June 2013: Microwave cake, Black Tea cake, Green Tea cake, German Buttercream, Cakes in a toastie maker...

June was a month of experiments with tea and cakes, and Pastry cream. looking back, I have no idea how I managed to bake so much, but it kept me occupied while I got used to hubby being back at work.

There are times in life of course, when what you really want is cake, quicker than now. I found a really good Cake in a mug recipe which was super easy, and topped with squirty cream - irresistible.

The great thing about this recipe is that there is no, eggs, milk or butter so it's dairy free for anyone who suffers from allergies. They have some good variations for different flavours on thier website, and I imagine would great if you had one of those, quick someone's coming round and I havnt done any shopping moments :D

For some reason in June I was obsessed with Tea in cake. I found out a lot of interesting things like how you shouldn't bake with tea leaves unless they're organic because the pesticides they spray on tea leaves arn't water soluble (hence why you can have them in your tea) but aren't great for you if you ingest them.

I made an organic black tea cake with honey and Lemon butter cream, which was nice.

I also played with Organic Matcha, which if you don't know is Japanese green tea, ground into a powder, it has this lovely green hue and an interesting slightly bitter taste. I tried lots of different  pairings. Chocolate cake with Green tea Creme Patisserie was probably my favourite.

Green Tea cake and Chocolate cake both with Green tea Creme Patissiere

Lemon swiss roll with Lemon German buttercream

Green tea and Organic black tea cakes with honey and lemon icing

I discovered that if you add butter to pastry cream it's called German Buttercream and is this lovely mousse-y texture. I have to be honest I havn't yet discovered a reliable way of making it, sometimes it comes out delicious, sometimes it comes out curdeled. Another thing you can do is add half as much Double cream to the amount of Pastry cream you have and whip it up into a light fluffy custard which is much more reliable. Both are very versatile and VERY tasty.

Vanilla cake with German Buttercream

Last but not least. The failure that was curd filled toastie cakes. The internet informed me you could make cake in a toastie maker. This was an exciting prospect for the Topsy Turvey Picnic.

I covered the plates in butter before adding the cake batter...and they still stuck. Disaster. It took forever to clean up the toastie maker, They tasted great though.

May 2013: Pizza cake, Slow cookers, Fruit Curds.

Pizza Cake

Pizza cake. Yes, this is pizza cake, and not in fact pizza which makes it slightly less gross!

I filled a round pizza tray with half the basic vanilla cake mix (Mine does not have holes in it - if your does, please remember to line it with baking parchment).  Baked for about 8mins at 200°C.

After this was baked and cooled, I spread the top with Strawberry jam, and topped it with grated marzipan.

Grilled for a couple of seconds to melt the marzipan and give it a bit of a browning. Et voila. Pizza cake. Tasted a bit like a bakewell tart, small pieces were very filling.

I had not in fact gone completely crazy. I was planning a topsy turvy picnic where all the foods were to look opposite to what they were, so desserts would look like savory foods and vice versa.


Slow Cooking

I love my slow cooker, never more so than after I had my baby. It meant I could have delicious roast meals super easy - as shown by this yummy roast lamb I did. You do most if the cooking in the slow cooker then tip it all out into a roasting pan, and crisp off the top in the oven. Sooooo tasty.

Then you use up the left over's in really easy meals, like fried up with rice, or in tomato in a wrap.


If you havn't got one get one. Really handy and made it so I could eat properly after I'd had her. Perhaps a little too well as I am now fighting to get the pounds off!!

Cute Cookie Cutters

Banana, Orange and Strawberry Curds

How cute are these!
The craft store near where I live has started selling cookie cutter recently. I wanted them all but I settled for these :)



Fruit Curds

I should probably do an entire post dedicated to fruit curds. I did a LOT of research on the net, and a LOT of experimenting. You've had Lemon curd - well turns out you can make basically any type of fruit curd. Yep.
And it tastes more awesome than the stuff you can buy in a shop. Yep.
And it's actually really easy with a bit of know how. Yep.

