A month of madness

May is over and June is well under way. Looking back over the last 4-5 weeks, we have been very busy indeed. It's been a bit of mad month if truth be told.

I have made quite a few cakes:

We are in the process of selling our house and buying another one. Which is probably one of the most stressful things you can do! This all started a week before we were due to go on holiday! We accepted an offer on our house and then spent a few crazy days viewing houses, sorting out mortgages and having our offer on a house accepted.  

And then we went on holiday to Crete for a week of much need R&R:

On our return, we spent 2 days driving down to London and back up again in a big white van (and in the pouring rain) to help my mum and stepdad  move up to the North East (they are living proof that moving house is one of the most stressful things you can ever do). We were in charge of plants and garden things.

And in amongst all these goings on we've been to work and got on with all  the other every day things.

Oh, and I've been asked to make 2 wedding cakes for next year!

I'm exhausted!

Red, white and blue

Firstly I just want to apologise for my absence. I promised myself I would keep on top of this blog and post regularly. But I've been a bit rubbish (and a bit busy) and have let it slide a little. Anyway, I'm back and here to stay so on with the post...

A friend of ours, Robyn, headed off to Cranwell last month to begin her Initial Officer Training with the RAF. In true Robyn style she had a leaving party and asked me to bake some cupcakes for the evening. I did 3 different types of cupcakes (Vanilla, Chocolate and Red Velvet), and decorated them with piped swirly icing in 3 different colours (red, white and blue) to be arranged in the shape of the RAF roundel.

It took me a whole day to make them all. Baking in the morning and decorating in the evening. All was going swimmingly. I had the last batch of chocolate in the oven and Kipling was busy beating the butter and sugar for the vanilla when the phone went. It was G. He couldn't find his wallet and had I seen it. Nope. Was it one the table in the dining room. Nope, as I'd cleared it ready for cakes. Was it on the worktop in the kitchen. Nope, as I'd cleared the kitchen before I started baking. G's starting to get a bit worried as he can't find it in his work bag. We ended the call as he went off to check the car and I rushed to get the cakes out of the oven before they over cooked and then continued on with my baking.

With the next batch in the oven I went and had a search of the rest of the house for the lost wallet. No sign of it anywhere. Then I remember G had been for fuel on his way home. Has he left it at the petrol station??? A few more phone calls and batches of cupcakes later and the phone rings again. It's G. Wallet found. Phew! Where was it? In the bottom of his work bag that he'd apparently already checked!

Panic over...that is until I realise I'd missed the cornflour out of my vanilla cupcakes!  Oh no! As it turns out, all was well and they came out perfectly despite the missed ingredient. Phew, again!

And so onto a more relaxed afternoon decorating cakes. Rather than use a normal buttercream I decided to try a meringue buttercream, using Martha Stewart's recipe. And it was amazing! It's a bit of a faff but it's not as sweet and it is so smooth and lovely that it was definitely worth the effort. I will be using this recipe to decorate the wedding cupcakes I will be making in August.

All boxed up and ready to go

G and I had also organised a little bit of a surprise Robyn. We arrived at the venue and, with a little help from a friend, carried in the boxes and sneaked in the surprise. We made Robyn stay away whilst we set up the cakes so the surprise was still hidden...

Red, white and blue

So it wasn't until later in the evening, when the cakes got eaten, that all was revealed...

Surprise!

Good luck Robyn! We wish you well and hope your training isn't too hard!

I'm a little teapot, short and stout...

Better late than never! I wrote this post a few weeks ago but haven't got round to adding the photos yet so it's been sat waiting...I've had enough now though so here goes...

It was week two of the Big Brew last week and I've been busy in the kitchen again. I decided on a bit of a teapot theme and spent a good few hours creating sugarpaste teapots to go on top of some cupcakes. And then another hour or two baking and decorating said cupcakes.

That was going to be all I baked for week 2, however, as I was pottering about the house, doing some jobs and getting ready to head out to see some friends, I glanced out of window to see white stuff falling from the sky. SNOW!!! We weren't forecast snow...it was only supposed to rain not snow! It looked so cold and horrible out there that we decided to abandon plans of heading out, stuck the kettle and the heating on and settled down for an afternoon in. G had some homework to do so I headed to the kitchen to bake some biscuits. Digging about in my tin of cutters (well, my 2 tins of cutter) I found one shaped like a teapot. I have no idea when it appeared or where it came from as I've never made teapot biscuits before, but it has now been used for a very good cause.



I took my baking into work on the Tuesday and, as on previous occasions it didn't last very long at all!

And by Friday when we counted up our pennies, our team had raised over £80 for Fairtrade Fortnight's Big Brew. Not bad for some tea and cake!

Stick the kettle on

It's Fairtrade Fortnight (27th February - 11th March) and in Libraryland we holding a Big Brew. Basically you drink lots of tea and coffee, eat biscuits and cake, and donate some money to help families flourish. It's something one of my lovely colleagues suggested that we did last year and so in 2011 we held our first Big Brew (donating money to help bees and bee-keepers.) But that was just within our team at work. This year she has persuaded other teams to get involved so we can raise even more money. Once again, I volunteered to bake some yummy goodies to help the cause. Originally I had just been baking for our team, but after a meeting this morning I was asked if there would be enough goodies to go round a bit further. Of course, I said. I'll just bake an extra cake.

And so, after a full day at work followed by an hour in the gym (gotta do the exercise so I can keep on eating the cakes) I headed home for an evening of baking. After dinner, with G snoozing on the sofa, Kipling and I set off on our baking marathon.

First off was the chocolate brownies, using fairtrade chocolate of course, with a hint of orange as chocolate and  orange go so well together. Second on the list was a coffee and walnut cake, with fairtrade coffee. And finally, making it's second Big Brew appearance (I made one for last year's Fairtrade Fortnight) a honey cake using, of course, fairtrade honey.

