Saturday, 27 March 2010

A day with lots of smiles....

It's always unfortunate when you're home bound because you've managed to catch a nasty cold. But all was changed when a good friend came round mine, with a hand of chinese egg tarts and in the other.. a bagful of hummingbird bakery cupcakes. My jaw just dropped down and the pitch of my voice went up a few notches.
I have been dying to go to the bakery after buying the recipe book a few years ago, but never managed to make it there. So you can imagine the surprise when it came to me!! Thank you so so so much Sue, they were super yummy and definitely made my day!!

Chinese Egg Tarts!!!...... puff pastry with a sweet custard like egg filling in the middle. These ones were very fresh and just melted in your mouth.

Two boxes of Hummingbird Bakery cupcakes!!!

Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream in yellow and green colouring. These were demolished in less than 5 mins.


The one on the left is Easter special I am told. : )




Sunday, 21 March 2010

The Crooked Tea House - Windsor

My friends and I were in Windsor at the end of January to celebrate a friends birthday. On the last day of the trip we scheduled in a visit to a tea house before heading back to London. After some research we were told that The Crooked Tea House was the best place to go. The tea house naturally sloped to one side over time, as the wood used to built was not being treated before being used. Inside is very small but very cosy with a relaxed atmosphere.


Not sure there is enough scones on the table.....


Betty's tea rooms

Went to Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago and had to try the famous Betty's Tea Rooms in York. We queued for about 20 mins before we managed to get a table, but from the popularity this place has I thought it was pretty quick. It was well worth it too. Especially when i'm such a big fan of afternoon tea!

Had the afternoon tea set - 2 scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam. The scones were moist and soft without being too soggy or the worst crumbly. I absolutely hate crumbly scones, you lose half the scone with every bite!!


This is the cake trolley they come round with. The waiter/waitress will then present all the cakes to you before you make your decisions, not that its that easy!!! :P

Profiteroles ...

Profiteroles... and Strawberries. My mum used to make these for us when we were younger. They always went down a treat. I wanted to try to make these too, this was my first attempt and I was pretty pleased with the result. My friends always asks when I will be making these again. ^^ ...

Recipe below.. if you want to make some too.

Profiteroles

Ingredients
For the choux pastry:
200ml/7fl oz cold water
½ tsp caster sugar
85g/3oz unsalted butter
pinch salt
115g/4oz plain flour
4 medium eggs, beaten

For the cream filling:
600ml/1pint double cream
1 tbsp/15g icing sugar

For the chocolate sauce:
15g/½oz butter
4tbsp/60ml water
175g/6oz good quality plain chocolate, broken into pieces

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. To make the choux pastry, place the butter, water and sugar into a large saucepan.
3. Place over a low heat to melt the butter. Then turn up the heat and add the flour and salt.
4. Remove from the heat and quickly beat the mixture until it resembles a smooth paste. Keep stirring to dry out the paste.
5. Once the paste curls away from the side of the pan, transfer the mixture into a large bowl and leave to cool for 10-15 minutes.
6. Beat in the eggs, a bit at a time. You may not need to add all of the egg, so its key to add a bit at a time.
7. Continue doing this until the mixture becomes smooth and glossy and in a dropping consistency.
8. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper or alternatively grease the baking tray. Spoon a teaspoon at a time of the profiterole mixture.
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown, if too pale they will become soggy when cool.
10. Remove from the oven and prick the base of each profiterole with a fork. Place onto the baking tray with the hole facing upwards and return to the oven for an extra 5 minutes.
11. To make the filling, whip the cream and icing sugar until soft peaks form. Fill a piping bag, and pipe into the holes of the cooled profiteroles.
12. To make the chocolate sauce: melt the chocolate with the water and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Do not overheat or the chocolate will loose its gloss and become paste like.
13. Let the chocolate sauce cool for 10 mins before pouring over the filled profiteroles.
14. Ready to serve, remainders can be stored in the fridge and eaten within 24 hours.

Cupcake invasion.....




These were ordered by a really good friend of mine for a birthday celebration. A total of 30 cupcakes in 2 designs. Very simple vanilla sponge and buttercream frosting, decorated with chocolate leaves and sprinkles.
I was really pleased with the way the frosting turned it, it was so fluffy!!!

Just over the rainbow...

Vanilla cupcakes with strawberry flavour frosting. Decorated with white chocolate rainbow buttons.

Lilac + Yellow = yummy cupcakes



















The theme of these cupcakes are the colours lavendar lilac and lemon yellow. I had designed these for a wedding cupcake cake also. Vanilla sponge with lilac coloured buttercream frosting sprinkled with glitter sugar. The other is chocolate sponge with buttercream and sugar violet flowers.

The story of cupcakes begins here....



















I had originally designed these cupcakes for my friends wedding. She wanted a cupcake wedding cake. Something which is very fashionable these days. You'll be amazed at the visual impact a large number of cupcakes can create.

These are a vanilla sponge, with a vanilla buttercream frosting, decorated with pink sugar hearts.

Cakes vs Cupcakes

I started to experiment with cupcakes, as I didn't have enough time for to bake cakes. From to start to finish, baking a cake would take me approx 4 hours. As much as I love being able to hide in the kitchen and bake away I was restricted by time. Enter cupcakes!

Until I started concentrating on cupcakes, I always thought they were easy creations and didn't have much challenge to them. Although with time, I realise the challenges here is getting the sponge moist and ensuring it really works with its frosting. There are vast designs of cupcakes out there, and there is so much scope and design opportunities. Cupcakes are big business in the USA and its happening here too, for example the hummingbird bakery, buttercup and even places like M&S has brought out luxary cupcakes too.

I've posted some of the cupcake creations I have made and designed over the past year or so.

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Black Forest Cake

My friend Nas' bday cake - Aug 2008

My friend Thomas' bday cake - Aug 2008

My friend Kathys bday cake - Feb 2008












Black Forest!!... Mine and my friends Kathy's favourite!!!!
It was a surprise, as I turned up on her doorstep unannounced with this cake.
Though the journey there was a little bumpy and the cake slid a little.
But apparantly the cake went down a treat though. Made me happy. :)

Dad's bday cake - Feb 2009



Vanilla sponge frosted with strawberry freshly whipped cream.

Grandad's bday cake - Oct 2008

Grandma's bday cake - July 2008



Chocolated sponge cake with strawberries, mini meringues and chocolate shavings.

Mum's bday cake - May 2008



Chocolate sponge cake frosting with freshly whipped cream. Decorated with chocolate dipped strawberries and dusted blueberries.

Dad's bday cake - Feb 2008


A moist white chocolate mousse cake with peach and orange jelly.

Grandad's bday cake Oct 2006




Vanilla sponge cake with freshly whipped cream. Fresh berries frosted with icing sugar.

Grandma's bday cake July 2006


Second attempt at making a birthday cake.
As you can tell I am a big fan of strawberries
: )

First ever cake - Stepmum's bday cake May 2006




As you can see not very pretty looking... but not bad for a first attempt I thought..

...the beginning of something sugary....

Just joined the blogging world the other day to share one of my greatest passions - Baking. It all started from an 'out of the blue' thought, I decided rather than buy a birthday cake for my stepmum I would bake one instead. The research for the recipe started, the more I found and I looked and after the actual baking I was hooked. It all took off from there...

Hope you enjoy looking at some of my past creations. I'm excited to showcase the ones to come in the near future... watch this space!!