Coconut and Fruit Smoothie Curds

Oh and you can freeze it. YEP.
So why were any of us buying shop bought curd again?

The thing with fruit curds is you can do a ridiculous number of things with it. Layer it between cake slices, fill cupcakes, add to butter cream for flavor, add to Sweetened Whipped cream to make an easy fruit fool. You can freeze it to store, but if you eat it frozen it makes a divine creamy ice-cream like dessert which you can serve with other things. It's super versatile.

It all started with a recipe I saw for Strawberry Curd from Lavender and Lovage and the curiosity set in. I made that recipe and it was LUSH. I couldn't stop I wanted to know more.

It turns out there's quite a lot of science involved in making fruit curd. I wont bore you with it, basically if you follow the recipe as I worked it out it should just work but don't try and mess around with it unless you actually have looked into the science or you might end up crying over curdled curd.

Not content with finding a reliable recipe, I wanted a reliable LAZY recipe. Which is what I am posting, you mix it up and throw it in the slow cooker and it makes yummy curd, with out curdling, burning AND it's self sealing. Seriously.
I wasn't just being lazy at this point the baby was quite fidgety and stirring a pan of curd for goodness knows how long, and trying to work out if it was done yet ended up being almost impossible so there was reasoning behind it.

Oh. And DO seal the pot in the slow cooker. I forgot once, and it ended up curdled, and not the best tasting.

This is a great website for inspiration for different flavours, but basically it's all up to your imagination. I even used a fruit smoothie for the juice and it worked brilliantly. Coconut has to be a personal favorite, the combination of flavour and texture is spot on.

The internet gives lots of different storage time reccomendations, as I'm not sure which is food safe I am not going to advise - google it so it's at your own risk! I do recommend freezing though, I found no detrimental affects to the defrosted curd although you might need to give it a quick stir.


Fruit Curd - 2 1lb jars approx.

200ml Fruit juice/cordial/Coconut milk
4 large eggs
100g Butter
300g Granulated Sugar (reduce sugar a little if using cordial)
Optional - depending on chosen flavour add zest of 2 Lemons/ 1 Orange to give it some extra zest.

Set aside prepared jars (sterilised, or straight out of the top of a dishwasher - old Curry jars are ideal).
With an electric whisk, combine the butter and sugar until fluffy, add the eggs and combine. Add fruit zest if required, add chosen fruit juice and combine. Pour into the prepared jars and screw on the lids.
Place in a Slow cooker and surround with hot water (just below the lid of the jars), replace slow cooker lid. Cook on High for 2 1/2 - 3 hours depending on desired consistency.

Carefully remove from slow cooker using oven gloves and let cool on a heat proof surface, once cooled store in the fridge.

Coconut Curd Cake

After I stopped myself from eating the Coconut Curd straight from the jar (that was quite hard) I thought I better make some cake to go with it.

Basic Recipe Coconut cake, sandwiched with coconut curd, topped with Plain Buttercream (real butter, no flavouring at all) sprinkled with coconut. yum yum yum.

April 2013: Baby and Apple Marzipan Pastries

One fully baked baby!

So yeah April 6th, Emily was born. Needless to say not much baking was done in April!

I did manage to squeeze in some Apple pastries though. They were really easy and very tasty.

Cut some ready rolled puff pastry into even sized squares/rectangles. Spread over some Jam (warm it slightly to make it easier to spread if you like). Sprinkle some grated store bought marzipan over the top (if you put it in the fridge it's easier to grate). Then place some sliced apple over it (diagonally from point to point) sprinkle some cinnamon on top. Wrap over the points, glaze with a bit of egg wash and bake for 8-10mins. mmmmmmmm.

Of Boobs, Bonds and feeding. A fairly candid reflection of my first 4 months of motherhood.