The house smells wonderful, I've just taken the last cake out of the oven, and my kitchen is upside-down. But it's now 10.45pm and time for me to head to bed so the last of the washing-up will have to wait for the morning.

If you want to find out more about the Big Brew and Fairtrade Fortnight then visit the Traidcraft website here for more information.

I'll be back with an update and more Big Brew baking soon.

Champagne and flapjacks at 2000ft

February...Valentines, pancakes, snow and my wedding anniversary.

5 years ago on a beautiful, cold and frosty, but sunny, February day G and I exchanged our vows in front of family and friends. It was a magical day, followed by a magical honeymoon in Thailand. A bit of winter sun and warmth  is just what's needed when it's cold and frosty at home.

So when G said this year he was planning on taking me away for our anniversary I was dreaming of sunshine,warm temperatures and white sandy beaches. What I got instead was sunshine, freezing temperatures and white, snowy mountain tops. And although a few days in the Lake District wasn't quite what I had in mind we had a wonderful time away. By day we climbed up a mountain or 2 and by night we stayed in a lovely pub, with a roaring fire and good grub.

To help us on our way I had baked some flapjacks...and had hidden away in the bottom of my rucksack a little treat for us to enjoy once we had made it to the top of the mountain on our first day.

Champagne and flapjacks at 2000ft

Happy 5th Anniversary!

Next year maybe we'll make it somewhere a little warmer, but in the meantime here's the recipe for my scrummy banana and chocolate flapjacks.

Banana and chocolate flapjacks

Ingredients

140g/5oz butter

100g/4oz soft light brown sugar

2 heaped tbsp honey

350g/12oz porridge oats

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 medium, ripe bananas

100g/4oz dark chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 23cm x 33cm swiss roll/brownie tin

2. Melt together butter, sugar and honey in a large saucepan over a low heat. Once melted stir in the oats, cinnamon and baking powder until well combined.

3. Mash the bananas and then stir into the oat mixture.

4. Tip into the prepared tin and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon or spatula.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown.

6. Mark out the bars on the top of the flapjack whilst it is still warm and in the tin. Leave to cool completely before turning out and finish cutting it into pieces.

7. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until completely melted.

8. Coat half of each flapjack with the chocolate and leave to harden.

These are best enjoyed with a glass of champagne, on top of a snowy mountain in the freezing cold Lake District.

Alternatively, just enjoy with a cup of tea for an afternoon snack :-) 

A new business?

I've just completed my latest commission and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Delivering cakes always seems trickier than the actual baking and making of them as you have to contend with speed bumps, corners, roundabouts and crazy drivers! Thankfully, with G driving, I could nurse the cakes all the way to their destination. Much to my relief they arrived in one piece and I set them up on the stand ready for the party. My colleague and his wife were very pleased with them. I hope their daughter liked it too!

And just since Saturday I've been asked to do 2 more cakes for people! Could this be the start of something new and exciting? Time will tell...

Birthday treats

January is quite often a bit of a dull month. Christmas has been and gone, it's still cold and dark, and it seems a long time until payday! However, it's also a month where a lot of my friends, and my brother, celebrate their birthdays so it can't all be bad.

Two of my friends whose birthdays fall in January are also work colleagues. As is customary within our section at work, birthdays require cake. Now the team leader tends to buy most people a birthday cake from one supermarket or another but, not wanting to sound ungrateful, they're not the tastiest of cakes. They're often a bit dry, or taste a artificially sweet. Not my cup of tea really. And so, for my buddies at work (and the rest of my little team) I offer my services to bake a cake of their choice to bring in to work for their birthdays.

Request number one this month was for a carrot cake. And so on the 13th January I arrived at work with my special delivery of one delicious carrot cake with a cream cheese and orange frosting. Very scrummy indeed, even if I do say so myself, and it got lots of compliments. (Sorry, no photos of it this time as my camera was playing up, but I'll try to remember next time I make it...which shouldn't be too far away.)

Request number two was going to be cupcakes but then I was asked, if it wasn't too much trouble, if it could be macarons. Of course, said I, as I love making macarons! It took me a few attempts last year to master the art, but I finally cracked it and am now able to turn out rows of almost identical almond meringues, and have a number of very tasty fillings in my repertoire.

Now for those of you that don't know, the French macaron is a delicate almond meringue sandwiched together with a delicious filling, usually jam or chocolate based (although I have come across many strange and often wonderful filling combinations). It is not to be confused with the English macaroon (notice the subtle spelling difference), which is a coconut cakey-biscuit. Another thing to note about the French macaron is that they can be tricky little blighters to master, and can be very fiddly and temperamental! But I do love them so!

And so, last weekend, I set too, with Kipling by my side, to make 2 different flavours of macarons. I chose to do tiramisu flavoured ones (as I know these happen to a favourite of the birthday girl) and chocolate orange (always a winner).

Kipling busy at work

 So we got started, whisking egg whites, sugar and ground almonds and a touch of colouring to make them the right colours.

Meringues for tiramisu macarons

Then came the tricky part of piping the meringue mixture into (near) identical rounds.

Meringues for chocolate orange macarons

And then they need stand for 30 minutes - 1 hour to set a little before going in the oven.

Once they are cooked and cooled you can fill then with the yummy fillings.

And then hopefully, when they're all assembled and decorated (if you so wish), they should look something like this!

Chocolate orange macaron

Tiramisu macaron

Unfortunately though, they are still in the fridge waiting to be eaten as the birthday girl was off poorly last week with evil germs. Booooooooo!!!!!

Fingers crossed she will make a return to work tomorrow so we can all enjoy these yummy birthday treats!

The diet starts on Tuesday...