Unemployment has left me to find activities to pass the time and I've spent the better half of the past fortnight baking! My first real success was a chocolate Victoria sponge, filled with rum butter icing and strawberry jam, and covered in lashing of chocolate. My mum and I devoured it over a couple of days. I am trying to perfect the art of cupcakes, and for my friends daughters birthday, I'm going to make a Victoria sponge sized cupcake, for her party, so I need it to be delicious!

I've found myself trawling through shops trying to find cake tins, bowls, aprons…pretty much anything that will aide me in my hours spent in the kitchen. I've spent a lot of money on fantastic silicone bakeware. It's honestly a life saver. You know when you struggle to get your sponges out of the cake molds and they break? Well, the silicone cake molds seem to stop that completely! And they come in all sorts of pretty colors too.

Here are a handful of my favorite things to help aide baking. I absolutely adore the apron and I actually think I may have to buy it!

Polka dot apron – £28 – Anthropologie, Cake stand – £40 – Urban Outfitters, Silicone cake tray – £6 – Amazon, Pastry cutter set – £5.99 – Ikea, Set of cake tins – £16 – Debenhams, Cupcake book – £7.99 – Amazon.

By Carly