As I know quite a few people who have just had babies or are due to have I felt it might be useful to some people to hear how my first 4 months have gone. 

I’m not writing this for sympathy or support but to offer a bit of insight and hopefully it might be helpful for other people to read. 

I know I found it helpful to read about other people’s experiences and I wanted to add to that but at the same time I don’t want to rub people’s faces in it if they don’t want to know hence putting this on the blog instead of straight on FB!

So where do you start? Perhaps I should say that while I was pregnant I had this nagging feeling that I wasn’t really sure how things worked out being a mum, a lot of people said not worry it just ‘happens’. 

Perhaps I should start with the incredible pressure now put on mums to breastfeed? Because both of these things are supposed to be the most natural things in the world I tried not to let it worry me and figured that everything would just work out - after all everyone always talks about how wonderful new babies are etc.

I do want to make something clear at this point, I support breastfeeding, and any mother who can is amazing, it is an incredibly difficult thing to do, and any mother who manages should be supported to the best of everyone’s ability. But perhaps in trying to encourage and help breastfeeding mothers, the pendulum has swung a little too far in the other direction again not everyone can, incredible as it seems not every baby wants to, and so came the trauma that happened once baby was born, and what was supposed to be the most natural thing in the world turned out to not feel very natural at all.

I had Emily one week late, she had been giving me signs that she was coming for the whole two weeks before her due date and the whole week before she actually came. I had a Sweep, to encourage her along at which point I found out she was in position and I was 2cm dilated. I started with early Labour signs a couple of hours later but I didn’t want to get too excited as I knew that sometimes that would happen and they would stop, and so they did at 1am in the morning.

24 hours later they picked up right where they had left off! 2.5 hours after that I went to hospital and found I was 4cm, a blurry many hours of contractions and gas and air later I was 6cm dilated, and then at 9am I entered into the later stages of labour, it got to around 10:50am I was coming up to the two hour mark of when they start to intervene, baby was not distressed, I didn’t want a ventouse. I got cross with myself and the baby for not being there and pushed extra hard, tore and had Emily at 11:03am, 6lb12.

When I looked round to see my baby two huge eyes looked back, she was slightly grey from being newborn and I couldnt help but think – oh she looks like a frog! Things are a big foggy here now, but basically everything happened as it should, I held her to the breast for her to suckle, I felt exhausted but adrenaline had kicked in and I actually didn’t feel that bad, I had stitches, I had a shower, I remember feeling a bit distant from the whole situation but I thought that was just shock, and exhaustion. At this point Emily was pretty quiet, she was healthy, I felt well and so we went to the ward, I wanted to go home all was fine.

And then while everyone else’s babies were basically chilling out after all the strain of being born, Emily decided she was hungry, she was cross and my god did she cry. And cry, and cry, nothing would settle her in her cot, she wanted to be held. She was so cross and hungry she shook, we tried everything to put her on the breast to see if that would help, in the end the nurses asked me if I wanted to try feeding her some formula and they thought she was behaving a bit like a premature baby.

She was just so hungry and so desperate I agreed. It was the right thing to do. She wolfed down the milk the nurses cup fed her and so started the nightmare of working out what to do next, all the while I still felt distant from her, she didn’t feel like mine. I didn’t really understand - but I thought I was just tired and the crying and the feeding problems were stressful.  I thought things would settle down. At the very least my husband had wanted this baby, even if things were a bit rocky now he’d be good with her and that would give me time to sort myself out.

Of course things never work out that easy.

The struggle with breastfeeding continued, she could latch on, she would suck (my god would she would suck) but then she would fidget herself off the breast and instead of doing what would be sensible and latching back on, she would immediately scream, and then the battle to calm her down and get her back on would start. On, off, on, off until I couldn’t take it anymore and the nurses would help me latch her on and then finally the nurses would give her formula and be astonished at the rate she gulped it up, and at the amount she wanted. She wasn’t even over feeding and throwing up she was just desperately hungry.

