Puds Win Prizes

Banana Dominoes

My family love to host parties. The moment I first saw the house my husband and I now live in I knew it was the one for us because it had a games room. ‘Think of the parties!’ I probably said as I forgot to play it cool and hugged the estate agent.

Preparing for guests, Willis style.

In 2016 we hosted an Olympics party, where all our guests were Olympians in such competitive sports as Who Can Blow Up The Biggest Balloon - Blindfolded and Who Can Stand Up After Exactly Two Minutes. I don’t like forced fun or themed parties, but I assure you this was brilliant.

My hero of a nephew welcoming the Olympians.

Work like captains, party like pirates, that's our family motto.

Last summer, Gaz and I invited my sister to play host. She lives abroad and is only ever back for five minutes each summer, so it makes sense to party - she sees more friends in a weekend than she could ever see one by one during her short tenures.

Although very few of our friends are vegan, we always request that people come to our parties with empty bellies so that we can dazzle them with our delights. My sis, Tam, is also vegan and she was in charge of mains. She asked me to do puds. Now, it may not have been an Olympic event, but I still had to win Best Person In Charge of Puds.

Blueberry and Lemon Cheesecake

Not only did I whip up Thug Kitchen’s Fudgey as Fuck Brownies, Vegan Kitchen's Blueberry and Lemon Cheesecake, my friend Annie’s Banoffee Pie (with Dulce de Leche sauce) Vegan Kitchen's Salty Nuts in Dates and Peanut Butter Chocolates, but I did it all so graciously, without ever dragging people into the Pudding Room to marvel at my array and tell me I was brilliant.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Slices

I even made signs out of glitter stickers. The very same glitter stickers I was going to stick on all the kilner jars in the kitchen but I only got as far as ‘CHIA’ before Gaz pointed out that he had to live in this house too and apparently it’s not ‘a primary school’. He has vetoed further usage of glitter stickers to identify nuts and seeds in kilner jars. Such a princess.

The salty nuts in dates were a doddle to make and very popular - I recommend boshing them out if you need to impress. I made the peanut butter chocolate slices a few times last year and so many people asked me for the recipe (which is basically five different types of sugar mixed together to make a sugar mountain).

Tammi's Main Domain. 

I think my sister’s abundant main course buffet went down well but I can't be sure as I was pretty busy showing off my puds to critical acclaim and rounds of applause. It was so embarrassing, seriously, stop it guys. AM I THE BEST? DO I WIN A PRIZE?

This is basically what is going on in my head at all times. I'm winning. 

Now enrolling athletes for Turnpike Olympics 2018. I'll do puds.