing as the strawberry melts, lollipop sticks, and the sugar crystals. She must have read my mind (or great minds think alike) as I didn’t currently have any lollipop sticks or pink melts for making cake pops (and was one of the first things on my to-buy shopping list) so this was a wonderful surprise.

I love the addition of the Welsh cakes and Welsh Teatime Recipes book as Hannah is living in Wales and has done so since she was 5 years old. The Welsh cakes were scrummy and devoured within the 2nd day of receiving! Yum! There’s also some delicious recipes in the Welsh Teatime Recipes book including that of the Welsh cakes so I can re-create them at home! Also, how did Hannah know I liked Cath Kidston? Hehe. Magic!

Hannah’s thought process behind this parcel was obviously the cake pops but in addition to that was to put the kettle on, have a Welsh cake or two (or 3 in my case!) and put my feet up, which I definitely did! Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to make the cake pops yet as I got hit by some weird cold bug this month which made me ill, went away, came back, went away again, and came back. Each time it came back, it was worse than before but very strange to keep re-catching it like that. Can’t quite believe that it has taken me most of the month to get over it!

Thank you so much, Hannah, I really love everything you have sent and was lovely to meet you and find your blog.

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