The nurses checked how she was latching on and couldn’t find a problem, they double checked her mouth and couldn’t find a problem. One of the breast feeding specialists wondered whether my fairly flat nipples were making it more difficult and so we tried ‘The pump’ mainly to try and make it easier for her to latch on. We tried nipple shields. It became clear that supply wasn’t an issue as I pumped, colostrum came out. Those first few drops felt so precious and I was so proud and happy that it wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to feed her, it was just Emily being difficult. 

The regime became more complicated, I would try to breastfeed and then when I couldn’t cope anymore the nurses would cup feed her the Milk I managed to express, and then top up with formula. And I would break for half an hour to an hour and then express, then break again for half an hour to an hour and then we would do it all again. They were still surprised at how much she was wanting, in the end I was expressing plenty but she still wasn’t staying latched on. I was running on no sleep, my husband was so distressed at not being able to help and the desperate crying of the baby that he had to keep leaving the ward. The nurses insisted I get an hour or two’s sleep at night and managed to take her off me while they cup fed her my expressed milk and the formula. It didn’t bother me. She still didn’t feel like mine, but I felt sorry for her - she was hungry and I would do what I could, but I still didn’t feel attached to her at all.

And so after 4 days in hospital I was allowed to go home, we had not progressed at all with the feeding issues she still wouldn’t stay latched on, and was still desperately hungry but I wanted to go home. The hospital lent me the breast pump to take home on the theory that as much breast milk I could get in her the better. My breasts were covered in bruises from where the nurses had pinched to try and get her to latch on, my right nipple was scabbed from how hard Emily had sucked, both breasts were tender from the shear effort of trying to breast feed and pump. I just wanted to sleep. She still didn’t feel like mine, my husband admitted he also didn’t feel a bond with her. I got home and cried. I was relieved to be home, but where was this incredible bond I was supposed to have, where was the perfect family that was supposed to happen. Where was the breastfeeding? Emily wouldn’t even look at me when I fed her, she was soothed by people holding her but she didn’t seem to care who it was who held her. She also didn’t seem to have that bond with us. 

So there we were at home, one broken family and at 4am in the morning we ran out of the formula the hospital had sent us home with. I had run out of the milk I had pumped. My husband rushed off to Asda’s to find more formula milk, and Emily screamed, I tried to breastfeed her with my bruised and sore breasts, and she just screamed. And screamed and then went from red to purple and then stopped screaming. She had also stopped breathing. I fortunately remembered my cousin telling me her daughter would sometimes do the same when she was a baby and I jolted her, she started breathing again, I rubbed her feet and hands so that the colour came back. I swore I would never try to breastfeed again. Nothing was worth the anguish it caused the both of us.

But I still felt it was important to give her the breastmilk I knew I could supply. I pumped, I pumped every 4 hours for 2 months, it meant I never got any proper sleep and she would often want comforting when I was pumping so I would sit with her on my lap, her kicking the funnels of my breasts while I tried to pump. Sometimes I would reach over to pick her up and the milk would spill from the bottles. I managed to produce enough milk after the first week or so that I didn’t need to supplement with formula. I was proud I could feed her, I was exhausted, and she still didn’t feel like mine. And my husband still couldn’t cope with her crying. 

He tried so hard, he would change her and feed her my milk from the bottle. When he finished work he would come home and take her off me so I could have a break and get something to eat, and yet she would just cry and I would have to take her back because he would get so angry it scared him. It scared me.

After a while the formula started to sneak back in, I was tired, I’d miss a pump so I could sleep. At one point I was so tired I actually slept through her crying in the night - even though she was right next to me in the cot and my husband got up and sorted her. So much for the nurses saying you’d never sleep through your baby crying! At 3 months she was half formula half breast milk as I tried to balance out what was best. I wanted to stop, it was exhausting mentally and physically but I had decided I wanted to give her as much breastmilk as I could up until 4 months - I would review it again then. 

For that last month the pumping gradually declined until finally I was doing it only once a day. At 4 months 1 week I decided enough was enough. I wanted my body and my sanity back. 

She finally started looking at me while I was feeding her at around 3 months, she started being more clingy and seems to recognise me as her protector now. I still don’t feel that bond but I do feel we get on better, I try so hard to do what’s right for her because at the end of the day she is a living breathing human being, but sometimes I forget she’s mine. Sometimes I look at her and I don’t recognise the fact she is my child. My Husband is so much better with her now too, she has stopped crying like the apocalypse is coming, she laughs and smiles and giggles and can be very cute- she’s becoming a person in her own right. He looks forward to coming home and cuddling her. The worst is behind us.

I have been incredibly lucky to have incredibly supportive friends and family. I was so close to breaking so many times, just the fact they were there, even talking about other things was helpful.

I had people also tell me about how difficult they had had it when they had their own children, that helped. I wasn’t on my own. I wasn’t the only one who has struggled. I have got through what I hope is the worst of it.

I can’t say it’s easy to talk about it though, I understand why people tend to keep quiet about it, but I found it so helpful to hear about other people I really wanted to be able to help someone else.

It’s so hard, but you can get through it. One day it will be in the past and you can be proud you got through it. Don’t ever feel guilty for the decisions you make for your own sanity and for the health of your child. 

To the people who might not have had problems, and cannot understand how hard it might be for someone who has  - I have this to say. I am so glad you didn’t have problems, it’s good that you didn’t however please understand how someone might feel before you say something like “Well I managed fine, so can you”, and never EVER say something like “you are a failure” because even as a joke, it is not funny. It hurts. It hurts so deep because you are trying your very best and somewhere at your core you are afraid you are. 

You are not.

March 2013: Doughnuts, Gluten Free shortbread, Dairy free Cookies and Shortbread mushrooms, Doryaki and Easter...

So a couple of years back I tried to make doughnuts, I don't know what went wrong...they were horrendous. So bad that it took me 3 whole years to brave making them again. I like doughnuts, and I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I'm not sure what it is about them, but they are utterly delcious but so expensive so I was pretty pleased when I found this recipe from the 99cent chef- and that it did infact taste very similar to a Krispy Kreme!

I wanted to make something really nice that was Gluten Free at one point and the wife of someone I worked with very kindly said she had a good recipe for Caramel Shortbread. Well I have made it and I can quite honestly say it is the most delicious thing on this planet, you would never know it was Gluten Free, I think it is actually better for using the GF flour as it has the most delicious crumbly textured shortbread base. Well worth having in your baking itinerary.

Speaking of Shortbread, these Shortbread mushrooms are delicious and so very cute and easy to make. These particular ones are made with Pure to make them dairy free for a friend, but they really do taste best with butter. I found the recipe off a website from a girl doing an Alice in wonderland party - I wish I could find the website again but I can't seem to find it! There are plenty of other websites that seem to have similar recipes on though.

Put 180g plain flour, 60g cornflour, 60g icing sugar 1tsp of vanilla extract and 220g of cubed softened butter in a food processor and pulse until combined. (you may need to scrape the sides a couple of times). You should be left with a pliable dough.

Take a small amount and roll it into a ball about 1" in size. Dip the end of an old (clean) extract bottle into some water, and then into some cocoa powder, then press into the ball of dough. Repeat until all the dough is used up bake for 8-10mins at 200°.

March was a busy month - I was quite heavily pregnant so I couldn't do much and baking kept me occupied! I had been wanting to make these  Dorayaki since I ate some in Yo!Sushi. They came out really well and I ate so many by myself!

How cute did my Easter cakes come out! The carrots and flowers were pre-bought from Sainsburys, the mini eggs were a present originally from Whittards of Chelsea. They were plain vanilla, chocolate and mixed fruit cupcakes.

February 2013 - Maternity leave cakes, Swedish Pancakes, Gluten Free Sweetbread bread disaster.

 First up - Proof you should never listen to your husband when cooking. Soup DISASTER. We tried making soup in the slow cooker, all would have been fine but I was tired and unsure of how much soup mix to add - instead of going with my gut I listened to the hubby - put the whole packet in he says. And we ended up with soup you could literally cut! Thinning it out with water made it really bland but help came from Facebook and someone suggested adding some Red Pesto - and it was pretty tasty.


I left work in February for my maternity leave and so there was obligatory cake, I did coffee, chocolate, vanilla and some Cheats Cinnamon Swirls - I used too much filling though and they went a bit soggy (turns out you can have too much of a good thing!)

 What other good thing is in February - oh yeah Pancake day or Pannkakor as they say in Sweden. as part of Swedish Cake exchange I made some Swedish Style pancakes spread with some runny home made Damson Jam I was given by my Cousin and her husband. It was possibly the perfect combination. IF you arn't lucky enough to have any given to you, you can buy Damson Jam or any other fruit Jam you fancy and heat it until it becomes runny.

I tried to make some Gluten Free versions of the cinnamon swirls by swapping the flour to GF flour - it ended in disaster. They didn't look particularly appetizing to start, I tried them on the day I cooked them and they were, not terrible, so I said I'd get some to my cousin. Luckily I tired them again the day after as something the back of my head was told me I should - and lo and behold they were DISGUSTING. Something had happened overnight to turn them from meh, into blegh. I had to bin the lot - it was a bit upsetting.

January 2013: Swedish Cake exchange! Cinnamon buns and Semla

First of all I would just like to say LOOK AT WHAT MY FRIEND GOT ME! Is this not the best xmas present ever?

Cinnamon Buns

Anyway my leaving gift from my friend who went to live in Sweden was this Swedish Fika book from the Swedish embassy (ahem otherwise known as Ikea).


Its AMAZING.
I already had a recipe for Cinnamon buns but these are just a tad superior - they contain Marzipan! I seriously recommend this book it it's just so pretty, and the recipes are brilliant. The only problem is that the recipes appear to be for industrial scale - I halved the recipe in the book and still came out with 20 cinnamon buns!

As something fun my friend would buy some kind of Swedish cake/food and I would try to make one here and then we'd both get to eat it and talk about it with each other. It was a good idea apart from all the calories.




So here was out first cake exchange - Cinnamon swirls as adapted by me for my bread maker makes approx 20 buns. (I take no credit for the recipe - go buy the book!).

1 packet dried yeast, 250ml milk, 420g Flour, 100g butter, 100g caster sugar, 1 egg, 1/2tsp salt, 1/2tblsp crushed cardamom.

Place all ingredients in a bread maker on the dough setting.

In the mean time make the Cinnamon Marzipan filling, put 50g of grated marzipan, 50g cubed butter, 60g Caster sugar and 1tblsp Cinnamon in a bowl and mix using an electric hand whisk until combined. You should end up with a thick paste. Put to one side until the bread machine is finished.

When the machine has finished you should end up with a lovely silky dough - turn out onto a floured surface and roll into a large rectangle shape. Spread the paste all over (it will look quite thin don't worry a little bit goes a long way!). Roll it into a long log shape and slice into swirls (about 1" thick).  Put on a baking tray leaving a bit of space between - these will expand - and leave to rest under a towel for 30mins. Brush egg wash over the top (1egg + pinch of salt + tblsp of water beaten together) and bake for 8-10mins on 200°.

Semla

Our Second cake exchange involved Semla - these little cakes are eaten around Easter and are quite traditional in Sweden. Its a sweet cardamom bun with a marzipan and cream filling - they are very sickly and while nice to try I don't think I'd make them again.

December 2012 - Xmas! Chocolate Chestnut Roulade, Party Food, Fruit Scones

So obviously at xmas there must be chocolate and chestnut cake! To make this I made half the chocolate cake recipe and filled a baking sheet with high sides lined with baking parchment with it, baked for 8-10mins and immediately rolled it up and waited for it to cool.

When cool, I carefully rolled it out and covered the top with chestnut puree (you can usually buy this in most places around xmas) and topped that with a thick layer of sweetened whipped cream. Then I rolled it all back up, peeling off the paper as I went and sprinkled it with icing sugar.
It was SO good.

Every party need some snacks and having seen some similar ones at work I was determined to make some for myself. They are also by a happy coincidence vegetarian - something a bit more exciting to offer than the usual cheese and biscuits :p
They sounded so tasty but were so expensive to buy from the shops, but seemed so easy and cheap to make it seemed silly not to!

The top ones were mixed pepper and red pesto bites, and the bottom goats cheese and red onion marmalade.

To make the Mixed pepper and Red pesto bites Chop a red pepper and a yellow pepper and add some grated cheese. Slice a baguette into rounds, top each round with some red pesto, then pile some of the peper and cheese mix, plcae under a heated grill until the cheese melts and the top is slightly browned.

To make the Goats cheese and red onion marmalade bites, take a jar of red onion marmalade, and spread on the top of a baguette which has been sliced into rounds. Top with a slice of goats cheese from a cheese roulade, garnish with a sprig of Parsley. Toast under the grill until the cheese starts to bubble and the top s slightly brown.

Et voila. Told you they were easy!

Proof that even I have bad baking days! I was really trying to do too much at once and burnt my cupcakes.

Fruit Scones - Simply add 50g of mixed fruit or raisins to the scone mix. ALWAYS soak you fruit for a couple of hours first - otherwise you end up with dry scones. Soaking them in apple juice gives a nice flavour.

December 2012: Chocolate Strawberries, Scones, Blueberry Mini Cakes and Crumpet Rings Mini Cakes

In December two of my friends moved to Sweden. It was a sad parting, but to send them off properly we had a 'British' themed picnic.

This involved lots of tasty food and of course Scones were a must, one of my friends really likes strawberries so I made sure to include some.

Scones

These are adapted from a Mary Berry recipe.
Put 200g SF flour, 2tsp baking powder, 1tblsp caster sugar and 50g butter in a food processor a pulse until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. With a wooden spoon mix in 1egg and enough milk to make a pliable dough. Roll out until about 1" thick and using a round 5cm cutter cut out and place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Brush tops with milk and bake 200° for 10-12mins.

We filled them with copious amounts of clotted cream and jam. mmmmm.

Chocolate Strawberries

These are really simple all you need to do is Melt some chocolate, dip the pointed end of the strawberries (washed) in until about half way then place either on a tray lined with Greaseproof paper, or into a petit four (mini cupcake) case. So pretty and delish!

Strawberries in Grand Marnier

This recipe was first suggested to me by one of my customers and it's such a great idea!
Due to the fact my friend was driving I didn't make them but here's how to do them anyway.  Wash, hull and halve some Strawberries put in a bowl and sprinkle some Icing sugar over the top, then drizzle some Grand Marnier over the top (a 2-3 tblsp is probably about right). Using a spoon gently spoon the syrup from the bottom of the bowl of the strawberries and leave to marinate for a few hours. Then all you need to do is eat them - they are very moreish.

Blueberry Mini Cakes

Always popular blueberry and vanilla mini cakes with vanilla buttercream. Simply add some blueberries (fresh or frozen) to the cake batter before you add the flour adding a couple of extra tblsp of flour as well.

The mini cakes were baked in my Alan Silverwood cake pan and cut in half horizontally - I cook these for the same time as cupcakes - 12mins.

Crumpet Ring Single portion cakes 

These were more of an experiment - these were the same blueberry cake batter, filled with the vanilla buttercream but baked using Crumpet rings. The rings were put ontop of a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and baked for about 15mins.
They look cute don't they!

To finish off the stacks of cake I made - Good old Basic Chocolate Cake squares, with topped with Chocolate buttercream. (I used my other Alan Silverwood pan to make them all uniformly square!)

November 2012: Apple Peeler/Slicer

 So, a long time ago I bought myself an apple peeler corer thing from lakeland plastics, which got resigned to the back of the cupboard and never used.

For some reason or other I got talking about it with someone and I thought, why not get it out and actually use it. So I did. It has got to be the most fun kitchen tool I have, I don't know why I didnt use it more. Every time we have kids round, it comes out and we play making apple 'slinkys'. They have fun, it encourages them to eat fruit we all win.

July 2012: Cheats Blueberry Mini Cake Bites

In July we closed the store for refurbishment and we discussed what we could do for tasting samples which looked good.

I came up with these Blueberry mini cake bites.

To make buy a good quality vanilla Pound/Madeira cake bar - I used Greenhalghes which frankly I've never found a better shop bought one.
Cut it up into bit sized pieces.

Next take a really good quality Jam - I used Dalfour Blueberry which is a luscious traditional jam packed with real fruit. Spread it over the top of the pieces of cake.

Get some pre-made Vanilla frosting - I used Betty Crocker, always handy in a pinch, but a bit on the pricey side. Pop in an icing bag with a large flower nozzle and pipe a blob on the top of each cake bite.

Then simply place a washed blueberry on the top - easy, quick and makes loads. Great for an occasion where you don't have time/facilities to bake your own cakes.

June 2012: Cheats Fruit and Custard Pies

 My mum moved into her new house in June last year, so to celebrate I brought Pie.

As I mentioned in a previous post these are really easy but effective if your short on time.

Buy some premade sweet pastry shells, some luxury vanilla custard and just add fruit.






Everyone loves them, and the mini ones look darn cute.

June 2012: Pretty Piping, Cardboard Boxes, Bannoffee, and Coffee Cupcakes

June was apparently all about the cupcakes, I was lucky at the time to be working with a few other fellow cake enthusiasts and we did a bit of a cake exchange, each week we would take it in turns to bake some cakes for our colleagues. 

I  got the very handy cardboard cupcake carrier from Amazon.

These were some of the ones I did - I loved how these came out. These were strawberry flavoured cupcakes using extract, with vanilla icing and freeze dried strawberry pieces I got from Waitrose, I have since spotted the same strawberry pieces in Morrisons as well.

The pink swirl effect is really easy to do, all you do is paint a stripe of food colouring gel down the inside of the piping bag before you put your icing in and et voila - pretty swirls. You can of course use different colours and widths of stripe to create different effects. For these I painted half the bag - these can look especially good when used with a rose piping nozzle.

These were bannoffee cupcakes, I wasnt that happy with how they looked -I should have skipped the extra drizzle of toffee syrup it made them look a bit messy.

To make them simply add 2 tblsp of Banana Nesquick powder (yes I did say that) and 4 tblsp of milk at the same time as you add the eggs using the basic cake recipe. Using the banana Nesquick makes the cakes really bananary but without that cloggy texture you get from adding real banana's. They are lovely and fluffy and you could do the same with Strawberry Nesquick powder too.

To make the icing I just made the normal buttercream but added 2tblsp of Cartmels Sticky Toffee Sauce (instead of vanilla extract) while I was whisking it up - if you've never had it, you should its delicious.

Mmm. Coffee cupcakes. I'm a bit controversial with these - I don't use actual coffee *gasp*. I actually prefer the taste you get from adding Camp Coffee - the added chicory essence just adds a certain 'something' plus it couldnt be easier to add as its already in liquid form.

Just add 2 tblsps to your basic cake recipe as you add the eggs.
For the Icing add 2tblsp as you whisk it up.